Here's to drafting the next Willie Roaf

Yes and no..... Most fans watch the ball and are relatively clueless as to who misses some blocks in the running game.

Familiar with a "trap block"?

For the sake of this discussion both sides are the same as in Right side o-line is over Right side d-line.

Right Side DT crushes TB...... 98% of fans blame RT.

The trap block means it was actually the LGs responsibility to block the RDT. Notice the black line crossing in front of the Center.

With me so far? Yes you are.

Now....... The complicated nuances of the offensive line. The Center comes off the ball and gets jammed at the line.

When the LG pulls it's fast.... Very fast. Ball snapped, pivot right explode fast. He has to get to that RDT before that RB hits the hole.

But chit... He pivoted ad exploded into the side of the Center because he didn't get out if the way, never made it to the RDT, and the RB was crushed at the line of scrimmage.

Right tackle gets blamed or Right guard gets blamed
The Left Guard missed the block
It was all the Centers fault.

If you are with me to this point you'll understand some of my past comments about the offensive line being more about how the group plays together than how good each of them are individually. It's synchronized swimming with 1600 pounds of beast. It's the 100 empty coke cans that hold up the man because they all pull their weight evenly.

I think its a perfect example of change for the sake of change backfiring on us.

We weren't great at run blocking in our previous man scheme, but we didn't totally suck either. So we changed to zone blocking thinking we'd improve, but we didn't, we actually got worse.

You'd think after the Spags debacle we'd learned our lesson about square pegs and round holes.

I'm with you. That was really helpful and instructive, Oak. I see your point. Thank you.

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Not sure if you saw this question: "Drew Brees average time to sack 3.63s only 2 QBS have shorter times Brady and Manning"

Yep. That does blow my mind. Where did you get that from? What this suggests is that with a great QB, you don't have to have an amazing O-line. Is that what this stat suggests?

When you gut your proven linemen all in the name of saving money for a monster QB salary, you get what you get... Hate to say it but I don't really believe Drew can hold up to the pounding he's going to take in the next few weeks.

It is, what it is....

Sorry but this is where the BS has to come to an end.

Lost Goodwin and Stinchcomb in 2011 - nothing to do with Drews Contract
Lost Bushrod and Nicks in 2012 -Drews Contract was at the start of 2012 and his new contract lowered his 2012 cap from 11.7M to 10.4M so Nicks was not fall out of that.

Bushrod wanted more than he was worth period.

Suck it up ladies... This was the first year Drews contract effected anyone else.

Brown is starting because Brown was hurt and came back able to start.. not because we couldn't afford anyone else. DLP was starting before Drew's contract effected our cap and so was Grubs.

This thread will be educational, like it or not.

I think the only lineman it really affected was Nicks. But thats a two-way street. Brees' agent and Loomis couldn't get a deal worked out in time and we weren't able to franchise Nicks, or max out his deal.

So was it Drew's agent? Or was it Loomis?

Either way we still made a fair offer for Nicks, he even said so in the press. He chose to bolt for a few million more.

But yeah, the whole blame Drew's contract has to stop. If I had to blame anyone's contract I'd blame Will Smith's, Jonathan Vilma's and Roman Harper's. They added up to more cap than Drew's contract did.

I wonder if Nicks had to do it all over again after what has happened to him in Tampa if he would have stayed for a couple million less.