Kansas City Chiefs G Brian Waters spoke with the media yesterday afternoon for the first time in six months. He talked about a range of topics, including how he and his offensive linemates are perceived through the eyes of others.
Per Waters, the offensive line has gotten a bad rap because (and he's right on this one) the majority of eyes watching him don't know how to properly judge an offensive line.
"But the last two years," he says, "I don’t think that some of my offensive linemates have been judged properly. I feel a lot of eyes that have been judging some of my teammates are unqualified eyes. There are a lot of people basing their opinions off what they know, and a lot of people don’t know football."
He makes a good point on this. But then again GM Scott Pioli wouldn't have identified the offensive line as a big priority in the upcoming draft if all was well.
Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star, a former offensive lineman himself, graded the Chiefs and gave three of them (Waters, Smith, O'Callaghan) B's for the season suggesting the line was better than perceived.
The offensive line got a terrible rap in the first half of the season because they were trying to fit square pegs into round holes. Waters admits in the interview that they were not the type of line that could make Larry Johnson effective. Cassel, though, was sacked 37 times in the first 10 games.
In the second half, I feel there was improvement because the numbers start to back it up. Jamaal Charles blew up for nearly 1,000 yards in the last eight games. Matt Cassel was sacked only eight times in the last six games.
"In our position, everything is all about what other guys do. Everything is about how many times the quarterback got hit or it’s all about how many rushing yards we had. We’re pretty much (tied) to the numbers."
Waters also said changing the offensive scheme weeks before the season "affected us greatly" and that Charles, who he calls the most explosive player he's ever blocked for, makes the offensive line look good.