(08-08-2017, 11:22 AM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote: (08-08-2017, 09:25 AM)FBT Wrote: Bingo.
They've brought in plenty of players through the draft and free agency to help fortify the offensive line. They also pursued one of the top restricted free agents and came up short a couple of years ago. What they haven't done is overspend for aging talent with name recognition, which is all Debbie Downer really cares about.
The line is improved from last year to this season. They didn't put enough of an emphasis on really upgrading the line previously, but with Coughlin her, I would expect the focus to change, and the fact that we drafted Robinson as high as we did in the draft this year is a good indication that's going to happen. Certain people act as if the offensive line was the only real hole that needed attention, but anyone who watches this team understands just how many areas required attention. It will get better, and we could actually have the talent on the roster already to put together a serviceable line. Let's see how things progress during camp. If an upgrade pops up on the wire before the start of the season, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the team snap them up.
Who are all these players we brought in? It's a long list that includes guys like Wisniewski and Beadles. The post I responded to wasn't isolating it's criticism to the 2017 offseason acquisitions. Robinson is an unknown at this point, Watford was like a 3rd tier FA who isn't even being mentioned as a potential starter and Albert is a declining veteran at the end of his career whose commitment to the sport is questionable and his team thought so little of him, that the traded him for a conditional 7th rounder. We overspent in free agency on the defensive side of the football and ended up with bargain bin O-Linemen.
If you recall - I wanted them to take two linemen in the first four rounds. I do wish they'd gotten a guard out of this draft.
As far as the O-Line being improved, that is yet to be seen. We haven't even played a game yet, so how you come to that conclusion is puzzling. No one knows anything about this line until they play a damn game, but it's not a stretch to say they are slightly better on paper right now if they roll with Cam/Omameh/Linder/Cann/Parnell. That line is capable of producing a better result than the overall result of last year's rag-tag rotation. The O-Line wasn't the only area that needed help, but from what I saw last year, it was certainly the biggest need and drafting a high profile RB before fully addressing the major needs on the O-Line is like putting the cart before the horse. I don't expect Fournette to have a breakout season, because he will probably be looking for running lanes that aren't there, since we have almost the same o-Line that we had last year. He'll have a better year than Ivory or Yeldon did in 2016, because he has more talent, but I don't think it will be the upgrade the front office wants. We'll just have to wait and see how things play out. We should know by game 6.
I tend to agree on Fournette. I said it all offseason. I love his talent - but his skill set calls for a runway and our line probably won't give him that terribly often. Hopefully Williams gets up to speed quickly and helps in that respect sooner than later. Bohanon appears to be struggling.
Regardless - it's way to early to be declaring it a tragedy or a triumph. Could they have done more t add to the line? I wish they would have - but I think this group may do just enough more in the run game to deem it sufficient.
