2019 My Mastery Mockery of a Draft

[Upnorth]

Have you guys never seen the pressure hrs clean stats? Are they the same or different? Rodgers like every other qb in history does better without pressure and that is why the line is so important. Or did you guys not watch the nfccg?

[bobblehead]

Have you guys never seen the pressure hrs clean stats? Are they the same or different? Rodgers like every other qb in history does better without pressure and that is why the line is so important. Or did you guys not watch the nfccg?

One of them was napping after his warm milk and the other was flipping burgers.

[run pMc]

No no no. Rodgers' mobility and accuracy allows him to thrive with mediocrity in the O Line and at the same time, make the O Line seem better - to a lot of people anyway.

QB mobility is nice, I'd wager it's about 5th behind accuracy, quick read progression, poise, and pocket presence in importance. You don't have to be a great athlete to play QB. I think that's a separate discussion.

I strongly disagree that the OL is mediocre and it's all Rodgers. The OL ranks consistently high and Rodgers' (and the RB's) numbers would have been much worse if the OL was middle of the road. They aren't perfect -- the opposing defense gets paid too -- but if you watch a lot of other teams you'll see GB has a good OL and mightily contributed to having a top 3 offense last year. You don't do that with one above average WR, a RB by committee, and mediocre OL.

Rodgers playing well and the scheme masks weaknesses, but the OL isn't one of them. Maybe you're still thinking of the end of the M3 era where Rodgers was holding the ball 5-6 s and running around hoping a WR would get open... that's on the scheme and WR's not the OL. The QB should get rid of the ball anywhere between 2-3.5 sec IMO depending on the play call. Anything more than that means the coverage is good or the routes are shit. I'd guess a decent DL will start to get pressure the QB within 2.5 or 3 sec.

Billy Turner and Rick Wagner actually played better than I expected, the NFCCG notwithstanding. Jenkins and Linsley were among the best at their positions, Bahktiari played pretty good, and Patrick was serviceable. There wasn't a gaping weakness on the line, which is more than you can say for most pro OLs.

OTs are drafted early about as much as any position, and a franchise LT is highly prized -- that's why Sewell is considered a Top 3 prospect. Dancing bears like that are rare specimens and only so many of them are out there. The rest have to be developed a la Nijman (and he may never pan out) because their technique is garbage and they've been getting by on size/athleticism.

[texaspackerbacker]

I agree with your levels of importance IF a team has a high quality O Line in front of the QB. However, mobility rises to third, maybe even second if the line is poor or mediocre. And I would argue - as I always have without a lot of people agreeing - that all through the Rodgers era, the Packers O Line has been in the poor to mediocre range. A QB doesn't have to be a terrific athlete, but it's best if he's not a total klutz either. Brady, for example, wouldn't have had half the success he's had if not for consistent great line blocking.

As for drafting an O Line prospect, obviously, I'd much prefer a Corner, and I'd also prioritize D Line and ILB over O Line, in part because there have been so many misses with high draft picks on O Linemen over the years, not only the Packers, but a lot of teams. The other thing is I really wish they would get a "road grader" type - if that's approximately the same as what you mean by a "dancing bear" type, fine. But I prefer to avoid your smaller maybe more mobile O Linemen - which unfortunately, it seems the Packers have preferred for quite a while.

[run pMc]

Brady, for example, wouldn't have had half the success he's had if not for consistent great line blocking.

Brady is the king of short-to-intermediate passes. James White, Welker, Edelman, Hernandez & Gronk all caught a lot of passes within 10 yards of the LOS. Get the ball out fast and you don't get hit.
He's had some pretty good OLs, but nothing I would call dominant. GB has fielded lines at least as good if not better than NE's.

Rodgers had his fewest rushing attempts and yards this past season (for a full 16 games season). He doesn't need to run and dance around much. If the OL is so bad, how come Jenkins, Linsley and Bahk have graded out so high over the last couple of years? What about Scott Wells, Josh Sitton, Lang, Bulaga...? They have NOT trotted out subpar lines except of when they had Byron Bell. Even Jahri Evans gave them a decent year running on fumes in the tank.

If the OL is mediocre, shouldn't you want to make it a priority to improve over, say, ILB?
If you want to get by on QB mobility, I'd imagine Jordan Love is far more athletic and mobile at this stage than Rodgers.

I imagine we will agree to disagree on this.

FWIW, I think the OL is above average, but they will still need to draft an OT early. They can maybe get by with Billy Turner at RT, but until Bahk comes off the PUP from his ACL (anywhere from regular season week 4 to week 6 I'd guess) they need another tackle.
Generally speaking, I think drafting them is just smart anyway -- it's an area where you can constantly bring new, cheap Yokozumas into the pipeline to develop. Better to have them developing on the roster than having to reach for one or pick thru the scrap pile.
I expect once Turner's contract is up they won't sign him either, so they either draft someone now or they draft a bunch of someone's later as the line ages.

[texaspackerbacker]

All those great examples of mediocrity SEEMED better than they were because of Aaron Rodgers hahahaha.

Granted, the O Line was better last season than much of the recent past. I'd give Jenkins most of the credit for that. Doing so well without the sacred cow, Bakhtiari, and deciding not to re-sign Linsley kinda says that the staff pretty much thinks "good enough is good enough".

I think/hope they leave Jenkins at LG, but even if Stepaniak or Hanson comes through, they still might be short one OT - I don't know if Runyan or Patrick is capable of doing the job there, and Nijman still is just a pipe dream until proven otherwise. So it would make sense to draft an OT, IMO, just not in the first or second round.