RussB":201a3roe said:
What is bevell supposed to do with this offense? There is no protection, most plays he calls will fail because the o line gets shredded like swiss cheese and any successful play call will mostly likely be broken down and everyone just points the finger at him and screams how bad his play calling is.
Ive even notice on replays some of the play designs arent even that bad, its the protection breaking down 1 second after the ball is snapped. And thats on pete and john for willingly refusing to protect the franchise QB for years now.
This is a 'chicken or the egg' argument... Pete and John have drafted a number of o-lineman over the years - All with genuine potential. We've signed o-linemen and successfully converted/created two (Sweezy and Fant). More than ever, o-lineman require a lot of coaching to adjust to the pro level, with lots of high picks failing to succeed, but the best coaching staffs are already working around that.
Forgive me if this has been said above, but scheme (Cable) and play-calling (Bevell) ARE the primary problems. If you replace Cable with Dante Scarnecchia (Patriots) and Bevell with Josh McDaniels (Patriots), are we still having this discussion?
Case study...
Patriots O-line 2016
Entering the season, PFF had the Pats o-line ranked 18th overall. Here was their makeup:
There are only a few blue-chip linemen on the Patriots’ roster: Solder was a first-round pick, and Vollmer a second-rounder. The rest are a mix of fourth- and fifth-rounders, and undrafted players, including Andrews, the rookie center from Georgia who started 11 games.
-Peter King, SI | MMQB Jan. 20th, 2016
They won the Superbowl in 2016, so how did that o-line work for them?
Solder’s season ended with a biceps injury after four games. Stork missed the first seven games after suffering a concussion in training camp. Vollmer, Kline, Mason and fellow rookie guard Tre’ Jackson all missed games with injuries. But even early in the season, before Solder was lost for the year, the Patriots were using an unorthodox tactic of rotating guards and tackles between drives—sometimes in the middle of a drive, like hockey players changing shifts midstream. In one game they made 23 such rotations.
[In the 2016 regular season] the Patriots have used five left tackles, five left guards, two centers, seven right guards and five right tackles. Vollmer, who earned a Super Bowl ring at right tackle last season, is playing left tackle. Stork has played every position along the line except left tackle.
-Peter King, SI | MMQB Jan. 20th, 2016
Have we really had it worse?
To a stunning degree, the Patriots have used 13 different starting lineups on their offensive line, the most of any NFL team over the last 22 years, which is as far back as STATS research goes. But that’s just the surface; the Patriots have spent much of the season rotating linemen during games like teams normally change out skill-position players. By this reporter’s unofficial count, New England has used 37 different offensive line combinations this season. To put that number into context, consider this: The Vikings used one lineup—the same five offensive linemen—for all but 14 snaps this season.
-Peter King, SI | MMQB Jan. 20th, 2016
Sound familiar? McDaniels didn't care who the front 5 were, he couldn't with all those changes. Now imagine him here; turning Baldwin into the next Welker/Edelman, Graham into Gronk, and Russ into, alright I won't go that far, but Russ -unless he legitimately can't see his targets from inside the pocket - would be taking shorter drops and getting the ball out a lot quicker... like that old, lead-footed guy with the weak arm.
So how do you turn that chicken stuff into chicken soup?
It’s impossible to overstate the effect the return of longtime O-line coach Dante Scarnecchia has had on this unit, which was a major problem for the team a year ago. RT Marcus Cannon has gone from a liability to a second-team All-Pro, and RG Shaquille Mason has undergone a similar transformation when it comes to pass protection.
-Nick Ziegler Fansided Jan. 2017
The Seahawks and Patriots front offices/coaching staffs share similar values in o-lineman: athleticism, intelligence, versatility. Both have been dealt similar hands related to injuries, inexperience, and position shuffling.
The difference? Scheme and execution.
-Snake