OL Shuffle

[Wise1]

Transitional year on the offensive line hopefully. No real blue chip talent up there with Sitton obviously being the closest. Smart move considering what the Packers are currently working with. Would like to see the Packers alter their philosophy in the offensive trench. Throw out the finess and go and get players that can move some ass away from the line of scrimmage and engulf pass rushers. Enough with the smart guys that are light in the ass. I thought Sherrod was a bad pick because his base isn't stout enough imo. Get into the SEC Ted and bring back big and nasty. Sherrod was a miss. It stands to reason that O-linemen from the SEC are best equipped to handle the freakishly athletic and strong defensive linemen and linebackers that are dominating the NFL.

Big and nasty that can both pass block and run block. I'm sure if someone that fits that description comes along, Ted would be first in line to draft the guy. Sadly, there aren't a tremendous number of such individuals.

You have to pick what you want to do with your offense and build from there. Considering we have Aaron Rodgers and the best passing attack in the league, I'm going to say that building with pass blockers makes the most sense. It won us a super bowl.

There's logic in that. But I'm betting the Cowboys Suberbowl teams from the 90's would kick out Superbowl team's arsh pretty handily. Those teams were great due to the ability of their offensive line to basically decimate everyone in front of them. Opening up lanes for Emmitt Smith was the goal. Everything else that they were great at pretty much fed off of that.

With the acquisitions of Lacy and Franklin, I'd like to see the Packers emulate the old Cowboy model. Run the ball to set up the pass. Rodgers will likely stay on his feet much more if he could turn around and hand it to a 1400 yard back. I don't trust the finess blocking schemes to get this done. Big wide asses that move bodies backwards is the way to go imo.

[Bucksfans1and2]

Transitional year on the offensive line hopefully. No real blue chip talent up there with Sitton obviously being the closest. Smart move considering what the Packers are currently working with. Would like to see the Packers alter their philosophy in the offensive trench. Throw out the finess and go and get players that can move some ass away from the line of scrimmage and engulf pass rushers. Enough with the smart guys that are light in the ass. I thought Sherrod was a bad pick because his base isn't stout enough imo. Get into the SEC Ted and bring back big and nasty. Sherrod was a miss. It stands to reason that O-linemen from the SEC are best equipped to handle the freakishly athletic and strong defensive linemen and linebackers that are dominating the NFL.

Big and nasty that can both pass block and run block. I'm sure if someone that fits that description comes along, Ted would be first in line to draft the guy. Sadly, there aren't a tremendous number of such individuals.

You have to pick what you want to do with your offense and build from there. Considering we have Aaron Rodgers and the best passing attack in the league, I'm going to say that building with pass blockers makes the most sense. It won us a super bowl.

There's logic in that. But I'm betting the Cowboys Suberbowl teams from the 90's would kick out Superbowl team's arsh pretty handily. Those teams were great due to the ability of their offensive line to basically decimate everyone in front of them. Opening up lanes for Emmitt Smith was the goal. Everything else that they were great at pretty much fed off of that.

With the acquisitions of Lacy and Franklin, I'd like to see the Packers emulate the old Cowboy model. Run the ball to set up the pass. Rodgers will likely stay on his feet much more if he could turn around and hand it to a 1400 yard back. I don't trust the finess blocking schemes to get this done. Big wide asses that move bodies backwards is the way to go imo.

Those Cowboys teams are dynasties for a reason, one of which is that there wasn't a freaking salary cap. You're comparing apples to lug-nuts. The idea that we need to take the ball out of Rodgers' hands and put it in the hands of Franklin and Lacy doesn't make any sense to me. If you're saying we should put more emphasis on running the ball, I don't disagree. But running to set up the pass doesn't make a lick of sense when you have the best player in the NFL at QB.

[Wise1]

I think Brett Favre's legendary durability may have spoiled some around here. Just because Rodgers is the best player in the game does not mean that he shouldn't be incumbered by a stellar rushing attack. Putting together a rock solid o-line and rushing attack will go a long way towards keeping Rodgers healthy and giving the Packers the necessary tools to win multiple superbowls. All Rodgers all the time will not work.

[Bucksfans1and2]

I think Brett Favre's legendary durability may have spoiled some around here. Just because Rodgers is the best player in the game does not mean that he shouldn't be incumbered by a stellar rushing attack. Putting together a rock solid o-line and rushing attack will go a long way towards keeping Rodgers healthy and giving the Packers the necessary tools to win multiple superbowls. All Rodgers all the time will not work.

And again, we come back to the issue of having limited resources. We only have so much draft value and so much salary value. I'd love to have Adrian Peterson, Joe Thomas, and Calvin Johnson on this roster, but that's not feasible. You are forced to build with what you have and in today's NFL, nobody has enough. Unless you're lucky enough to have a good/great QB on a cheap deal you're constantly going to be battling your own players pay raises.

You want to put together a rock solid O-Line and rushing attack while maintaining the best QB in the league and the best set of weapons in the league. Sounds like a great idea. Now give me a feasible way to do it, keeping in mind that your line has to be an excellent pass blocking unit because we throw so much and there's a salary cap, and you only get so many draft picks per year. I'd love to have a way to make 2+2=10, but no matter how much I reconfigure, it still comes out to 4.

We have to hitch our wagon to somebody offensively, and history shows that throwing the football with your QB is the best way to do it. The running attack helps, but ultimately the offense has to generate points and "All Rodgers all the time" as you put it, has been pretty damn effective. We have the best offense in the league.

That said, I love the selection of Lacy and Franklin. I don't feel that the RB is necessarily a huge part in the run game, but we've been playing with bonafide scrubs in the back field. Spending the resources to improve that position, I feel was a very wise investment. Improving the running game without damaging the passing game is something that I don't think anybody has a problem getting behind. It's the proposals to start a guy who was on pace to allow 15 sacks that I don't understand. Yes, he's a better run blocker than Newhouse, but he's also a human turnstile and we butter our bread in the passing game.

[Enrique]

I was for moving Bulaga to the left side a couple months ago when it was brought up on this board. However, that was assuming that they draft a RT early in the draft or bring a RT on in FA. Baktiari doesn't seem likely to contribute his first year and Barclay doesn't give me much hope either in pass pro. If Newhouse wins the RT job I just don't see the purpose of the move, because its the same line just different positions. I would have looked at bringing in Andre Smith, I think he signed a pretty reasonable deal at 3yrs/18mil.

[bubbleboy]

Moving the best offensive linemen on the team to the QB's blindside is never a bad idea.

Bulaga had his struggles last year but in 2011 he was one of the finest RT's in all of football.

He just needs to improve against speed rushers. He has a tendency to overextend his hips when a rusher flashes an outside move and that can leave him vulnerable to a spin or inside secondary move.

This is a good decision and I think Bulaga will excel at LT. There is going to be some pretty fierce position battle at RT. Ideally I'd like to see Sherrod get healthy and step in but assuming he's still on the mend, it'll be down to Newhouse, Barclay and Bakhtiari.

[eagle13]

Moving the best offensive linemen on the team to the QB's blindside is never a bad idea.

Bulaga had his struggles last year but in 2011 he was one of the finest RT's in all of football.

He just needs to improve against speed rushers. He has a tendency to overextend his hips when a rusher flashes an outside move and that can leave him vulnerable to a spin or inside secondary move.

This is a good decision and I think Bulaga will excel at LT. There is going to be some pretty fierce position battle at RT. Ideally I'd like to see Sherrod get healthy and step in but assuming he's still on the mend, it'll be down to Newhouse, Barclay and Bakhtiari.

great post

[Ayt]

Agreed. Having the best OT and the best OG on the right makes no sense with a mobile QB like Rodgers. When he can see the pressure coming, he can get away from it and make plays. If he's getting most of his pressure from his blindside, there is nothing he can do about it.

Even if Newhouse ultimately starts at RT this year, this move is still a big positive.

[crkone]

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2 ... vervalued/

Since we now know that quarterbacks evenly distribute their passes to both sides of the field, the “blind side” must now come into question. Obviously if a quarterback is throwing to his left, he will not be looking to the right side, so we can assume that he must now turn his body toward the throw which now puts the left tackle clearly in his vision while the right tackle now becomes his “blind side.”

Prevailing theory is that pressure that comes from the left tackle should have a crippling effect on the offense while pressure from right tackle should be easier to overcome.

The numbers do not back this up
In our five years of data, there is little difference in quarterback performance when pressure comes from left tackle versus right tackle. Yards per Attempt, Accuracy Percentage and QB Rating are almost identical.

Quarterbacks perform worse when the pressure comes from right tackle. Intuitively, this makes some sense as we’re generally not harsh on a quarterback who is pressured and sacked. We rarely downgrade a quarterback in that instance so perhaps pressure from right tackle leads to more errant throws while “blindside” pressure leads to sacks.

This is not exactly the case. Over the five years, pressure from left tackle has resulted in a sack only 0.8 percent of the time more than pressure from right tackle. In fact, 2012 was the first year that saw right tackle pressure actually led to a higher percentage of sacks than left tackle pressure.

When we add quarterback hits to the equation we see a slight increase in effectiveness from left tackle pressure as quarterbacks hit the ground 2.2 percent more of the time compared to right tackle pressure. Still, the number is hardly significant enough to deem front side pressure as less significant.

Pressure that the quarterback sees should lead to quicker throws while the backside pressure takes longer to affect the quarterback who has an extra tick to get the ball down the field.

All of the passing numbers are nice, but one of the biggest questions I received after I wrote the first piece in this series, Examining Pressure, was about forced fumbles from the blindside. Surely there must be more forced fumbles on sacks that come from left tackle…

Since 2008, pressures from left tackle resulted in a sack and forced fumble only 1.9 percent more than pressures from right tackle. That’s good for less than four forced fumbles per season. As much as the blind side strip sack sticks in our memory banks, it only occurs slightly more than the forced fumble from the front side.

There’s a lot to digest here, but it can be summed up rather quickly. The right tackle should no longer be viewed as the athletic inferior to the left tackle and teams should change their team-building strategy to make this happen. Today’s passing NFL makes it a necessity to have two competent pass protectors on the edge and when scouting players, if a tackle is deemed to not be good enough to play left tackle, well you’re better off just putting him at guard rather than exploiting him at right tackle. There’s no hiding — defensive coordinators will find him.

Great article

[eagle13]

Interesting article - So if the article is to be believed, the road grader at RT paradigm is obsolete and a LT type is required at both spots. Basically for Pack it means both Newhouse and Barclay shouldn't be playing at either LT or RT but rather at G. Barclay belongs at G anyway. So if Sherrod recovers he's RT. But since he's unlikely to be ready for TC (if ever) Bakhtiari would be considered best option. Or Datko? According to this article's premise drafting a Fluker or signing an Andre Smith would have been a liability.

I still like my #1 wish for this past draft of trading the Lacy pick 2/61 to St Louis for LT Roger Saffold and leaving bulaga at RT and still getting two good RB by still taking Franklin at 4/25 but also taking Stepfan Taylor with the 4/109 pick instead of Bakhtari. Oh well.

[eagle13]

Finally an update on Datko
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/207060661.html

I have cautious optimism he'll be good either start at RT or backup left side T & G

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

So is he saying the left side produces 4 fumbles more and that isn't significant? Is that per team or NFL? If its per team, 4 forced fumbles over a season could be huge and could result in 1 or 2 more losses if those fumbles are in key spots of the field.

[crkone]

So is he saying the left side produces 4 fumbles more and that isn't significant? Is that per team or NFL? If its per team, 4 forced fumbles over a season could be huge and could result in 1 or 2 more losses if those fumbles are in key spots of the field.

NFL.

[zmanishere11]

That's positive news on Datko - I like our "potential" along the o-line between improvement from Barclay, Datko / Sherrod coming back from injuries, and the 2 RC's this year.

We just need 1 guy to put it together at RT and we should be great (assuming no injuries.....)

[eagle13]

good article on OL changes
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/ ... 28491.html

but only focused on starters

[eagle13]

good reads

bulaga is gonna get it done
http://www.packersnews.com/article/2013 ... -challenge

Barclay & newhouse
http://www.packersnews.com/article/2013 ... ompetition

[raysbookclub]

McCarthy has said before that he views left and right tackle as equally important as pass protectors. So either he's switched his stance (maybe because he saw that the offense was ok even with Barclay, a much better run than pass blocker, at right tackle), or he's just using the left-tackle thing as a way of avoiding a slight to Newhouse. Maybe a little of both. Basically, he probably feels that Bulaga LT and Barclay RT is better than Newhouse LT and Bulaga RT. He's giving Newhouse a chance to play RT, but if he doesn't win the starting job, and if Sherrod is healthy as a backup tackle, I'm guessing Newhouse is the odd man out.

[eagle13]

Barclay is more of a G but that was said of Tauscher also. Because of run blocking he seems > Newhouse. IF he's healthy Datko could be the starting RT. Barclay & Datko seem interchangeable. Newhouse makes it if we carry 9 OL on 53 (which I doubt) or there''s an injury. Sherrod is the wildcard.

LT bulaga / bakhtiari
LG sitton / vanroten
OC EDS / vanroten
RG lang / barclay
RT datko / barclay

PS- Lewis-C, Taylor-G
IR- Tretter, Sherrod-T