My post wasn't about disagreeing with how bad the scheme / coaching was. I know what has been reported and most importantly what we witnessed first hand. I know that Grubb had a big hand in it no question, but not everyone agrees that it will be such a huge jump with better scheme / coaching and young guys continuing to get better. Those things are true but no one can say to what degree it will have an effect. If we jump from nearly the last ranked oline to say something like 22nd for example, that's a pretty good jump but will it be enough? That is my concern.
I believe in Kubiak and Co and some young guys growth but I ALSO believe that the talent level is lacking on the IOL. I also acknowledge we still have the draft but we also know JS and his track record at that position group in the draft. So I still have concerns and I don't think they are without merit.
Fair enough. But there is the (slowly) growing school of thought OL just needs to be average. Minnesota's was spotty last year, though injury had something to do with that.
Numerous teams have reached or won the big game without sterling offensive lines. The Eli Manning Giants did it twice. We did it in 2013 (ranked 32nd, yes 32nd in adjusted sack rate). The 2009 Cardinals weren't that good at all.
David Carr, the supposed poster boy of QB's ruined by bad OL play, had his sack rate follow him to other teams, while Matt Schaub immediately outperformed him despite no significant additions to the line. Peyton Manning's offensive line dropped off the face of the planet overnight once Curtis Painter succeeded him. That's just off the top of my head.
The trend leans towards better OL -> better performance, but EVERY position leans that way. And when a position has this many outliers in that correlation, it's just not going to look that important anymore. Especially when one can point to specific reasons, like the emergence of passing systems that get the ball out quickly.
Now, where this gets interesting is in regard to Sam Darnold, who has a reputation for being bad under pressure. Kubiak is supposedly a get-the-ball-out-quick guy. That may help. But I've never been impressed with him. And our WR3 is a dropsie guy, while our WR4 and tight ends right now are total JAGs.
Then again, who do you want? Fries was the only healthy guy worth throwing money at, and he didn't want to wait for a physical so signed with another team, and NOBODY in the league other than Minnesota is handing out five-year contracts right now. Nobody else in this FA class was really worth that much money.
