It's beginning to feel like the demand for OL talent is spiking. If next year's draft features decent O Linemen some guys could be drafted high.
I imagine we'll see some poor to average O-Lineman suddenly holding some value in trades over the next few weeks. Take Jenkins at the Bears, been poor up to this point in his career but there'll be teams who had him graded as a late first round pick that will be willing to float a 3rd or 4th rounded in the hopes that they can coach him up to meet the potential they saw at RT.
I had a quick look and at this point the general feeling is that 2023 will be a poor draft for the O Line. So that really could lead to even more of what you've described.
I can understand the frustration…with today’s modern technology the NFL is still using sticks and chains to measure 10 yards but if you really truly think about it, what other truly feasible alternative is there? If you’ve ever seen the “chain gang” operation, the line judge tells the first member of the crew where to place the first stick, marking the LOS on first down, the 2nd stretches the chain out to its 10 yard limit and the line judge clips a tag on the chain link on the next yard line for potential measurements. There’s really no other viable method for the officials to keep track of the 10 yard measurements.
Its a problem that's growing like a snowball rolling down a hill. Colleges are doing a worse, and worse, and worse job of developing offensive linemen who are capable at the NFL level. And lately not just in technique and preparation, but in size and strength as well. If something doesn't change, football as we know it will have some serious issues, and I think that the NFL needs to start taking things into their own hands, and at a minimum having players red shirt for a year or two after they're drafted before they're thrown to the wolves.
Not sure the teams with needs on the OL can be trusted to do that. A developmental league might help, or even more interaction between the NFL and the college leagues. Good OL development would help both sides.
Washington rookie RB shot in attempted carjacking: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...in-attempted-robbery-team-releases-statement/
Steelers’ Najee Harris has a Lisfranc injury: https://steelerswire.usatoday.com/2022/08/28/pittsburgh-steelers-najee-harris-lisfranc-injury/
Its the injury that ruined Ronnie Brown's career for good. After he came back from tearing his knee up in 2007, he hurt the foot vs Tampa Bay in 2009. After that, he was never the same player. He had 2896 yards rushing and 22 TDs in his 40 games leading up to the injury, a 16-game average of 1158 yards at 4.6 YPC, despite spending a lot of that in a time share with Ricky Williams. He only had 1373 yards and a 3.68 YPC average for the rest of his career afterwards, and most of that came the following year.
I think the Jimmy G news hurts our draft picks slightly. Lance looked like he was going to go through some growing pains during pre-season but with Jimmy G there, they can always cut the cord if he doesn't look like he's improving.
Bills weaknesses The first game of the 2022 NFL season is just a few days away - the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams are set to host the Buffalo Bills Thursday night at SoFi Stadium. It’s a clash of two teams that expect to compete for titles of their respective conferences. What is the weak point on the Bills’ roster? While the most intriguing positional matchup on paper will be the battle between the two heavy weight quarterbacks, LA’s Matthew Stafford and Buffalo’s Josh Allen, there are two areas of weakness on the Bill’s roster that the Rams will look to take advantage of: Offensive Line LT - Dion Dawkins LG - Rodger Saffold C - Mitch Morse RG - Ryan Bates RT - Spencer Brown / David Quessenberry Buffalo has made a strategic decision to build their offensive line affordably, and aside from reliable left tackle Dion Dawkins the rest of the line is perfectly average. Mitch Morse has been a reliable starter since entering the league with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017 - he’s a dependable leader in the middle of the Bills’ offensive line. The guards are a different story for the Bills. While Rams fans know Rodger Saffold well from his time with the team and an important contributor for LA’s 2018 Super Bowl berth, at this point in his career he’s a liability in pass protection. Ryan Bates is entering his fourth season, and he’s also been a better run blocker than pass protector during his career for the most part. That’s not necessarily a recipe for success against a tenacious defensive line for Los Angeles - Aaron Donald, Greg Gaines, and A’Shawn Robinson could disrupt Allen and the Bill’s passing attack. Buffalo is a team that doesn’t want to have to run the ball often, but they strive to maintain balance to keep defenses on their toes. If the Rams can force the Bills into obvious passing situations, Donald and company will have time to win favorable matchups against lackluster competition. Cornerback The Bills have been looking for a sidekick to Pro Bowl corner Tre’Davious White for quite some time, and they thought they were finally at the end of their search this past spring when they drafted Kaiir Elam with the 23rd overall selection. But White is still recovering from the injury that ended his season last year. He’s on the Physically Unable to Perform list to start 2022, which means he will have to sit out at least the first four games. Elam has struggled in training camp to fill White’s absence, and he was largely outplayed by Christian Benford - who Buffalo selected in the sixth round. Taron Johnson is a capable nickel corner that is entering his fifth season. While he can provide a veteran presence in a young cornerback room, two rookie corners playing large roles against Cooper Kupp and Allen Robinson in their first NFL game isn’t an ideal scenario. If there’s a silver lining for Buffalo it’s that their defense was among the best at preventing chunk plays last year, and they can frustrate Stafford and the Rams by taking away big gains. A skeptic would point out that the Bills faced a pretty underwhelming crop of quarterbacks, but at the end of the day production is production.
The city of Chicago makes it so hard for stadiums. The Bears have had issues for decades, and the Cubs had to jump through so many hoops just to renovate Wrigley.
No deal reached for Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. That means we can not look forward to Lamar to the Dolphins talk all season and offseason if Tua isn't stellar... and maybe even if he is.
If Tua tanks or gets injured prolonged again, we’re going to see quite a bit of Skylar Thompson. I pray nothing happens to Tua but if it does, mark my words.
Bengals Steelers game is insane! Burrow to Chase TD pass to tie game with 2 seconds left. Minkah Fitzpatrick gets a hand to the conversion kick and blocks it!
Always an overhyped team. They've been little better than us for 20+ years and in a weaker division to boot.