Quote:DC has focused heavily and invested in the O-line over the past few seasons. It just hasn't panned out like we/he hoped yet.


The turnover in that group has been immense in the past 4 seasons. It just hasn't worked (although it's better in some spots).


Joeckel-Beadles-Bowanko-Linder-Paztor


Joeckel-Beadles-Wiz-Linder/Cann-Parnell


Beachum-Joeckel-Linder-Cann-Parnell



DC has been trying to get that unit fixed. But, it still has some more work to be done.

DC may well have been investing heavily in the o-line, but most of these have been more of a 'stop gap' nature than actual upgrades. I mean, when your o-line couldn't block a group of girl scouts, how good really is the 'upgrade'? And Joeckel for example; he was drafted high but he never actually fit the pro level profile of a good o-linesman. He simply wasn't very big for that position and consequently got pushed around too easily. His selection may have been acceptable at a lower round, but a first round pick for a guy who doesn't have the basic 'goods'? Dave is limited by whats available obviously, but he needs to select more intelligently than he has been instead of looking so hard at what has been done by the candidate elsewhere. He needs to pay a lot more attention to the fundamental physical attributes/skills of the player instead of a resume of what they did in college or on team 'x' somewhere. 

 

Clearly, I'm not a professional sports manager and don't have all the resources at my disposal that Dave does; I'm not one who collects the tidbits of information on each player as a hobby and spouts them off on this message board in an impressive manner. I'm just say'n that from my lowly fan stand point that it appears that our GM needs to buckle down and make some good picks. Our win/loss record says we really can't afford any more 'stop gap/ scrub' guys on the roster, especially on our o-line.

 

'wars are won in the trenches'

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