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The new left tackle thought process
The cornerstone of an O-line? Not these days, despite a certain book's claimEmailPrintComments9 By KC Joyner
ESPN Insider
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Hopefully, Drew Brees isn't consoling Jamaal Brown by using KC Joyner's metrics about the value of left tackles.

Let's do a little thought experiment.

Imagine for a moment that one of the league's most pass-happy teams, piloted by maybe the greatest quarterback in NFL history, has an injury at the left guard position in the middle of the season.

If that happened in the contemporary world of pro football, a team would try many things to fix the problem. They might go with a backup, or they would shuffle around linemen at just about every position until they found the best fit.

The one thing they would never do is move their All-Pro left tackle to play left guard for the rest of the year.

Yet that is exactly what the Baltimore Colts did in 1962. Palmer Pyle, their starting left guard, went down with an injury in Week 6. Baltimore's coaching staff moved five-time All-Pro left tackle (and legendary pass blocker) Jim Parker inside to play left guard for the rest of the season (and, not incidentally, for the next five years).

The move certainly worked -- Parker became the only offensive lineman to be named All-Pro at two different offensive line positions in the same season. But conventional wisdom says that kind of thing would never happen today. It would go against the well-ingrained orthodoxy of the modern NFL that says the left tackle position is more valuable than any other offensive line position and therefore must be manned by an elite athlete.

“Teams are now acting in a way that says they believe having a top-line left tackle is not a necessity. There is ample evidence to back this claim up.”

That may be the line of thinking you have if you saw or read "The Blind Side," but there is ample evidence the NFL is starting to reconsider that mindset. Teams are now acting in a way that says they believe having a top-line left tackle is not a necessity. There is ample evidence to back this claim up.

The most recent came when the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints traded their two-time Pro Bowler and former first round selection Jammal Brown to the Washington Redskins for a conditional third or fourth round draft pick.

This is statistically notable for two reasons.

First, New Orleans ended up allowing the fourth fewest sacks (20) in the league last year despite playing former fourth round selection Jermon Bushrod as Drew Brees' blindside protector. The Saints' pass blocking held up quite well even though they had a backup at the key pass blocking position.

Second, according to my game breakdowns, Bushrod was responsible for seven of the 20 sacks. This means he allowed more than one-third of the Saints sacks, yet they still didn't have an issue with letting go of an elite talent at that position.

Brown isn't an exception, either. Jared Gaither has posted quality stats in each of the past two years and the Baltimore Ravens still weren't able to get their reported price of a second-round draft pick for him.

Marcus McNeill of the San Diego Chargers is a third example in this arena. He posted an 86.4 percent Point of Attack win rate on running plays and gave up only five-and-a-half sacks last year. Those are both quality numbers, and when they are added to his 46 starts in 48 games over the past three years, it shows he has all of the makings of a dominant left tackle. Despite all of this, San Diego seems more than willing to play contract hardball with him.

There could be many explanations for these incidents, but the Occam's Razor version is that teams are examining the evidence and realizing they don't need an elite left tackle to win. Proof can be found in the draft slots of the left tackles for the past nine Super Bowl winners: Only Tarik Glenn, in 1997, was a first-rounder. Bushrod was drafted in the fourth round, Max Starks in the third round, Matt Light in the second round and so on.

Overall, four of the last nine Super Bowl winners had a left tackle who was drafted in the third round or later. It's not as if these players were lower round selections who built themselves into elite starters, either, as they had only seven Pro Bowl selections and one All-Pro pick in a combined 56 seasons between them.

“The ironic part in all of this is that the left tackle spot might not be considered as necessary as it is if Michael Lewis had simply paid attention to the evidence when writing 'The Blind Side.”

The ironic part in all of this is that the left tackle spot might not be considered as necessary as it is if Michael Lewis had simply paid attention to the evidence when writing "The Blind Side." Bill Walsh played it up like he was responsible for the league moving towards needing elite blindside blocking talents, yet look at who he had in each of his three Super Bowl campaigns.

In 1981, he had Dan Audick, a player who was on his fourth team in five years. In 1984, Walsh started Bubba Paris, an underachiever whose poor eating habits are the stuff of NFL legend. In 1988, the Niners started Steve Wallace, a fourth round pick who played on a run-heavy team in college and who was deaf in his left ear.

Walsh knew darn well from experience that good pass protection can be accomplished with a combination of solid players and quality playcalling. This is what should have been the moral of the story for "The Blind Side." If it had, no one would be surprised by the situations of Brown, Gaither and McNeill.

KC Joyner, aka the Football Scientist, is a regular contributor to ESPN Insider. He also can be found on Twitter @kcjoynertfs and at his website. He is also the author of "Blindsided: Why the Left Tackle is Overrated and Other Contrarian Football Thoughts."

SmashMouth

Well said .... Jammal who?

foreverfan

Cue Canton in 5...4...3...2...1....

st thomas

i bet bushrod don't want to hear the back up words again.

strato

We need Bushrod to be elite

dizzle88

Bushrods first season wasn't the best ever, but he held his own against some pretty good rushers. He really needs to work on how to withstand the bullrush however, that was his downfall last season, against people like demarcus ware, joey porter and jason taylor.

SaintPauly

Canton must be out out of town, and away from any computers, because I was looking for his retort on this one....

strato

"Death" was the fathers of it Saintpaul...lol...

QBREES9

If Drew contiues get the ball out of his as fast as he does, there no worries. Bushrod will get better. That was his first full year last year.

st thomas

it was his first super bowl and will dominate 2010.