Interesting article from SI regarding the offensive line and the relative difficulty in playing each position http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/ross_tucker/04/02/oline.rankings/index.html
had to be other factors. The wouldn't create holes for the sake of creating holes. Bad locker-room guy perhaps?
Although I disagree with the assessment (I believe that Center is probably the most important o-line position), it's a good read. It's also hard to argue with an ex-offensive lineman on the subject. It's a good read either way, and kudos to SI for highlighting positions that usually get glossed over.
Yeah I think they underplay the mental aspect of the position and focus on the physical aspect regarding center. The Right Guard being more important than the left guard kind of surprised me but made sense when I thought about it. Now I know why Smiley is being penciled in as right guard and not left which I originally assumed
What's interesting about that, as the article points out, is the big money contracts that are being handed out to left guards the last few years. My only thought as to why left guards would be so well compensated is the idea of pairing them with a dominant left tackle. Either that, or teams just don't budget their money wisely along the offensive line.
Thanks for the link Adam, very good read. While I would tend to agree Center may be the least demanding position physically I still see it as one of the most important relative to the success or failure of the offense. Glad we have Satele in there solidly, and mostly hope he is ready to make his own line calls this year. While I agree Hadnot was good value for the Browns, I don't want his mouth and attitude on this team, pretty sure that's why Parcells & co. let him walk too. Good thread, 5 stars from me.
Yeah the writer didnt really touch on it but there's definitely the philosophy that you build a dominant side of the line rather than spread it out throughout the line. The writer didnt really address why that's a bad decision. True, you may be getting less out of a highly paid Guard but the flipside is half your line is an absolute wall meaning you can roll the plays to that side and have an easier time figuring out where the pressure is likely to come from