FanHouse WillShields

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

Hey, do you want another reason to hate the Patriots? Who doesn't!

Matthew Barrows at the Sacramento Bee's 49ers blog reminds us that the 49ers traded their 2008 first-round pick to the Patriots for the ability to move up and take Joe Staley after selecting Patrick Willis with their original first-rounder. With the 49ers sporting a sparkling 2-4 record as well as all the body language and demeanor of a guy who realizes he's not being invited inside after dropping his date off, it looks as if that's going to be a top-10ish pick.

So, for the good of the league, adopt the 49ers as your surrogate team. Root for them. The better they do, the farther down the draft board the Patriots pick. All they have to do is realize they like their coach, change their complete mental makeup, play more disciplined, maybe pull Willie Roaf and Will Shields out of retirement to fix their offensive line, get Alex Smith a new shoulder and Frank Gore a new ankle and a pair of hands for Ashley Lelie, convince Norv Turner to come back as offensive coordinator, and remind Nate Clements that he got paid a ridiculous amount of money because he's supposed to be good, and they're set. Shouldn't be too difficult.

This is a continuation of a 2-part series regarding what the Chiefs must do next season to fix their woes on offense. Click here to read Part I.

Whether you like Herm Edwards or not; whether you like Herm's offensive philosophy or not, we have to recognize that the offense needs to change. Even if Dick Vermeil were still head coach, the Chiefs would still need to undergo a massive facelift. Will Shields and Casey Wiegmann have gone from terrific to average due to age. Jordan Black is certainly no Willie Roaf, and Kevin Sampson and Chris Terry are no John Tait. Ronnie Cruz is no Tony Richardson. And Trent Green... just isn't Trent Green anymore.

The writing should have been on the wall the minute we saw Herm's drafting and roster decisions on offense. The Chiefs went with Jeff Webb in the draft, a tall, big receiver--by all indications, a terrible fit for Saunders' Coryell offense. As the 5th receiver, the Chiefs went with another big guy: Chris Hannon, a 6'3", 205 lb. receiver. Lightning fast receiver Craphonso Thorpe was cut for being a "crappy" fit to Herm's new offense. Vermeil favorite Chris Horn was also not brought back into Kansas City.

Every offseason for the past several years, Chiefs' fans have clamored for change. Changes on defense. Changes at wide receiver. Changes within the coaching staff.

But never the offensive line. Why would they have to? For years, the Chiefs boasted the best offensive line in the league, made up of veterans who were still in their primes.

Last offseason was a taste of something slightly different. There were worries that Will Shields would retire, but not many people seriously expected him to retire. It wasn't until training camp that we all of a sudden learned Willie Roaf would not return and John Welbourn purported to retire.

This offseason is completely different. The offensive line was not particularly dominant, and was downright bad at times. The only surefire starters are Brian Waters and Casey Wiegmann, and Shields' potential retirement is more realistic now.

By most accounts, left tackle is the most worrisome position. Although I felt that Jordan Black played fairly steadily for most of the year, he is certainly not Willie Roaf, and his performance in the playoffs was, shall we say, regrettable. Further, I have opined previously that the Chiefs did an awful job this year of picking up blitzes; one has to wonder if that was the case because there was more help assigned to Black, rather than in detecting blitzers. The Chiefs appeared to have been grooming Will Svitek for the job, but Svitek was extremely raw as a rookie and missed most of this year with injuries. Kyle Turley simply cannot be an option anymore.

A playoff loss, a fan, especially a Chiefs' fan, can take. When half of your team decides the playoff game is not worth playing, however... well, that's hard to take.

The Chiefs lost a 23-8 heartbreaker. I say heartbreaker not in the sense that they blew a chance of winning, but a heartbreaker because you could see no conceivable way that they could win.

There are an awful lot of goats in this game. I will name none on defense, because they played their hearts out for 3/5 of the game, until they simply got worn out. If memory serves, the lone time NBC decided to show the time of possession graphic, Indy had a 28 to 10 minute advantage. That's virtually impossible for any defense to overcome.

I generally don't like naming goats, because I do believe a loss is a team loss, but in this game, it is unavoidable. So let's get to them. First and foremost are the Chiefs' receivers. Their drops set the tone for the first half, and their drops are really what cost the Chiefs the game. Eddie Kennison dropped passes in the first two series. Tony Gonzalez dropped a first down pass, then another meaningless one late in the game. Dante Hall dropped an obvious first down pass. Maybe the receivers figured that they only needed to run to the sticks to get the first down, but I think the rule still says that you have to have the ball too. Maybe Ty Law should have played offense, because he had the best hands in the game. It is impossible to gain any momentum when your receivers cost you a chance for a fourth play in a series.

The second goat is Lawrence Tynes. I actually thought it might be a good thing that Ty Law didn't return his first interception for a touchdown, because I thought the defense needed the rest. Even when the Chiefs failed to punch in what should have been an easy touchdown, I didn't panic, because I thought a field goal is all the Chiefs needed to deflate the Colts. How Tynes missed a 23-yard field goal is, well, I honestly have no idea. None.

AFC Pro Bowl rosters were announced today, and, ho hum, Will Shields, Tony Gonzalez, Brian Waters, and Larry Johnson made the roster. Shields is the lone starter; the rest are reserves. While obviously a great achievement, it hardly seems worthwhile given the disappointing year by both the Chiefs and the offense.

Truth be told, I think Shields probably got in more by reputation than actual performance. At the least, Waters should have earned the starting nod over Shields. Nonetheless, Shields will be making his record-tying 12th appearance in Honolulu.

Once again, no defensive players will be representing the Chiefs, nor should any. While the defense enjoyed a decent year, no player truly stood out. Jared Allen started off very strong, but he has tailed off lately. Tamba Hali has been inconsistent while battling injuries. Derrick Johnson looked terrific early, but he, too, was injured, and this year's AFC linebacking options were incredible.

So we are left with the 4 players we pretty much knew very early would be going to Hawaii. Four Pro Bowl players is a lot, so the Chiefs have a lot to be proud of. Congratulations to Shields, Gonzalez, Waters, and Johnson, but you have to wonder if this year in particular they will be going to Honolulu without feeling so hot about it.

I wanted to take the time to respond to a few comments that Herm Edwards is to blame for the Chiefs' recent woes. I think everyone brings up some very interesting points--I just don't happen to agree with them.

First off, let's get one thing clear: a 7-6 record doesn't warrant panic, especially given the adversity this team has seen all year. Dick Vermeil fielded teams with 6, 7, 13, 8, and 10 wins. I expect that the Chiefs will win at least 1 or 2 of their remaining games, which means that Herm's track record is not all that far off from Dick Vermeil's. Keep in mind that that Vermeil had much more talented, injury-free teams during his tenure than Herm has had in 2006.

As for Herm's actual problems: Is this offense too conservative and predictable at times? Without a doubt. Is this offense the same as last year? Definitely not. Are the offensive struggles mostly attributed to Herm Edwards? In my opinion? Not as much as you might think. This is not the same offense we are used to seeing. The offense has always been built around their offensive line.

I haven't been graded on anything for a while, so it makes me feel good to now grade others and let others feel my wrath. The Chiefs have finished half of their games so far. Here is how I would grade them midway through the season.

Quarterbacks:
The Chiefs have two quarterbacks right now that can carry this team. Damon Huard has been razor-sharp, posting a 105.2 QB rating and a stunning 11/1 TD/INT ratio. The only thing holding back their grade is the fact that the passing game is secondary to the running game in Kansas City.
Grade: A-

HalfBacks:
Larry Johnson is not only playing outstanding, he is a top candidate for the NFL MVP. LJ got off to a fairly slow start, for KC running back standards, but he has carried this offense ever since. Michael Bennett was a big addition this year. The Chiefs often over-relied on LJ last season, asking LJ to do well more than he was capable of. The Chiefs were so deathly afraid of yanking him from games that LJ often had to take himself out of games to take a breather. That's no longer the case with Bennett in the rotation. LJ and Bennett are carrying this team. If I could give them a higher score, I would.
Grade: A+

Fullbacks:
Ronnie Cruz did his job fine, but it too often gave us flashbacks of how much the Chiefs missed Tony Richardson.

Well, it appears that the Chiefs' offensive woes will face another major hurdle: their starting left tackle Kyle Turley is listed as questionable for Sunday's game against the 49ers.

Turley is experiencing some back problems. Adam Teicher reported about Turley's injury in a recent article in the Kansas City Star. According to Teicher:

"I'm concerned," Turley said. "A back injury is not something to fool around with. It's definitely cause for concern.

"We'll see. I'm supposed to meet with more doctors, and we'll find out what's happening. I'm just trying to wait it out."

Definitely a cause for concern you say? That's the understatement of the century. Nevermind that this was a back problem that forced Turley into temporary retirement.

Okay, Turley hasn't been an all-world tackle out there, but he was adequate. Chiefs' fans understand the major implication if Turley is unable to play--it means Jordan Black will once again start left tackle. In an effort to avoid using choice words to explain Black's play at left tackle last season, let's just say it was flipping awful. El Jordan looked like a matador on the field last year, as if he were waving a cape at defenders as they bullrushed past him. It's a new season. Perhaps Black has improved since then, but I'm not holding my breath. The other option would be to rotate inexperienced Will Svitek if Black starts to struggle. The Chiefs really like Svitek's upside, but based on everything we've seen from training camp to preseason, Svitek is still a far cry from being ready for the NFL.

On a side note, call me crazy, but why have the Chiefs not looked into moving Will Shields to left tackle? The Chiefs' very best option at arguably the second most important position on the field might be playing a different position right now. Here's why I believe in this plan B: the question you might ask is, who will replace Will Shields in what has been an absolutely dominant interior offensive line trio that consists of Shields, Casey Wiegmann and Brian Waters? The answer? Jordan Black. Maybe even John Welbourn, if they can convince him out of retirement once his suspension clears. I have always felt that Jordan Black would be a superb guard. Black is a power lineman. He struggles mightily against quick pass rushers because he does not have the footwork to take them on. However, he has proven to be a solid run blocker and can hold his own against bigger bodies. It's highly unlikely that the Chiefs make this kind of a move. They will likely stick to the dominant interior trio and focus on the power running game; however, time will tell if they may need to move Shields to create some balance. Shields can play the position. He started one game at left tackle in 2005 and you have to imagine that a man with his credentials could certainly make a transition like this seamlessly.

The Chiefs have two winnable games coming up: first the 49ers then the Cardinals. After that, they have a three-game stretch featuring Pittsburgh, San Diego and Seattle. The Chiefs better do their full share of experimenting before they face those three defensive powerhouses. And I certainly hope they are looking into that plan B.