FanPost

The Never-Ending Story: Offensive Line Building


No, this isn't actually about the Giants' OL, only tangentially. It's about a chart I saw today by Ben Baldwin of The Athletic ("Computer Cowboy" on Twitter) showing team pass block win rate (PBWR, an ESPN stat that uses the NFL's tracking data from NextGen stats to measure how often an OL sustains his pass block for at least 2.5 seconds) plotted vs. PFF OL score for each NFL team through week 3:

For most teams, the two measures of pass blocking effectiveness are highly correlated, though there are a handful of teams for which they disagree quite a bit. I don't care about that, I'll let Ben and the Twitterverse argue about why that happens and which measure is better. And it's s long season, things may change quite a bit by January. But I just wanted to point out a few really interesting things about the chart, assuming that at least for the teams for which both measures tell a similar story there is some validity to the assessment of their OL:

1. The Giants OL has performed poorly. Yes, dog bites man. BUT...

2. The worst OL so far (and anyone who follows them knows this holds true for a much larger sample) is that of the Miami Dolphins, who have drafted 7 OLs in the past 3 years, including a round 1, 2 round 2s, a round 3, and a round 4.

3. The next worst OL so far, and worse than the Giants' OL, has been...the Indianapolis Colts? The OL that PFF rated #2 in the NFL before the season? The team that cagily traded down to get the best G in the NFL, Quenton Nelson, and used one of the extra picks to get an OT, Braden Smith? The Colts had injuries along the line in training camp, but they were pretty intact once the season began until Nelson hurt his ankle last Sunday. But Carson Wentz has been running for his life the whole time he's been there, and they are 0-3 despite a lot of talent elsewhere.

4. The next worst OL, and still worse than the Giants', has been that of the Buffalo Bills, who nonetheless have managed to put 35 and 43 points on the board the last two weeks.

5. Also worse than the Giants in PFF score, and much worse in PBWR, is the Carolina Panthers. The 3-0 Panthers. The team that has gotten 300+ passing yards from Sam Darnold the past two weeks.

6. Slightly worse than the Giants in both measures is the LA Chargers. The team that did during the off-season what BBVers pleaded with the Giants to do. They re-worked 4/5 of their starting OL, signing Matt Feiler, Corey Linsley, and Oday Aboushi, and drafting Rashawn Slater in the first round. Slater has looked great, but the OL as whole? Not so much.

7. The Jets, who have drafted an OL in round 1 two consecutive years, are barely better than the Giants, and if you've watched them, poor Zach Wilson is getting absolutely killed back there. Of course they lost Mekhi Becton during game 1, but even before that, their OL looked worse than the Giants'.

8. The WFT have the 3rd best OL by PFF score and still a top-15 OL according to PBWR. Yet they are one Dexter Lawrence offsides away from 0-3, and it's not as if they don't have talent elsewhere on that team.

9. The Saints' OL, traditionally one of the best, has been barely better than ours. They've had injury issues too. But there's an opportunity there for us in the pass rush if we can get it together finally this Sunday.

Not everything is counter-intuitive. The Browns and Rams are among the best any way you slice it, which is no surprise given what they have invested in their OLs. But a lot of what we can see in this chart is disturbing. If I am a Colts fan, what do I think my team did wrong? They seem to be a model for doing things right. Did they not invest enough in getting backups? Why are existing starters such as Braden Smith and C Ryan Kelly apparently not playing well?

How should a team build and sustain an OL, given these results?

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