Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:13 am
I love Mezzskin's analogy to starting pitching... especially in a Gibbs coached team. Everything the offense will do will start with the o-line. Solid depth is an absolute requirement.
O-linemen are also more likely to respond to grooming than d-linemen (especially DE's... our greatest need). With a d-lineman, what you see in the senior year usually corelates well with rookie performance, and it generally does not get better the following seasons. This means that if all that are left in the draft are second tier d-linemen, that's what you've got. With o-linemen, however, you may well find gems that will pay off in the future (our old hogs bear that out).
All the carping about not grabbing the best available DE in the draft is just that... carping. Grabbing the best availible players, who happened to be o-linemen was a shrewd, small gamble.
O-linemen are also more likely to respond to grooming than d-linemen (especially DE's... our greatest need). With a d-lineman, what you see in the senior year usually corelates well with rookie performance, and it generally does not get better the following seasons. This means that if all that are left in the draft are second tier d-linemen, that's what you've got. With o-linemen, however, you may well find gems that will pay off in the future (our old hogs bear that out).
All the carping about not grabbing the best available DE in the draft is just that... carping. Grabbing the best availible players, who happened to be o-linemen was a shrewd, small gamble.