(04-26-2022, 11:39 PM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote:

(04-26-2022, 10:25 PM)Jag149 Wrote: Since I am in the minority that favor going with offensive line, I'll take a crack at it.  You play Ickey at OG.  Giving us Cam, Scherff, Ickey Little/Taylor.  Also Shatley/draftee at center.  Ickey or Neal can most likely jump right in at guard, tackle in a pinch but will need some pass protection refinement. This gives them time to do that.  It should give us a solid offensive line for the first time in a while. This will help the running backs, help our QB and let the receivers get downfield better.  In crunch time last year they had no chance getting downfield. This will help our offense stay on the field more (we were 31st in time of possession) and score more as well. It will help our defense as the offense will be less prone to go 3 and out  most of the first half. The D gave up 27 ppg last year. If they improve by 6 points  down to 21 they would have ranked between #7 and #15 last year. (LA was #15) I can believe by the offense staying on the field more and actually scoring more we can get half of that. The offense only average 14.something last year and needs to get into the mid 20's. If they don't I don't care how good the D is we will be here again next year. Drafting an edge rusher while a real need will not help them do that and the defense will continue to be stressed every game by the offense not able to move the ball when the game is in doubt.  The draft we went with Fowler,  Scherff was drafted right after that, we just paid him how much?  Looking at this year's prospects since there really is no true #1's I think of our pick as a top 10 pick not the magical #1. Who cares where Little was drafted if he plays a part in providing a solid O line for our offense. Thinking like that (pride) will keep us in the bottom third of the league forever. Yea I know I have a crackpot scheme...LOL

While I wouldn't be happy about drafting an OG #1 overall, I could at least deal with Ickey being picked, since he is my top rated OG. As long as he isn't used at LT, because he does not work well in space and is an average pass protector at best. Moving him inside to OG would allow him to work in a "phone booth" and would maximize his power and nastiness that he possesses. I don't feel the same about Evan Neal though. I'm not high on him at all and wouldn't even touch him at #33. 

With that said, I still don't see such a move being that beneficial to Trevor Lawrence. I believe 65% of the struggles of the O-Line last season could be directly attributed to Jawaan Taylor. He was visibly terrible and has been from the time we drafted him. Simply by moving him to the bench and replacing him with Walker Little should create a huge improvement in protection for our QB, but who is Trevor gonna throw to? I don't think drafting an OG would keep keep us on the field more, no matter how good they were, because we still lack receivers who can get open. The main issue our offense had last season was the lack of a running game when Robinson got injured and a complete lack of talent at WR and TE. We've done very little to change that. We've brought in an overpriced, average slot receiver and a TE with potential (Engram), but he's only on a 1 year deal. Hardly an investment in the future. IMO, a much better way to truly help the offense would be to draft a WR like Jameson Williams. If we're looking for a "homerun" pick among a sea of potential players with no standouts, why not address our biggest need with a guy most of the board had been clamoring for before he got injured? He's way, way ahead of schedule on his rehab and could be this team's version of CeeDee Lamb for the immediate future. 

I just think when people talk about giving Lawrence some help, the best way to do that would be giving him much, much better receivers than what we had last season. I'm certainly not advocating ignoring the O-Line. I'm not at all. I just believe good interior O-Line players could be found in the middle rounds of the draft and a swing tackle could be found in the later rounds. Taking an OG at #1 overall, just makes no sense to me. Yes, we'd be getting a good player. That is undeniable, but how much better would he be than an OG we could get in round 3 or 4 and how much of an offensive impact would an OG make in our offense compared to a big time WR?

Like they say there are multiple ways to skin a cat. Offensive defects I saw last year were TE, WR, RB and O-line. Also a disconnected coach over his head and a rookie QB thrown to the wolves. That is a lot of defects, but we did only score 14 ppg.  

TE is fixed for next year with Arnold and Engram. We can find another later in draft. 

WR also can be found later, The top heavy WR comment was just another smoke screen to make other people nervous. We will need to be drafting at least 1 or 2 for the next few years. I would do that later in the draft this year though as the ones from this FA class and already on the roster will benefit from this new coaching staff. Lets face it Treavor couldn't throw any timing passes except to Marvin because the other guys may not be where they were suppose to be. (depth angle etc) No matter how fast or skilled a WR is if there is no time the routes can't develop or we are restricted to short routes. 

RB can come later in the draft too. I can remember Denver having a run many years ago of 6th round picks just tearing up the league.

That leaves O-line. This is where we have different opinions of how we should go. I believe we can find what we need for a DE - LB etc later in the draft. I do not believe we can find the o-line personnel later. We draft one of those 2 and we will get a starter at guard this year and for many more years that can be groomed to kick outside in the future. It would also with what we already have on the roster give us the quality depth we need for the season. It also may make one of them disposable. The personnel we would get later in the draft would not be as flexible.

So really the only differences we have is the depth of o-linemen and DE's in this draft. I truly expect 8 to 12 o-linemen to go before we see pick #33. Ways to skin a cat ....

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