Posts tagged AlanFaneca at FanHouse

The AFC and NFC Pro Bowlers were announced a short while ago, and why make some pointless comment you are sure not to laugh at when we can just give you the rosters instead? Here goes.

Every Thursday we take a close look at line play in one NFL game. Click here for all of the Between The Lines.

When Glenn Dorsey came out of college last year, he was considered the best interior defensive line in the draft, a havoc-creating defensive tackle who would not only create plays of his own, but also require enough attention to help make everyone else on the defensive line better.

The scouting reports were effusive in their praise:

Dorsey's dominance should go a long way toward helping Kansas City rebuild its defense. He should command double-teams and the Chiefs become better up the middle instantly. There were some concerns about problems with Dorsey's tibia stress fracture, which may have been the reason he was still on the board at this point. His best traits are outstanding agility and a great motor.

The Chiefs picked Dorsey with the No. 5 pick. Since many expected Dorsey to go even higher, the Chiefs were hailed for getting a steal. While that was the scouting report coming out of Louisiana State, it's hard to see much of that when you watch Dorsey against the Jets. Dorsey was facing a tough matchup, as Jets left guard Alan Faneca is one of the best guards in the league. But if this was a heavyweight fight between Dorsey and Faenca, it would have been called early in the first quarter.

While the offensive line might not represent a direct draft day decision for your roster, few areas of knowledge can offer a competitive advantage in fantasy football like having a good grasp of the various units of trench soldiers around the league. Over the course of a couple weeks, I'll break down every NFL team's offensive lines into five tiers: the crème de la crème, the highly competent, the serviceable, the grim, and the bunk.

Well folks, this is the final edition of our 2008 Offensive Line rankings - the mini series. Now I know why hardly anybody writes about offensive lines, because it is a freaking ton of work, but as I've said before, nothing envisages success in fantasy better than an understanding of the offensive line. To close it out, we'll take a close look at the "bunk" group - the worst of them all. If you have a skill player on one of these teams, you can forget about any kind of consistency. Sure, you'll see a break out game here and there, but trust me, these units are terrible. And who better to kick it off with than...

The Detroit Lions: Logic points to an improved situation on the Detroit offensive line in 2008, but if you know anything about Detroit football, logic and the Lions go together like coffee and pickles. The Roar finally anted up for a tackle in the first round of the 2008 draft in Gosder Cherilus, but while he is generally solid, his lateral movement is awful, so he will make plenty of mistakes. Logic also forgot to factor in the fact that the Lions are installing a brand new offense yet again. Apparently nobody told Detroit about the benefits of practice. How they ever expect this group to function as a unit when they are perpetually implementing new systems escapes me entirely. The left side of the line is decent with Jeff Backus at left tackle and Pro Bowl alternate, Dominic Raiola, at center. The right side will remain a mess, especially if George Foster manages to get a starting job. Until further notice, expect Detroit in the top 5 for sacks allowed and bottom five in yards per carry. What else is new?

2007 Sacks Allowed: 54

2007 Yards Per Carry: 4.0

While the offensive line might not represent a direct draft day decision for your roster, few areas of knowledge can offer a competitive advantage in fantasy football like having a good grasp of the various units of trench soldiers around the league. Over the course of a couple weeks, I'll break down every NFL team's offensive lines into five tiers: the crème de la crème, the highly competent, the serviceable, the grim, and the bunk.

Well folks, this is the final edition of our 2008 Offensive Line rankings - the mini series. Now I know why hardly anybody writes about offensive lines, because it is a freaking ton of work, but as I've said before, nothing envisages success in fantasy better than an understanding of the offensive line. To close it out, we'll take a close look at the "bunk" group - the worst of them all. If you have a skill player on one of these teams, you can forget about any kind of consistency. Sure, you'll see a break out game here and there, but trust me, these units are terrible. And who better to kick it off with than...

The Detroit Lions: Logic points to an improved situation on the Detroit offensive line in 2008, but if you know anything about Detroit football, logic and the Lions go together like coffee and pickles. The Roar finally anted up for a tackle in the first round of the 2008 draft in Gosder Cherilus, but while he is generally solid, his lateral movement is awful, so he will make plenty of mistakes. Logic also forgot to factor in the fact that the Lions are installing a brand new offense yet again. Apparently nobody told Detroit about the benefits of practice. How they ever expect this group to function as a unit when they are perpetually implementing new systems escapes me entirely. The left side of the line is decent with Jeff Backus at left tackle and Pro Bowl alternate, Dominic Raiola, at center. The right side will remain a mess, especially if George Foster manages to get a starting job. Until further notice, expect Detroit in the top 5 for sacks allowed and bottom five in yards per carry. What else is new?

2007 Sacks Allowed: 54

2007 Yards Per Carry: 4.0

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: Chad Pennington enters 2008 trying to prove yet again that he -- wait, what? Who? Really? Didn't he retire? Oh. I see. It doesn't seem like Brett Favre wants to play in New York this year, he's basically said so much in the most diplomatic way possible, which means this is the year where Favre stops having fun. This is the year he stops looking like a kid again, to support the cliche. And it can be argued that that magic has perpetuated itself, and has been the reason Favre is still considered -- rightfully or not -- one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Without it, I can imagine 2008 being a disaster for Favre -- bad play and missed games. And then the New York media jumps in and the misery just compounds. That's how I see 2008 rolling. Oh, plus, they don't have a decent backup quarterback. Heat Index: 6

While the offensive line might not represent a direct draft day decision for your roster, few areas of knowledge can offer a competitive advantage in fantasy football like having a good grasp of the various units of trench soldiers around the league. Over the course of a couple weeks, I'll break down every NFL team's offensive lines into five tiers: the crème de la crème, the highly competent, the serviceable, the grim, and the bunk.

The "serviceable" group is akin to a pack of trusty white Hanes beefy tees. They don't necessarily add a whole lot, but they work well for most situations and won't let you down very often. Just be careful not too rely too heavily upon them, because they'll stain your armpits and turn into something that resembles yellow bulletproof glass. Maybe we better just get started.

The Jacksonville Jaguars: Any team that can rack up 2,391 rushing yards and average 4.6 yards per carry with Fred "It's Pronounced Frahgeelay" Taylor leading the way must have a decent offensive line. Despite being a group of pretty obscure names with zero Pro Bowlers, this is a reliable unit. Brad Meester is a solid center and Tony Pashos, a free agent signing after the Jags waived Chris Naole due to injury (nice right?), should do well at right tackle.

2007 Sacks Allowed: 31

2007 Yards Per Carry: 4.6

Continue reading for the rest of the "Serviceable" offensive lines.

Good news Steelers fans, Pittsburgh's offensive line have been pretty bad last year, but if past history is a guide, losing Alan Faneca won't make a significant difference to the Steelers chances in 2008.

Football Outsiders did a study on ESPN.com looking at what happened the year after a premier lineman left a team. In the case of the the top 21 lineman in recent NFL history (17 Hall of Famers plus four soon-to-be Hall of Famers), FO found that the year after they retired, their team actually averaged winning nearly a game better the year after they lost the lineman.

Now that was a study of linemen at the end of their careers. FO also studied 45 elite linemen who have switched teams since 1997. While the team's losing the lineman lost an average of one more game the next season, they actually showed very similar production as far as points per game, yards per game and adjusted sack rate.

It's not always true--ask Seattle how much they miss Steve Hutchinson, but if the FO study has some validity, maybe the Steelers won't miss Faneca as much as everyone thinks.

As the Steelers go through the offseason, the biggest concern of every Steelers fan in the country is the offensive line. Short of Ben Roethlisberger riding helmet-less on a motorcycle again, there's nothing that worries Steelers fans more than the idea of the Steelers offensive line getting blown off the ball again in 2008.

To get a better understanding of what went wrong in 2007, when Roethlisberger was sacked 53 times in 17 games, I went back and rewatched each and every sack of the 2007 season. It wasn't particularly fun, but it was pretty informative. We'll end up breaking down the sacks in countless different ways, but to start out this series, it's worth just spelling out who gave up the sacks.

But before we get to who's to blame, it's worth mentioning how the blame was metered out. Determining the man at fault for a sack is somewhat of an art more than a science. For each sack, I rewatched the play several times to note the amount of pass rushers, the type of pass rush (straight four-man rush vs. a safety blitz for example), where the pressure came from, and how long it took before Roethlisberger was hit initially. If one man was beaten initially to come in and hit or pressure Roethlisberger but another defender finished off the sack, I generally tried to credit the sack to the first man beaten, unless the initial rush had nothing to do with the sack (for example if an outside blitzer forced Roethlisberger to step up in the pocket, but he did and the rusher flew on by, but the center was then beaten for a sack, blame the center). And if two rushers shared a sack, or if a rusher flew between two uncovered offensive linemen, 1/2 sacks were awarded. If you have more questions about how I credited sacks, feel free to comment and I'll give more details.

So without further delay, here's the chart of who gave up the Steelers 2007 sacks.

Ross Tucker knows more about offensive line play than me, you and 10 other fans put together. He played every position along the line during a seven-year NFL career that included 23 starts. So when he writes about offensive line play, it's worth paying attention. Add in the fact that he doesn't regurgitate conventional wisdom and his new stuff at SI.com becomes a must read.

To Tucker, all these megadeals that left guards have been getting, including Alan Faneca's recent $40 million deals make no sense, because as he sees it, left guard is the second easiest position on the line to play. He ranks left tackle as the toughest, followed by right tackle. But he sees right guard as the position that is underappreciated. The reason is that he believes most team's better interior pass rusher is lined up against the right guard. And on most teams, the left guard gets help from the center as they slide the protection to the left, while the right guard is left on an island in pass blocking.

Left guard is an easier position as he sees it, tougher only than center. Because of that, he thinks that the Browns signing of Rex Hadnot, a right guard, for two years, $7 million, makes a lot more sense than signing Faneca for $40 million over five years. As he sees it, the NFL's system of grading offensive linemen by pluses and minuses doesn't account for the differences in difficulty between the different positions. If a left guard handles a mediocre defensive tackle with help from a center, the grading system for most teams would credit that the same way as a right guard stuffing an elite defensive tackle all by himself.

When the NFL announces its compensatory picks this week, don't expect to see the Steelers get any. Pittsburgh seems certain to remain stuck with six picks for April's draft. That was to be expected since the Steelers didn't really lose any significant free agents last year (Joey Porter was cut, which doesn't count).

But if you're a Steelers fan hoping for a big score next year thanks to losing Alan Faneca, I've got bad news. As of right now, the Steelers would be shut out again next year.

To get a compensatory pick, you have to have signed less unrestricted free agents than the number that you lose. That's the problem for the Steelers. While Keyaron Fox, Mewelde Moore and Justin Hartwig are all relatively inexpensive signings, they all were unrestricted free agents. The Steelers have lost only two unrestricted free agents (Faneca and Clark Haggans). So if you're hoping to see the Steelers get an extra pick next year, it's time to root for Brian St. Pierre, Marquis Cooper, Verron Haynes and Dan Kreider to find good jobs elsewhere, to tip the balance. If that happens, Pittsburgh will likely get an extra third-round pick in 2008, but it all depends on signing fewer free agents than the Steelers lose.