Our O line played extremely well down the stretch, I'm not sold its a huge need.

[MHS831]

To provide a more mature counterargument than some of the previous smartasses who think your question is stupid but lack the ability to handle it intelligently), our Guard play opened the run game.  That kept pressure off Cam and made the Tackles less vulnerable to "ears pinned back" DEs and stunts/blitzes.  Remmers was not great, but he was serviceable at RT pass protecting, weak run blocking.  He is built to be a LT, but is perhaps not athletic enough to play there. To me, Remmers is good, quality depth.

 

I seriously believe that our Tackles must be able to run block effectively and pass block adequately.  Oher fits that mold.  I hope he ends up at RT, but he is at least a foundational player and upgrade at LT.  I think we will be weak at T this year regardless, because there is nothing in free agency and the draft is full of developmental prospects--few are ready to step into starting roles. 

 

There is reason for encouragement, but not satisfaction.

 

 

[MV%doe]

My first thoughts as well.

Ok.... now with your theory, say for a minute one of our tackles go down with an injury. Who do you substitute?

How deep do you think our O-line is now?

[IGSaint]

We need above average starters at both tackle positions and there is no guarantee that Remmers or Oher is it. 

[scarface]

LT is the only huge need. I believe Remmers can handle RT fine and Oher should be an upgrade over Bell but they still need depth. The center and guard positions are locked up imo.

 

I think they draft a LT early in the draft to give Oher some competition. 

[PantherFanOne]

If one of the top five or six tackles are there when we pick 25th, in the 1st rd, we pounce on him,in my opinion.

[Keep Pounding]

We really didn't beat any decent teams the last 6 games(that I can remember). Yes we finally have two studs at guard and a guy who shined at RT after basically doing.nothing in the NFL. We need a LT, and not some journeyman guy. I have faith in the staff that this will be addressed, along with the other holes.

 

Pretty much what i remember was the best defense line we played our last 6 games or so was the Browns LOL, after getting beat real bad by the eagles we played the Falcons, Vikings, Saints, Bucs, Browns and then the Falcons again....

[Carolina Cajun]

We did play well down the stretch, but Rookies can sometimes regress (norwell and turner), and we only had a small sample size with Remmer.  On top of that, if they do play up to their potential and Oher does well, then we still lack depth ANYWHERE on the line, so should anyone go down, we are right back to where we were.  I would love to see us go OT early in the draft, then as much as it pains me, when Bell gets no offers (which, I think we can all see coming), then we can bring him back dirt cheap as a backup Tackle, which is the position he should have had from the beginning.

[LinvilleGorge]

Extremely well?  Hell no.  We were constantly having to chip DEs with TEs and RBs because our OTs were weak.  We changed our offense down the stretch to compensate for our poor OL.  We ran a lot of max protect down the stretch and when you're forced to run max protect with only one legit WR you're going to struggle to move the ball through the air.

[rmoneyg35]

With Amini and Chandler gone our offensive line got better. Bell is gone (for now). We have 3 good offensive linemen, one that's okay (Reammers) and one that can be above average or below average(Oher). Our offensive line can live with Oher at tackle with 4 other decent linemen around him.

[SetfreexX]

My thing is when was the last time a starting caliber LT was drafted at #25. We are more sound this year heading into the draft and the remainder of the off-season. Many of you wrote of Ginn two years ago, as well as Mitchell for some of the same reasons we're throwing shots at Oher. Let the scenario play itself out. 

 

We knew Bell was bad, and so did the team, but no cap space, and no sure fire hits at LT in the last draft left us in the position to improve the roster elsewhere. Starting LT on a SB winning team isn't something to dismiss, if that form can return via familiar coaching staff there's no real immediate reason to think we're in bad shape. Thats why we're posting on a forum, and not in war rooms. 

[Matthias]

Concerning Remmers, I'm also not totally sold on him.  Firstly, one of the reasons our running game improved when he got in there, is not solely based on him being in the line-up.  It was more so based on Stewart getting the starts, and Fozzy backing him up.  Secondly, people want to talk about how the O-line protected Cam better down that last stretch.  They protected him better more so because half our offensive passing downs came with max protection.  Yall want to know why Olsen's numbers kind of dropped down that stretch?  It's because he was kept in to block for Cam.  It's for that same reason it seemed like half the time, Cam had no one to throw to.  Only three guys were running routes for him, with the rest being kept in to block.

 

That's why we need OTs.  Real OTs.  I don't know if Remmers will be that guy for us at RT, but certainly we have no legit LT on the team.  That's going to hurt us big time, especially as we ourselves take Olsen out of the passing game.

[LinvilleGorge]

Concerning Remmers, I'm also not totally sold on him.  Firstly, one of the reasons our running game improved when he got in there, is not solely based on him being in the line-up.  It was more so based on Stewart getting the starts, and Fozzy backing him up.  Secondly, people want to talk about how the O-line protected Cam better down that last stretch.  They protected him better more so because half our offensive passing downs came with max protection.  Yall want to know why Olsen's numbers kind of dropped down that stretch?  It's because he was kept in to block for Cam.  It's for that same reason it seemed like half the time, Cam had no one to throw to.  Only three guys were running routes for him, with the rest being kept in to block.

 

That's why we need OTs.  Real OTs.  I don't know if Remmers will be that guy for us at RT, but certainly we have no legit LT on the team.  That's going to hurt us big time, especially as we ourselves take Olsen out of the passing game.

 

Agreed.  I like Remmers and he played much better than Chandler, but that's not saying really anything.  I just remember the precautionary tale of Bell.  Everyone was happy with him after he was forced to fill in as an undrafted rookie free agent at RT.  Plenty were willing to pencil him in at RT for the next decade.  The truth was that yes, he performed admirably for an undrafted rookie, but we had Gross on the other side and could afford to provide Bell plenty of help on the right side.  The reality was that Bell just didn't have the athleticism to play OT in the NFL and never really improved from his rookie season.  It wasn't his fault, he just had a low athletic ceiling.  It's not Bell's fault that the Panthers continually put him in a situation where he was simply over his head as an athlete and player.

 

I hope we don't make the same mistake with Remmers.  Absolutely allow the guy a chance to continue to compete and prove he's earned that role going forward, but don't simply assume he's the answer.

[London Loves Luke]

Concerning Remmers, I'm also not totally sold on him.  Firstly, one of the reasons our running game improved when he got in there, is not solely based on him being in the line-up.  It was more so based on Stewart getting the starts, and Fozzy backing him up.  Secondly, people want to talk about how the O-line protected Cam better down that last stretch.  They protected him better more so because half our offensive passing downs came with max protection.  Yall want to know why Olsen's numbers kind of dropped down that stretch?  It's because he was kept in to block for Cam.  It's for that same reason it seemed like half the time, Cam had no one to throw to.  Only three guys were running routes for him, with the rest being kept in to block.

 

That's why we need OTs.  Real OTs.  I don't know if Remmers will be that guy for us at RT, but certainly we have no legit LT on the team.  That's going to hurt us big time, especially as we ourselves take Olsen out of the passing game.

 

This is just wrong. Go and watch the games from the end of last year, Remmer's run blocking was really impressive. The reason Stewart was able to impress was that the o-line gelled and he was able to get to the second level so frequently. Remmer's barely ever had pass blocking support on his side either. Whenever they lined up with two protect in the backfield, Stewart would generally be on the right side and would escape out to a check down route.

 

It is straight up wrong to say Remmers benefited from added protection or he wasn't a significant reason for our impressive running game. 

[Matthias]

This is just wrong. Go and watch the games from the end of last year, Remmer's run blocking was really impressive. The reason Stewart was able to impress was that the o-line gelled and he was able to get to the second level so frequently. Remmer's barely ever had pass blocking support on his side either. Whenever they lined up with two protect in the backfield, Stewart would generally be on the right side and would escape out to a check down route.

 

It is straight up wrong to say Remmers benefited from added protection or he wasn't a significant reason for our impressive running game. 

 

Yeah he improved our running ability, but if D-Will continued to start for us, our running game would have been sub par.  Stewart took on hits as well as hit some of those lanes Remmers was able to provide.  Yet is that 4-5 game stretch enough to say he will be a long term answer?  I just haven't seen enough to say that.  I was much more impressed with our guard play than OTs.

 

Of course we certainly had a lot of max protection.  That was one of the things that had me mad because it took Olsen out of the game.