The 4 Man Rush presents a Front Four Film Review on....... Pat Elflein vs. Pittsburgh Steelers

[Khyber53]

Whew... yeah... ummm...

At a certain point you have to wonder if perhaps we can't choose a decent O-line coach and that our scouts just can't judge offensive linemen. We've got Meyer and Sparano working on it this season, but could we not, even by accident, develop more than one starting quality offensive lineman? We have Moton and... a bunch of guys who'd struggle to start on any other team in the league.

 

[Tbe]

47 minutes ago, Tbe said:

That one guy who beat him (73) was a 2020 7th round pick. He is a bubble player who barely made the team this year and last.

The guy he ‘pancaked’ is a 5th round rookie.

 

[Tbe]

3 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

Whew... yeah... ummm...

At a certain point you have to wonder if perhaps we can't choose a decent O-line coach and that our scouts just can't judge offensive linemen. We've got Meyer and Sparano working on it this season, but could we not, even by accident, develop more than one starting quality offensive lineman? We have Moton and... a bunch of guys who'd struggle to start on any other team in the league.

 

OL has become the hardest position to find quality guys.

That body type and athleticism is become more rare.

All teams struggle with this position. I think finding good players outside of the draft is like finding a good QB outside the draft. Pretty much impossible in normal circumstances.

Our problem has been drafting bad OL the past few years.

Thank Hurney.

[frankw]

Our approach to the oline this offseason is giving me vibes from the dollar store Dave days. But rattle off those excuses fellas. Won't do us any good come January though.

Edited September 3, 2021 by frankw

[Chaos]

9 minutes ago, BurnNChinn said:

Oh we know one place where you can’t survive for two seconds is in the middle of our oline!

Two years ago everyone would've said Luke.

[Ricky Spanish]

5 minutes ago, Tbe said:

OL has become the hardest position to find quality guys.

That body type and athleticism is become more rare.

All teams struggle with this position. I think finding good players outside of the draft is like finding a good QB outside the draft. Pretty much impossible in normal circumstances.

Our problem has been drafting bad OL the past few years.

Thank Hurney.

One thing people need to realize is that we had to hit the reset button on the line this year simply because Marty left the cupboard bear across the line. We are starting with Moton and Paradis (who we only have for one year and leaves a lot to be desired) so we had to find plug and play guys to step in on year one under Fitt while the guys we draft get up to speed. 

We took two guys in Christiansen and Brown who look like they might contribute, hopefully soon. If that's the case then two more spots along the line have been plugged, with Moton under contract, so we can focus on acquiring a Center and a G/T in the draft or FA next offseason when we have buttloads of cash. 

Things aren't as dire as they seem. The cake is still baking, it's just not read yet.

[hepcat]

Michael Jordan coming to the rescue

[frankw]

We made the same excuses about Marty leaving the cupboard bare when DG was here. The results from his approach weren't pretty. Using the same blueprint isn't likely to yield us any better odds this go around. Good thing Sam has some mobility.

[SetfreexX]

A lot of this was said about the OL last year, and they were still middle of the pack. Having CMC, and the ability to run should alleviate some of the pressure on the offensive line. 

I know people are frustrated but we are not the only team dealing with starting OL issues. KC was able to turn it around 1) due to trading a 1st, and 2) they are a SB ring waiting to happen so they will get the top FA's that are available if they are able to pay them. 

Almost all of the best OL's are full of older guys -- DAL / PHI -- last year PIT. TB hit on Whirfs, so in our case and many other teams would you rather reach at OL, or take a talent like TMJ at the bottom of Rd2. 

We added two young promising OL in Christensen / Brown, let them continue to develop, I have little doubt our OL will look much different by the mid way point. Whether it's on field play or guys missing time inevitably. 

At the very least we seem to have a direction that we're going in. 

[kungfoodude]

20 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

Whew... yeah... ummm...

At a certain point you have to wonder if perhaps we can't choose a decent O-line coach and that our scouts just can't judge offensive linemen. We've got Meyer and Sparano working on it this season, but could we not, even by accident, develop more than one starting quality offensive lineman? We have Moton and... a bunch of guys who'd struggle to start on any other team in the league.

 

Well, hard to mold a sculpture out of a wet poo. I tend to believe the problem isn't coaching but talent.

[Tbe]

8 minutes ago, Ricky Spanish said:

One thing people need to realize is that we had to hit the reset button on the line this year simply because Marty left the cupboard bear across the line. We are starting with Moton and Paradis (who we only have for one year and leaves a lot to be desired) so we had to find plug and play guys to step in on year one under Fitt while the guys we draft get up to speed. 

We took two guys in Christiansen and Brown who look like they might contribute, hopefully soon. If that's the case then two more spots along the line have been plugged, with Moton under contract, so we can focus on acquiring a Center and a G/T in the draft or FA next offseason when we have buttloads of cash. 

Things aren't as dire as they seem. The cake is still baking, it's just not read yet.

Right, we got what was available to us in FA.

The word during the draft was there were a number of upset coaches because we kept trading down and passing a OL prospects.

What I took from that is Fitts has a multi year plan. We had a ton of needs and knew we couldn’t address every position, so we stocked up on picks and took BPA at the picks we got. OL happened to fall the way it did.

 

[kungfoodude]

6 minutes ago, SetfreexX said:

A lot of this was said about the OL last year, and they were still middle of the pack. Having CMC, and the ability to run should alleviate some of the pressure on the offensive line. 

I know people are frustrated but we are not the only team dealing with starting OL issues. KC was able to turn it around 1) due to trading a 1st, and 2) they are a SB ring waiting to happen so they will get the top FA's that are available if they are able to pay them. 

Almost all of the best OL's are full of older guys -- DAL / PHI -- last year PIT. TB hit on Whirfs, so in our case and many other teams would you rather reach at OL, or take a talent like TMJ at the bottom of Rd2. 

We added two young promising OL in Christensen / Brown, let them continue to develop, I have little doubt our OL will look much different by the mid way point. Whether it's on field play or guys missing time inevitably. 

At the very least we seem to have a direction that we're going in. 

The issue with this is that we seem to think scheme and offensive talent can make up for OL deficiencies. That's typically untrue. Teddy and the scheme masked a lot of issues with OL last season.

We will see how it works out this season.

[frankw]

Even if you can justify hinging the season on signings like Erving and Elflein bc they were all that was supposedly available the more egregious error was thinking we were good with our starting center which is just as important as left tackle. Paradis is the same he has always been. I got grief from ppl for mentioning this a few months ago but here we are.

[Khyber53]

8 minutes ago, Tbe said:

OL has become the hardest position to find quality guys.

That body type and athleticism is become more rare.

All teams struggle with this position. I think finding good players outside of the draft is like finding a good QB outside the draft. Pretty much impossible in normal circumstances.

Our problem has been drafting bad OL the past few years.

Thank Hurney.

Well, you're partly right on the drafting, except we draft linemen nearly as often as you'd think. We picked up two in the most recent draft, who may or may not pan out. None in 2020, Little and Daley (bust and backup-ish) in 2019, none in 2018, Moton in 2017, none in 2016, Williams in 2015, Turner in 2014 and Kugbila (washout) in 2013. 

Nine guys in nine drafts. Moton and Little were both taken in the second rounds. Moton has become a stalwart here and Little, well if he hadn't had the concussions he might have been decent. Since we never really got to see Little perform (getting injured way early in his rookie season) we'll just have to count him as bust based on performance. But those are our two highest draft picks spent on the line. That's it. 

Even with all of the worry and difficulties we saw last year because of bad line play, and picking early in the draft, we still didn't even make an effort until the third round. We took Christensen, a well-regarded LT, and then pretty much were told he wasn't expected to play LT or even be a starter this year. We took another guy in the sixth, G Deonte Brown from the stout Alabama championship team O-line, and  even after a decent preseason stuck him in the second string. 

At a certain point, you have to wonder do we even know what we're doing? Or are we specifically just stashing players for Rhule's third season? And trying to get another high draft pick by sacrificing Sam Darnold? (Let's face it, if bad line play kills Darnold's season, the blame will fall more on the side of Darnold just couldn't cut it and he was what we thought he was.)

I know it sounds crazy, but it's just as crazy to think that in nine drafts and the off seasons accompanying them, we could only draft, attract or develop Taylor Moton and produce umpteen meh linemen? Random chance probably would have served us better than this!