(08-01-2024, 12:12 PM)OG-JAGFAN Wrote: The real question will not be answered for a little while longer.  It's nice we have all these new players but the million dollar question is the offensive line.  We have a new center but it's mostly the same line coming back.  Doug fired his offensive line coach so looks like he was the fall guy.  Can this line protect Lawrence and can it make a push consistently on 3rd and short and 4th and short.  Can this line give Lawrence a consistent 3 seconds or more in the pocket?

I firmly believe a big part of this was that Doug had Baalke going after super "athletic" linemen to carry out an overly complex zone blocking scheme and it bit them in the butt when they couldn't run for 1.5 yards to convert 30 different times. Even the talk on Fortner when drafted was all about how athletic he was. They even conceded right after drafting him he needed some NFL strength and conditioning. 

This is why we heard Baalke say "need to get bigger and stronger" 8 times in his postseason presser and why we heard Doug address changing his run scheme twice since February. 

Also - we saw 4 or 5 different left guards last year. The guy starting this year only played a few games for us and he played them while nursing an injury. Prior to that injury he was widely considered a very good left guard. 
That is the level of play expected from Ezra Cleveland. 

So LG and C should be dramatically improved over last year. 
Left Tackle was similar in the fact that 3 or 4 guys had starts there. Some consistency from Cam could change that.
(fingers crossed on that one - because I don't trust him) 

At RG - Brandon Scherff will now be playing next to an ascending 2nd year RT instead of a rookie and a formidable vet at Center instead of the worst Center in the league. That should help him as well. 

All that said -- it is STILL the most concerning position group on this football team and I don't have tons of confidence in what might happen if injuries start piling up. But I DO believe they will be better than the dumpster fire we saw last year.

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