(09-15-2021, 03:50 PM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote: (09-15-2021, 02:28 PM)HURRICANE!!! Wrote: The worst part about AJ Cann (who was drafted in 2015) is that he is going to be 30 in October and was 23 when we drafted him. AJ IS 1 MONTH OLDER THAN LUKE JOEKEL who was drafted in 2013. He should have come in well polished at age 23 whereas you excuse certain things when players come in at age 21.
This team has a history of holding onto offensive linemen way past their expiration. I've heard people say that it takes O-Linemen a while to develop. It didn't take Tristan Wirfs time to develop. Mekhi Becton showed flashes of ability right out of the gate as well. So did guys like Ronnie Stanley, Zack Martin, Quenton Nelson and a myriad of others. The guys that do take a while to develop, like Garrett Bolles at least show signs of improvement from year to year. With our O-Line, Robinson and Taylor have been bad from day 1 and have never showed signs of improvement. Last year, Cann improved a little, but even having him get better just brought him up to a level of serviceable. Now, at least after one game this season, he looks like he has regressed back to being terrible and look how long we've given him to improve.
We've waited so long for these guys to develop (which they still haven't,) and now we're in a mess. At the end of the season, Cann, Robinson, Norwell, Shatley and Richardson will all be free agents. Add to that fact that Taylor probably needs to be replaced more than any other Jags' O-Lineman and we may be looking at replacing 4 of our 5 starting O-Linemen in 2022. I've also been scouting the "top" OT's the last 2 weeks in college football and I have yet to find someone other than Alabama's Evan Neal that I would even consider giving a first round grade to. This OT class sucks! I don't know what we're gonna do? We certainly can't keep this current O-Line now that we have the franchise QB we've waited 25 years for, but we've held onto bad players and mediocrity on the O-Line for so long, that now we've shot ourselves in the foot.
(09-15-2021, 12:03 PM)Upper Wrote: The problem wasn't that we gave up 16 pressures on 51 attempts, it's that we gave up 16 pressures on 51 attempts vs the Texans. Odds are that was the easiest matchup the team is going to have all year.
No truer statement has ever been made on this board. It's gonna get ugly in the coming weeks when we play really good defenses.
Next year's OT class may not be the strongest, but there will end up being at least 2 or 3 players who will become very good NFL players. Besides Neal, I'm sure some of these guys will continue to improve during their junior or senior season and become a top 10 prospect. It's up to our scouting dept. and general manager to find these guys. I can't say I'm optimistic that Baalke and company will do this since they believed last years line was not a problem.
