After looking at the depth chart, nicely done by Jags02, could the o-line be weak because of Bortles? Bortles can move and make things happen behind a weak O-Line, he did so last year.


Did DC do it on purpose because he needed to try a fix the D first? I'm not saying DC doesn't want a better O-Line, but could it be a stop gap until DC can fix his next project?


I have lots of questions and only DC could answer.


What do you all think?


Am I crazy?

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Caldwell has signed 2 high paid free agents, drafted a guy top 2, two other guys in the 3rd round and 1 in the 6th all on the offensive line. It's safe to assume he was hoping for a stronger Oline than what we have now. If Beadles and Joeckel had worked out, maybe it would be so. Crap happens. You'll see Caldwell attack the oline in the offseason the way he attacked the defense this offseason I believe. Bortles has been good enough to develop around a horrible offensive line (most sacked QB over the last 2 seasons), but Im pretty sure that wasn't the intention.


Edit: I think the WRs help Bortles make up for the crappy Oline as much as his ability to move around does. Even with all the tds he threw, he still had no running game, was the most sacked (over 2 yrs), threw the most picks, and lost the most fumbles in the league last year. Oline is by far the largest priority for this team right now.

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Caldwell has signed 2 high paid free agents, drafted a guy top 2, two other guys in the 3rd round and 1 in the 6th all on the offensive line. It's safe to assume he was hoping for a stronger Oline than what we have now. If Beadles and Joeckel had worked out, maybe it would be so. Crap happens. You'll see Caldwell attack the oline in the offseason the way he attacked the defense this offseason I believe. Bortles has been good enough to develop around a horrible offensive line (most sacked QB over the last 2 seasons), but Im pretty sure that wasn't the intention.

I never thought intentional. But why hasn't there been more hires/fires/trades to improve the last few weeks? Bortles is the future, protecting him should be the concern. imo.

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You just can't fix everything in one offseason. Teams have proven it. We have a lot of unspent money waiting on the guy's like Bortles, AR15, and Linder, and overpaying or trading draft picks for older FA stop gaps just doesn't make sense to me. Not now anyway. If we were at the point where we fully thought we could make a deep run in the playoffs, then sure. That's not the case.

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Dave Caldwell has already shown he does not like overpaying for "stop gap" players. He chose not to go after Alex Mack again and cited his age (31) as the reason for that.

 

Luke Joeckel did not get a fifth year with the team. What that tells me is he will be gone next year, when we can get a couple better linemen in the offseason.

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After looking at the depth chart, nicely done by Jags02, could the o-line be weak because of Bortles? Bortles can move and make things happen behind a weak O-Line, he did so last year.


Did DC do it on purpose because he needed to try a fix the D first? I'm not saying DC doesn't want a better O-Line, but could it be a stop gap until DC can fix his next project?


I have lots of questions and only DC could answer.


What do you all think?


Am I crazy?

 

I'm sure Dave knew he wouldn't fix <i>everything </i>this offseason, but he probably envisioned a bit more more strength and depth along the o-line. 

 

Regardless, Bortles' ability to improvise and feel pressure (and his toughness) do allow for some degree of procrastination in repairing his protection. 

 

Expect an early round draft pick to be an o-lineman in 2017. 

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We're really only a LG away from a solid starting OL as it is. Our depth is serviceable, but definitely not good. I think that will be addressed more than seeing new starters.

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IT WAS ALWAYS THE JAGS

I bet he didn't in vision Jack and Ramsey in the same draft.


What a gift from the football gods.

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I bet he didn't in vision Jack and Ramsey in the same draft.


What a gift from the football gods.

 

You mean two gifts from the Cowboys? Jerry Jones could have picked both players.

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I think Caldwell is a long term thinker.   We could sign aging veterans who would help us right away, but Caldwell seems to be all about maximizing our salary cap resources for the long term.   This works really well since we can carry over unused cap space.   A lot of people say, "why don't we sign so and so, we have plenty of cap space" which is true, but if you do stuff like that, while you are better in the short term, you have used up cap space long term, and eventually you become just another team that is hampered by lack of cap space.  

 

How many times in the past have we said, "if we only fill this spot, then we are a playoff team" and our effort to do that one thing kills our cap space and fails to make us a playoff team.   Hugh Douglas.   Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves.  

 

If you always think long term, eventually the short term will take care of itself.  Work on building a talented, young team that will last, and don't hire expensive old players.  Save your cap space.   It will come in handy in future years. 

 

So I applaud Caldwell for thinking long term. 

 

Kind of wandered off topic there, didn't I?  Back to the o-line: why didn't we try to hire Josh Sitton?   Because he's 31 years old.   Always think long term.   If you do that, you eventually have a ton of young talent and the most salary cap space in the entire league. 

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After looking at the depth chart, nicely done by Jags02, could the o-line be weak because of Bortles? Bortles can move and make things happen behind a weak O-Line, he did so last year.


Did DC do it on purpose because he needed to try a fix the D first? I'm not saying DC doesn't want a better O-Line, but could it be a stop gap until DC can fix his next project?


I have lots of questions and only DC could answer.


What do you all think?


Am I crazy?

I have no way of evaluating your current mental health, but I'll try to respond; If I'm understanding you correctly, what you mean is that the mobility of Bortles makes our o-line less of a liability, therefore DC was able to address the needs on the defense and largely forego upgrading our o-line this season. The answer is probably yes; if we had a less mobile quarterback, the GM would have almost no choice but to upgrade our o-line this past draft. While we are gambling the health of our quarterback with this kind of reasoning, the utter ineptitude of our defense required this kind of drastic measure.

Let's hope it pays off.

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After looking at the depth chart, nicely done by Jags02, could the o-line be weak because of Bortles? Bortles can move and make things happen behind a weak O-Line, he did so last year.

Did DC do it on purpose because he needed to try a fix the D first? I'm not saying DC doesn't want a better O-Line, but could it be a stop gap until DC can fix his next project?

I have lots of questions and only DC could answer.

What do you all think?

Am I crazy?

Caldwell has put ample energy into improving the line over the past couple of years. Joeckel is the only holdover from three years ago and he's in a new position. Give the line a little time to gel. I think it's actually going to be better than most think. Not great, but much improved over past years. With a healthy Bortles and an improved running game, they will come together.

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Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

1 sack in the preseason.

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The worst play for Joeckel in the preseason was when he got put on his rear by one of the better DTs in the league in his first start at guard. He and Linder got tangled up on the play and he tripped. I think he's still the weakest link on the line, but if he improves, the line will be markedly better than last year.

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Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Marty, Dave Caldwell talked about that a couple years ago to explain why he is a needs drafter and only signs "C grade" veterans to patch up the gaps. He also wanted to avoid overpaying free agents because it backfired every time Gene Smith did that. Now we are in a win-now situation, which is why Caldwell decided to pay as much as he had to for Malik Jackson's services.

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