Concern about the OL

by BadMaafala on Oct 23, 2008 5:14 PM EDT Comment 9 comments

Our offensive line has stabalized a little in the last few weeks, not surprisingly due to better play-calling, quicker passes, and lesser opponents. I could talk about how the Giants will change all that (and they might) but with the meat of our schedule coming up, I'd like to point out how thin we are at OL. In camp, we had our starting 5, plus Starks, Stapleton, Essex, Mahan, and Hills. That's decent depth. Well, we traded Mahan, lost Simmons for the season, and Smith's status for the forseeable future is uncertain. If Smith pulled a hammy and would be out 2-4 weeks, we'd be fine long term. These back issues can spiral out of control, though, so it's possible what we have now is all we'll have for the season. Starks will be okay (assuming Zierlein doesn't take out a knee or poison him) and Stapleton won't be terrible, but we now have one marginal backup (Essex) and some practice squad players who will probably have to take the field at some point.

I'm not going to complain about Essex as a cheap backup, but he's definitely nothing more than that. He can play both tackle and guard, but he's not going to contribute anything guard, and he's not very good at tackle. Hills was a flier-type draft pick this year, and so far it's been ugly. I don't know if he's progressed at all, but I'd rather not find out. Parquet might be a better option than Hills at this point. I don't think we're going to confuse him with someone with upside, but he's been around for a couple years and he has a bigger frame than either Colon or Essex.

We don't have a real backup guard or center, and that's a concern. If Hartwig got injured, we'd have to shuffle everyone around, which isn't going to be pretty. If Kemo got injured, our line suddenly looks very weak. Since we have the roster space, I'd like to see us take a long look around the NFL for potential contributers at guard or center on teams' practice squads. If nothing else, maybe it's time to promote Doug Legursky.

Does anyone have any other thoughts about the backups? Any notes from the preseason or anything?

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As usual I have little to add. I have kind of let it slip by that our O-line was so unbelievably thin though. It’s disturbing that likely the only guy we currently would be using as an active backup on Sunday is Trai.

I suppose they will have to activate someone else, because clearly two guys on the O-line can go out in a game, it already happened to us. Or they dress Hills, but as you said that wouldn’t be pretty.

by steelguy99 on Oct 23, 2008 5:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

O-LINE

As bad as the offensive line played at first, we only lost one game. We’re back on track; if the defense holds up we should take the Giants. Let’s hope they take us for granted!!!!

by Qdog on Oct 23, 2008 7:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

man... stop being right

Part of what I hope for is that the injury bug has to pass over us at some point. we’ve been getting annihilated by it. Seriously, coming out of this 5-1 is pretty damn amazing and if you had told me that would be our record with this level of injury I’d have been amazed.

by Chicago Steeler on Oct 23, 2008 7:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, we have to get lucky at some point, right? Unfortunately getting injured early in the season doesn’t help us not get injured late in the season. If Marvel can some back and play decently, I’ll feel a lot better.

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Oct 23, 2008 8:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sheesh

You are a 100% right. We have no room for injuries right now. The only good news is that Stapelton seems to have been an upgrade over Simmmons and that Starks may yet be an upgrade over an unhealthy Smith.

Back-ups though?

Chukki Okobi anyone?

by SteelerBuddha on Oct 24, 2008 12:10 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

My 2 cents

First off, I was hopin wed draft Jeff Otah cause we sorely needed him. And I didnt think Mendenhall was the best thing for us, after all we had Waltzing Mewelde and FWP.

But that aside, I would have gone after Willie Anderson this year. Honestly I know he is old, but he is still a quality tackle. And I think he could have helped. We should have tried to yank at least a semi-quality backup/starter from a lesser team.

And for christs sake, let Maxamillion starks play where he is good. We won a freakin super bowl with him.

by Mechem on Oct 24, 2008 2:33 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, we didn’t get a chance to draft Otah, or really any OL’s early in this draft. We couldn’t afford to spend picks trading up, and 8 OL’s went before our spot. I think we’ll be a lot more willing to trade up this year with our generally good depth.

Yeah, Anderson would have been a decent depth pickup (like Roye on the DL). We keep bringing up Bentley as another option, but I haven’t heard any mention of him from the team. If we had an injury and needed a starter, he might make more sense.

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Oct 24, 2008 8:32 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The only problem being that Bentley probably wants big money, anderson too. From what I understand Roye signed pretty cheap, just enough to pay for his 60th birthday party.

by steelguy99 on Oct 24, 2008 10:47 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes yes

I feel good about tackles if it was Smith and Starks. Not colon, i dont like him at all.

See thing is, if we pick up Bentley, he plays Center by tradition. Now we need to say “Go out there and play guard!” and that wont work out well. Hes old too.

Lets not forget, he probably would infest the city of Pittsburgh with staph. I hate cleveland and it stanks! I always knew they had a disease there.

by Mechem on Oct 24, 2008 8:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs