2078 Pre-training camp report: offensive line
Sure, the game lists the skill players above the offensive line, but I'll take a look at this unit first. If you take a look at our team in more detail, you will see quarterback with high sense rush ability. My philosophy is that pass rush pressure is about 40% on the quarterback's sense rush, 40% on the line's pass protections skills and 20% on having a hard to guess game plan. We've got a talented unit here, let's take a look at the scouting report:
| cur/fut | pos | name | age | run | pass | notes
|
| 74/74 | RT | Oscar Meadows | 28 | ++ | +++ |
|
| 66/66 | C | Tom Anaya | 38 | ++ | + | age
|
| 66/66 | G | Carlos Webb | 27 | +++++ | -- | low endurance
|
| 66/66 | G | Harvey Hank | 23 | + | +++ | low endurance
|
| 51/51 | LT | Louie Murray | 26 | --- | ++ |
|
| 41/44 | C | Steven Houshmandzadeh | 25 | avg | avg | low strength
|
| 28/40 | LT | Richie Coughenour | 25 | ----- | + |
|
| 27/27 | G | Bryson Hamilton | 29 | ----- | -- |
|
In principle, I used to be able to find my starting linemen in the 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds. The current unit only in part is like that as Anaya, Hank and Meadows are all 1st round picks. Webb was a 3rd round pick and Murray a 6th round pick. I consider them both as prototypical at their positions. Usually I want my LT to be a great pass blocker, don't care too much about run blocking. Second, the center has to be rock solid in run blocking. At right guard, I want a run blocker, making him and the center together be a better than average duo in that area. I want the RT and LG to support in both areas, the LG leaning towards being a pass blocker and the RT to a run blocker. The current quintet fits in my style quite well. Depth is non-existent. Houshmandzadeh is half-decent, we lost our tackle backup due to lack of playing time and I fully expect Hamilton to be even worse after pre-season.
Anaya and Webb are due a new contract, being in the final year. I will wait until after the pre-season
volatility rolls and age effect revelation to see whether Anaya is worth extending and Webb is still the top-notch guard that he looks like now. I'll have to find about $10M of cap space for Webb though, which could be tricky.