If anything he does a better job of using the broken pocket than Bones who uses more the bootleg run for you life style.

This guy can’t scramble?

Now we are putting in a real offense so i think alot of flaws will show .

Mike Goff actually sucks?

Those stats just indicate how the line did as a whole, and how the QB did at avoiding sacks, as opposed to actually tracking sacks attributable to each lineman individually… right?

was never brought into question, it was always his assingments on run blocking that he blew

I think the starting RT position should be decided by a pancake eat-off between D-Mac & Colin Brown. To the winner go the spoils

http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2009/2/2/744738/where-we-stand-the-kansas
http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2008/12/3/678845/talking-about-the-chiefs-o

I think these posts, taking penalties into account, and sacks attributed to each lineman may tell more about how to evaluate these guys than the ones in this post.

This post (rec’d) IS a better indicator of how an OL as a whole performs, when each of the parts are out there. Who cares if the Chiefs have a couple of all pro OL, if the offense can’t move the ball? OL success is very much about continuity and experience, about a unit working well together and being well coached.

However, there are other factors to consider…

*Like another year of experience for Rudy, Herb and B Rich… They may have struggled in their first year, but with better coaching and a year of experience they may get much better. The 2nd year for Albert should be even better than his rookie year as well.

*This post shows sacks given up by an offense, which is largely (but not SOLELY) due to the performance of the OL. Teams that struggle with too many sacks often: play from behind, have worse defenses, don’t have stability at QB or RB, and have preditable play calling, etc. give up more sacks than average.

*Cassel may run less than Thigpen, but it’s not the “running QBs” that help teams and OL’s avoid sacks as much as it is the QBs with great footwork, and just enough elusiveness to avoid the rush and move in the pocket. (see Manning and Big Ben)

*I firmly believe that the OL will be SUBSTANTIALLY better this year with Albert improving, Waters back, Rudy improving OR being replaced by “G”, Goff bringing experience and gritt and Sackintosh out of the starting lineup. Whoever wins the battle at RT should be better than he was last year.

I don’t agree to any of the 3 options given. I don’t think our O-line will be much improved but I think we will do better than last year.

looks like he may be a downgrade…

Looks like Pace has something left in the tank and maybe we shouldve taken a look? I think everyone would agree that Sackintosh has to go and Pioli better be looking for something. At this point I wouldnt mind seeing Runyan or Tauscher signed even to short contracts. I know Runyan is old, but I think hes functional for 1 season and teams are waiting to see how Tauscher recovers from injury to do anything but either or would be an upgrade on what we have even in the short term.

this his final year?

Any statistical analysis that states as it’s premise

I found some stats floating around the internets that assigned sacks to offensive lineman. I couldn’t find it’s source, and I don’t know how a player gets assigned fractional sacks (especially quarter sacks), but the numbers seemed reasonable enough overall.

has probably got some major issues. Sure enough, after a cursory inspection, these numbers don’t seem to have any validity.

The biggest problem for me is that the NFL reports that the 2008 Chiefs gave up 37 sacks. But this analysis only accounts for 17 of them. Somebody was responsible for the other 20 sacks that the Chiefs gave up. I’m sure a few of those could be attributed to LJ whom I have yet to see actually block anybody who wasn’t a teammate, but 20 is too many sacks to reasonably be attributed to anybody who wasn’t a lineman. So the whole premise that “the stats floating around the internets” are reasonable is crap.

Another issue is the presumption that if a player started a game at a position, he was the only player to play at that spot the whole game. Brandon Albert played Left Tackle a lot, but not every play each of the games he started there.

Further, these statistics don’t count all the bodies on the line each season. 5 lineman * 16 games = 80 lineman-games. The stats here show the Chiefs having only 72 lineman-games. I’m not 100% sure my memory is correct, but I seem to remember that every play I watched throughout the season used at least 5 lineman. Maybe Herm had them go without a Right Guard for a few games, but I sort of doubt it. At least that notion would explain some of the 20 missing sacks, wouldn’t it?

These numbers might be fun to look at and dream about, but they really are just a bunch of gobbledygook as far as I am concerned. Spending a lot of time looking at them might actually make a person dumber.