DanKoppen Posts -- FanHouse

2009 Offensive Line Rankings

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. So with that in mind, each year at FanHouse we 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.

Patriots vs. Chargers Key Battle: Dan Koppen vs. Jamal Williams

For all the talk of Tom Brady and Randy Moss and Wes Welker and Rodney Harrison and Philip Rivers and LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates and Shawne Merriman, the single most important individual matchup when the Chargers take on the Patriots in Sunday's AFC Championship will be Patriots center Dan Koppen against Chargers nose tackle Jamal Williams.

Koppen and Williams will be teammates in three weeks at the Pro Bowl, but on Sunday, Koppen will need to move Williams if the Patriots are going to have any success running up the middle, and he'll need to at least stalemate Williams to keep Brady from having pressure in his face.

That won't be easy, as Williams is listed at 348 pounds and almost certainly weighs significantly more than that, while Koppen is listed at a mere 296. But Koppen probably has the best technique of any center in the NFL, and I think he's going to get the better of their individual matchup, which is a big part of the reason I think the Patriots are going to win the game.