FanHouse Chris Myers

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.

It's important to note that the "grim" group is not the worst of the bunch, but rather just the 2 stars out of 5 where you give an extra star because you are friends with the production assistant. To paraphrase the words of a wise old sage, this group offensive lines is "like a slot machine, they pay off once in a while but then they'll rob you clean." If you really have faith in a skill player on one of these teams, go ahead and pull the trigger. This does not necessarily imply impending doom for all those involved, but tread gently down this path for these units are not very good.

The Chicago Bears: All you Matt Forte missionaries might want to rethink your calling. The Bears line is awful. The front office invested in first round manbeast, Chris Williams, to shore up the line with a strong left tackle, but he just went under the knife for a herniated disc in his back. If he can play, which will be half a season at best, the Bears cannot help but improve from last season. If not, things look pretty much the exact same: the worst run blocking in the NFL. Center Olin Kreutz, despite his age, remains a top player at his position. The rest of the spots would be equally well served with a roll of fiberglass insulation.

2007 Sacks Allowed: 43

2007 Yards Per Carry: 3.1

When Matt Lepsis retired after last season and with Rod Smith an unofficial assistant coach, Tom Nalen is left as the only active Bronco veteran who was part of the Super Bowl winning teams of the late 90's. How much longer he'll be able to carry that torch has to be a concern for the team with the news that he had left knee surgery.

Nalen went under the knife yesterday to repair torn cartilage and will miss the rest of the offseason program. He's expected to be ready for training camp in July but recent history suggests that the Broncos would be wise to have a backup option at the ready. He missed all but five games last season with a biceps injury and 37-year-old offensive linemen have a nasty habit of breaking down physically.

They signed Casey Wiegmann from Kansas City over the offseason. He started every game for the Chiefs since 2002 so should be able to step in and handle matters if Nalen isn't ready to answer the bell. Chris Myers, who stepped in for Nalen last season, was dealt to the Texans.

NFL Offseason Roadmap is a series focused on the needs of NFL teams as they begin the offseason.

How far do the Denver Broncos have to go to return to the playoffs? Their team was ravaged by injuries en route to a 7-9 record this season. A healthy team could have easily won another couple of games and found itself battling for a wild card. A more pessimistic view might point out that they got old in several spots because they haven't built well through the draft. That would indicate there's a longer road back to success. Either way, the good news is that, in Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Elvis Dumervil, they've got building blocks for 2008 and beyond. Here's where they need the most immediate help.

1. Defensive Stability – Jim Bates was hired as defensive coordinator and immediately installed a scheme predicated on big defensive tackles. It was a total flop. Sam Adams and Amon Gordon couldn't occupy blockers, leaving the middle of the field open to all comers. They overhauled the line during the season, but found no better results and that led to Bates's firing. New coordinator Bob Slowik must establish a strategy and stick to it if the team is to improve defensively. Be they big DTs or athletic ones, the team can't afford to veer wildly in such a short amount of time.

Joe Buck was given a simple mission. Sneak Conan O'Brien's all-time favorite word, Jub-Jub, into a World Series broadcast, and receive a charitable donation from O'Brien himself. It's like a bet, but without the broken arms.

Jub-Jub's not the easiest word in the world to just casually drop during World Series baseball, but as you can see above Joe Buck did it. Chris Myers probably isn't too happy about it, either.

(HT: AA)