About The Offensive Line
October 9th, 2014
The spreadsheeters at Pro Football Focus don’t rank the Bucs to have the worst offensive line
It has become fashionable to lay all the blame on the rushing attack on the still-new Bucs’ offensive line. You know, God forbid Doug Martin should take a shred of blame for not yet even running for 50 yards in a game this season.
Offensive linemen, if not coaches, will say a new offensive line needs time to play to its peak. It takes many practices. It takes games. Everyone on the Bucs’ offensive line is new to each other. Shoot, Logan Mankins didn’t play a preseason game for Tampa Bay.
Well, the geeks over at Pro Football Focus decided to rank all of the offensive lines in the NFL after five weeks. And guess what? While the Bucs may not be the best, they aren’t the worst, either.
24. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Stud: He’s not playing as well as he did last year but Demar Dotson is doing his usual no-frills job.
Dud: In Cincinnati, Anthony Collins was asked to do a little less with how quickly the team got the ball out. In Tampa Bay he’s asked to do a little more and the result is 11 quarterback disruptions allowed this year, compared to 13 in 2013 in twice as many snaps.
Summary: They invested big and it’s not paid off. Logan Mankins has been under par battling injuries, Evan Dietrich-Smith up and down, and Anthony Collins a drop off on Donald Penn. No team has spent money on the offensive line as frequently as the Bucs in recent years and seen so little in return for it.
Joe isn’t so sure why these guys were so down on Collins. The guy has done very well in protecting the passer. Perhaps it’s penalties. Ever here Robert Quinn’s name called once in the Lambs game? That’s because Collins locked him up.
Of the questionable-so-far free agent class of 2014, Collins has been solid.
Oh, and the teams Pro Football Focus believes have worse offensive lines than the Bucs? They’re clubs with much better records, including the Chargers, the Cardinals and the Belicheats.
October 9th, 2014 at 11:23 am
Whats with all the Doug Martin hate? If you get to rush the ball more than 10 times a game you will probably get more than 50 yards. PS Helps to have a threat at QB to get the 8 men in the box out of there. Last game Doug caught the ball well, and had a 32 yard catch called back . Its to early to bury him yet unbelievable!!!!!!
October 9th, 2014 at 11:33 am
The eye in the sky don’t lie. They’ve given decent pass protection but don’t open many running lanes. Of course many will be quick to point out our play calling predictability. I think that changes as Glennon stretches the field.
October 9th, 2014 at 11:52 am
NE, ARI, and SD all have poor rushing attacks too (SD averages 2.8 YPC) despite having a better record. So it seems bad rushing offenses and bad offensive lines definitely have correlation.
October 9th, 2014 at 11:54 am
Somebody has been calling for very conservative and not to creative run plays to be sent in-over and over and over and over and over.
All the defenses have figured it out
As I watch the game I have called several of them that were coming
They haven’t worked but they keep trying it
I just dont understand that??
What am I missing here?
October 9th, 2014 at 11:54 am
If the O line needs more time to gel and put together an effective unit overall, we have 11 games left to figure it out and work out the kinks. By the end of the season or thereabout they should have their stuff together, or maybe sooner. I’m expecting sooner.
October 9th, 2014 at 12:01 pm
The 3rd cartoon guy to the right in the pic. That’s Mike Glennon in 2nd grade standing next to 6th graders.
October 9th, 2014 at 12:32 pm
PFF is a good but flawed site. Their ratings should be taken with a grain of salt.
October 9th, 2014 at 4:18 pm
Joe what are you reading? It specifically says that they are down on Collins because of the number of QB disruptions he has allowed in half as many snaps as last season.
I’m not saying the line is terrible, they are playing pretty well in pass protection, but for you to push an article about how they are not the worse but then find out they are still in the bottom 9 teams is a little misleading. That shows you they are not very good overall and I feel that most of that is being dragged down by poor run blocking. It will get better but don’t try to act like they are run blocking well at this point.
I like reading your site overall but you come up with some very biased opinions sometimes.
October 9th, 2014 at 5:48 pm
In all fairness not one LT this season has given up a sack to Quin either lol.
October 9th, 2014 at 5:50 pm
And that guy in the middle looks like he’s in his 30’s lol what do you mean 2nd and 6th graders? Ahahaha 😀