FanHouse WillieRoaf

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.

FanHouse is posting the top five current athletes for America's top 25 cities with the following criteria: 1) Who would a New Orleans fan say is his/her favorite athlete? 2) Would the player's name (or face) be familiar to locals who don't follow sports?

Find your city's top five: ATL | BOS | CHA | CHI | CIN | CLE | DAL | DC | DEN | DET | HOU | IND | LA | MIA | MIL | MIN | NO | NY | SF | PHI | PHO | PIT | SD | SEA | STL

Two years ago, this list would've been impossible. With all due respect to the NOOCH, New Orleans is and always will belong to the Saints, despite the bad times. So though Saints fans have always been fiercely loyal, we'd be making a list including Aaron Brooks and John Carney. Not very sexy.

But after the hurricane, New Orleans athletes have knocked down the barrier between them and fans, forging more personal connections with the locals. The Hornets are still ... well, let's just say "blah," but the Saints are the apple of the city's eye, and finally earn it. A few months ago, LSU could have placed JaMarcus Russell or LaRon Landry, but both have started their NFL careers in other cities. As such, this list reflects the black-and-gold love buzzing around the city this year.

5. Marques Colston: At this time last year, the few who expected Colston to make the Saints final roster were wondering whether that'd be as a receiver or tight end. After an incredible rookie year (with a snub for Rookie of the Year, if you ask me) and on the brink of his first season as The Man, the city is expecting big things from Hofstra's finest.

4. Chris Paul: There hasn't been a lot of excitement from the Hornets lately (though nothing says "thrills" like the term "New Orleans/Oklahoma City"), but Paul, the 2006 Rookie of the Year, is dy-no-mite. His rookie year also garnered him the prestigious (read: worthless) ESPY for Best Breakthrough Athlete. In his second season, Paul upped his scoring and assist averages while cutting down on turnovers. If the Hornets ever decide they wanna sniff .500 again, they've got a great player to build around.
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I have been one of Herm Edwards' biggest supporters. This has been no secret. Here's the main reason why: I don't approve of Herm's offensive gameplanning. I also agree that he is too stubborn at time. I also believe that he inherited a limping team and he took them far deeper than expected. Folks, I know we want to compare the Chiefs' offense to the explosive aerial offense that Vermeil and Saunders featured. We have to face facts that this ship has sailed. Joe Posnanski wrote an article in the Kansas City Star that speaks to this same issue. If you haven't read it, I implore you to read it now. I sat in my chair nodding my head at every single point Posnanski made in this article.

The reason I have been so defensive of Herm Edwards is that he was forced to run an offense last year that he was not comfortable with. The media and the fans are largely to blame for that. There were so many people that insisted that Herm not change the offense. Herm Edwards has never been comfortable with a vertical passing game. He wants to feature a ball-control offense, and you can't accomplish that if you're gaining 20 yards on first down or your quarterback gets sacked on first down forcing a 2nd down and 20. Before we accuse Herm Edwards of being a doofus on offense, let's give him a chance to get his own players and his own offensive scheme first, shall we? I don't support Herm's offensive gameplan, but I'm willing to wait one more season to see what he can do when he's given license to run his own offense with his own scheme with his own coaches and players.

More importantly, Vermeil and Saunders' offense revolved around the offensive line. News flash: those dominant years are over. Willie Roaf: gone. Will Shields: rapid decline. Casey Wiegmann: declining. Whoever is at right tackle: ineffective. The Chiefs can't go vertical because their offensive line isn't good enough to protect that long. Even Dick Vermeil couldn't have gotten much effectiveness out of this unit.

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.

Ever heard of Murphy's Law? The theory states that "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."

The 2006 Kansas City Chiefs are a good football team, but they are cursed. CURSED! According to the Palm Beach Post, the Chiefs will now have to play without Tony Gonzalez, who will miss 2-3 weeks with a strained shoulder.

This could be the Chiefs' most devastating injury to date. Gonzalez is a critical blocker for Larry Johnson, he is the main reason for Damon Huard's most recent resurgence, and he draws attention from linebackers and safeties that would normally be focused on LJ. With two upcoming rivalry games against Oakland and Denver, the Chiefs really did not need to lose these two players.

Let's review the Chiefs' woes to date:

• John Welbourn retires suddenly. He claims he wants to become a lawyer; truthfully, we find out he probably needed a law degree to defend himself from a 6-month suspension.
• Pro bowl left tackle Willie Roaf retires on extremely short notice.

Last year, Jordan Black unwittingly turned Willie Roaf's 10-game season into a Pro Bowl season by earning the ire of Chiefs' fans. With Roaf hobbled by injuries, Black, who had shown so much promise the previous season, struggled with his consistency at left tackle, causing Trent Green to be victimized by more pressure in the pocket than he had been accustomed to in a while.

This year, Black may actually be able to turn the page upside-down. Kyle Turley struggled a bit as the starting left tackle in Kansas City's first two games, and his performance was a significant contributor to an offense that was still searching for its identity. When Black stepped in last week after Turley's back acted up, not a lot was expected of Black, unlike last season.

Black did a lot more than step up, though. He showed why the Chiefs were so excited about him after the 2004 season. Granted, the 49ers' defense was not exactly a marquee matchup, but it is very difficult to go through an entire game without the quarterback ever feeling danger. Damon Huard looked as if he could have taken a seven-step drop, grabbed a cup of coffee, done a Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle, chatted on his cell phone, and still be able to throw a pass untouched. Through it all, Black handled his assignments, picked up blitzes, and contributed to Huard's growing confidence.

Left tackle is an ugly position because every mistake is magnified. The evaluations of Black's 2004 performance probably ignored some deficiencies because most of it was at right tackle, but those deficiencies glared last year. This year, we just need to find out if one of those deficiencies, consistency, has been solved. A consistent 60-minute performance goes a long way, but a consistent game-to-game performance would be a shot in the arm for this offensive line and could raise new questions about Kyle Turley instead.

When the blocking breaks down for a team, the first instinct a football fan has is to immediately blame the offensive line.

The offensive line was not the offensive part of Sunday's ordeal against the Bengals. Amazingly, it was not the defense either. It was the Chiefs' offensive playcalling.

What was most baffling about the Chiefs' offensive gameplan on Sunday against the Bengals was that it was so contrary to the philosophy that everyone imagined the Chiefs would adopt. Herm Edwards came in as a "Marty ball" coach, known for favoring the run over the pass. Mike Solari came in as the offensive coordinator; the Chiefs' former offensive line coach; the architect of the Chiefs' running game. Most people expected the Chiefs to run LJ 30 to 40 times, if they could somehow squeeze that many plays into one game. The way some people were talking, you almost expected LJ to average 100 carries a game.

For some reason, the Chiefs completely abandoned the run on Sunday. They did a great job of mixing up their playcalling to begin the game and it worked. While they only managed to muster up 3 points, they kept the ball out of Carson Palmer's hands, ate up a lot of clock, and moved the ball downfield. Most importantly, the pass protection was solid too.

For some odd reason, the Chiefs decided to follow up with a series of plays that featured 2 runs versus 16 passes. When you have an incredible tackle like Willie Roaf to keep the pass rush out of the quarterback's face, you can sometimes afford the luxury of passing on 100 straight downs if you want to. However, most offensive lines get progressively worse as the playcalling becomes more predictable. It's no coincidence that as the Chiefs' playcalling became more predictable, their protection got progressively worse.

Furthermore, I was disappointed that Solari's offense resorted to a more vanilla offense. The Chiefs started the game out well, shuffling players around like musical chairs, shifting players to different spots, etc.... It reminded me so much of the Al Saunders offense I grew to know and love. For some odd reason, the Chiefs stopped doing it. They basically had an offense that was moving the ball well down the field, and tore it apart as the game went along.

Phil had mentioned that Mike Solari would likely have a learning curve ahead of him. He certainly learned a lot of lessons on Sunday. For the Chiefs' sake, let's hope that he doesn't take those lessons for granted.

Amid all the Trent Green news was a somewhat related story that got pushed into the background: Willie Roaf has officially retired.

Many did not want to believe it, and in some sense, Roaf probably didn't either. After all, this was a man who maintained he was coming back up until training camp and worked out in Kansas City throughout the offseason. And then he disappeared. Nobody knew where he was. Nobody knew how to reach him.

Roaf stayed away for a reason: he didn't want people to dissuade him from what his body was telling him. Even at his retirement press conference, he didn't want any opportunity to change his mind, simply reading his prepared statement, then leaving. Just up and walked away. No fanfare. No prolonged tears. No coaches and teammates to sing his praises as if he was the subject of a roast.

Roaf, however, should get that fanfare, and that roast, when he is up for election to the Hall of Fame. Fans of particular teams sometimes overestimate a player's Hall of Fame chances, but it will be difficult to pass up Roaf. Playing perhaps the most important position on the offensive line, Roaf was named to eleven Pro Bowls, all deserved. By all accounts, he was a good teammate and a great man, always giving back to the community. He commanded respect not because he demanded it, but because he earned it.

Some have implicitly blamed Roaf for Green's injury, and he was understandably upset when asked about it. But that blame was unfair and didn't make Roaf's final decision any easier to announce. The Chiefs couldn't go into the season expecting that Roaf, at 36, would be there for all 16 games anyway, and perhaps not even as the same player he was. This was not like Barry Sanders' situation, who retired at the last minute while still at the top of his game. Although Roaf's offseason may have misled them, his age and recent injury history should have been a wake-up call for the Chiefs. Roaf didn't leave the Chiefs hanging, he simply confirmed their worst fears.

Roaf has given too much to Kansas City, as a player and as a man, to deserve anything but the best send-off. But that should be on his terms. When he's good and ready. That time obviously isn't now, but it will be soon, and I, for one, will be happy to give a standing ovation to a future Hall of Famer.