5 reasons Lynch will be better than Adrian Peterson in 2015

[hawknation2015]

Rookies at center don't typically have too much trouble, except maybe if they've never played center before. I am not worried about the line calls at all. I could teach 75% of the people on this site to make line calls in one afternoon. It is waiting that quarter second to get off the ball after you snap it that kills you. It is the only position on the line where you don't have the advantage of getting off the ball before the player you are blocking. You have to wait to make sure the snap was successful before you move your rear end. You gotta have darn incredible leg strength, because you're not going to get any advantages out there, and you're going to have to root people out of the hole. He may spend some time getting dumped onto his rear and getting pushed backwards before he figures it out. It's a tough thing, it really is. A lot of the guys that you see play center in college and the pros have literally been centers since they were 5-6 years old.

This. Great post.

Rookies typically don't have a tough transition to Center. If they did, you wouldn't be able to find good Centers in the 3-5th rounds.

I would agree that rookies that have never played Center have a tougher transition. And we have a bevy of those, but we also have LJP and Lewis that have both started and played decently.

It's supply and demand. There are a multitude of centers coming out of college every year, but only one starting position to fill on each team. Starting centers tend to have fairly long careers, and they tend to play every snap in every game when healthy. Also, why would anyone make drafting the center position a priority when they know how difficult it is for rookie centers to be successful in the NFL? Marcus Martin was the first center drafted last year, and he played terribly for the 49ers as a rookie. They are the de facto leader of the offensive line and need experience to be reliable and efficient.

Remember journeyman Steve Valos? We were starting him at center while Chris Spencer was hurt, instead of Unger, in 2009 because of how difficult it is for rookies to manage the center position.

 

[Seafan]

We open against one of the best DL in the league and Lewis played well against them last season.

One thing for sure is whoever is center will be a better snapper than Unger.

 

[Hawks46]

Rookies at center don't typically have too much trouble, except maybe if they've never played center before. I am not worried about the line calls at all. I could teach 75% of the people on this site to make line calls in one afternoon. It is waiting that quarter second to get off the ball after you snap it that kills you. It is the only position on the line where you don't have the advantage of getting off the ball before the player you are blocking. You have to wait to make sure the snap was successful before you move your rear end. You gotta have darn incredible leg strength, because you're not going to get any advantages out there, and you're going to have to root people out of the hole. He may spend some time getting dumped onto his rear and getting pushed backwards before he figures it out. It's a tough thing, it really is. A lot of the guys that you see play center in college and the pros have literally been centers since they were 5-6 years old.

This. Great post.

Rookies typically don't have a tough transition to Center. If they did, you wouldn't be able to find good Centers in the 3-5th rounds.

I would agree that rookies that have never played Center have a tougher transition. And we have a bevy of those, but we also have LJP and Lewis that have both started and played decently.

It's supply and demand. There are a multitude of centers coming out of college every year, but only one starting position to fill on each team. Starting centers tend to have fairly long careers, and they tend to play every snap in every game when healthy. Also, why would anyone make drafting the center position a priority when they know how difficult it is for rookie centers to be successful in the NFL? Marcus Martin was the first center drafted last year, and he played terribly for the 49ers as a rookie. They are the de facto leader of the offensive line and need experience to be reliable and efficient.

Remember journeyman Steve Valos? We were starting him at center while Chris Spencer was hurt, instead of Unger, in 2009 because of how difficult it is for rookies to manage the center position.

I get the supply and demand part, but tons of rookies come in and make a positive impact at Center. Mangold, Alex Mack, Unger his first year (if Center is such a difficult transition, then playing Guard doesn't prepare you for it), the Pouncey brothers, the kid from GB that played decently against us his first game out, the list goes on and on.

The reason we started Vallos at Center wasn't that Unger wasn't ready for it, but that Vallos was weak and was in no way prepared physically to play at Guard. We didn't have a better option so had to leave Unger there. Unger played almost every position on the OL in college and played Center his last year and was a 1st team Pac 10 player, so I don't buy that he wasn't prepared.