Of course it's a bit of a ridiculous exercise, only marginally better than eyeballing it andsaying, "eh, I think we are good for 10-11 wins this season." As the season progresses, teams make changes, injuries happen, and teams tend to regress to their mean.
My sense is that we should be looking at a 9-10 win season, but when I lay it out, I just don't see where those wins are coming from. Does anyone honestly see this team beating Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, or Philly? Does anyone see us sweeping the NFCW?
In 2015, I did pretty good with this, picking the Hawks to go into the bye at 4-4 before coming on strong at the end of the season because I felt the line would start weak, and would likely improve as the season wore on.
I don't have that same sense that we can improve our line this year. Britt is playing great, and is probably at his ceiling. Joeckel is who he is, and is probably at his ceiling. Ifedi has the foundation, and the potential to improve, but he isn't ready to be a NFL level tackle yet. Our best hope is that he reaches Gilliam level before the season is over. Odihambo has no business as a tackle. Hopefully, Tobin steps up. That is probably the best chance of improving on my outlook. Aboushi is who he is, probably at his ceiling, but ahead of Glowinski. Pocic is a center. Another guy who will be playing out of position, if he even sees the field.
I'm just not hopeful that this line can get up to average or slightly below. We need them to do that to boost the probability of a 10-11 win season. Judging by evaluating the individual players, I'm the least optimistic about our line that I have ever been in the Carroll/Cable era, and, in years past, I've tended to be one of the more optimistic people here, regarding the line.