Interesting Stat From PFF

[Seltzer]

20. Carolina Panthers

The four offensive linemen for the Panthers not named Michael Oher have allowed zero sacks, zero hits, and just seven hurries.

 

Listed under the Power Rankings.  Of course you could argue about the ranking, but to me the comment was much more interesting...

That is elite level Offensive Line play outside of Oher.  If they could groom Darryl Williams to play LT, this could be a special (and outside of Kalil) very special group.  Regardless, we knew going into the season LT wasn't going to be great, but Oher is still way, way better than than Byron Bell.

The narrative of a bad or patchwork Panthers offensive line is simply wrong.

 

 

 

[zacka77ack]

I'm happy that what we saw in preseason wasn't a farce. I think our QBs were only sacked 4 times. Alot of us wanted to be optimistic about the OLine but it was just a bit too premature.  I remember the talking heads pontificating about how our terrible Oline was gonna hamper our offense even more after Benji went down. And yet now...no one seems to want to talk about how Watt, Wilfork and Clowney were kept in check and only had minimal impact on our game.  Hopefully it holds up.

[Seltzer]

Norwell, Kalil, & Turner may be as solid an interior line as there is in the league right now.  It certainly is showing with Cam being able to step up in the pocket and into his throws.

Cam's completion percentage still isn't great, but the drops (I know of at least 5 I can think of off the top of my head) are a big factor in that.  The national guys see the stat lines and regurgitate the missing high narrative, but Cam has not been off high the first 2 games like he usually is.  The interior O-line is the main reason for that.

[Ivan The Awesome]

Even with what Michael Oher has allowed, he's still better than Bell. :D

[Bartin]

Not sure Williams is athletic enough to play on the left side. The lines are getting blurred between the left and right sides but the left still takes a little more nimbleness of the feet. I think the best solution may be to slide Remmers to the left, put Williams on the right then draft a LT to groom as a long term franchise tackle who can take over LT when Kalil hangs it up and Remmers moves to center.

 

That is sort of my ideal long term O-Line solution that should be able to last for most of Cam's career.

[Bartin]

Even with what Michael Oher has allowed, he's still better than Bell. :D

By far. Bell was a consistent worry and it felt like his blocking assignment was always a threat. Oher, on the other hand, does a pretty good job of consistently locking his man up. Oher just has 3-5 terrible snaps per game where he gets taken to the woodshed. While that's not good, you can live with it when you consider what we had before and the fact that his man is only a rare threat rather than a constant threat. He's obviously not the long term solution but he's doing well enough for me.

[Car123]

Our run blocking is still questionable.

[Seltzer]

Our run blocking is still questionable.

Very true... but it does beat the awful pass protection to good along with bad run blocking we had most of last year.

Just like this year so far, the only reason IMO the run blocking looked better down the stretch last year was b/c of the running threat from Newton when he was finally healthy.

Hopefully this group can improve on run blocking, but I don't want to undermine how much better the pass protection has been not only versus last year but also versus what my expectations where coming into this year.

[Nick_81]

Not sure Williams is athletic enough to play on the left side. The lines are getting blurred between the left and right sides but the left still takes a little more nimbleness of the feet. I think the best solution may be to slide Remmers to the left, put Williams on the right then draft a LT to groom as a long term franchise tackle who can take over LT when Kalil hangs it up and Remmers moves to center.

 

That is sort of my ideal long term O-Line solution that should be able to last for most of Cam's career.

Pretty much identical to what I was thinking.  Remmers, I think, is more suited to the left side, but it's really hard to tell until he's over there.  I think he'd make a damn fine center though.

[Nate Dogg]

Has Bell been starting for the Titans?

[Navy_football]

Only elite LTs don't get beaten a couple of times a game. It's the nature of the position. They're usually up against the best all around athlete on the opposing defense.

Bell, Chandler and Amini were physically outmatched. D linemen would consistently run them over within 1.5 seconds - literally speed bumps. That can't ever happen, let alone several times a game between the three of them. Last year's oline was the worst I've ever seen, at least at Carolina. It's a wonder Cam didn't suffer a serious injury.

[caatfan]

Has Bell been starting for the Titans?

At LG. 

[KB_fan]

Norwell, Kalil, & Turner may be as solid an interior line as there is in the league right now.  It certainly is showing with Cam being able to step up in the pocket and into his throws.

Cam's completion percentage still isn't great, but the drops (I know of at least 5 I can think of off the top of my head) are a big factor in that.  The national guys see the stat lines and regurgitate the missing high narrative, but Cam has not been off high the first 2 games like he usually is.  The interior O-line is the main reason for that.

Loving the improvement in our Oline.  Can you imagine last year playing against Houston (Watt and Clowney?)  I shudder to think...

As to Cam's low completion %...

We lead the league in drops according to sporting charts:

http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/team-receiver-drops-percentage/2015/

[KB_fan]

Again, related to Cam's completion %:

We're second-to-last in % caught.  Note how bad Houston & JAX have been too... that was a huge help to us!

http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/team-targets-percent-caught/2015/

Of course, a lot of Houston & Jax problems with incomplete passes could be due to our Defense!  I'd be interested in seeing how their percentages changed in the week they played us vs. the week they played KC and Miami.