Anyone do or know of any real offensive line evaluation?

[Austin Tatious]

Can anyone tell me who at all do we have that are keepers on the O Line? From what I could see, Jeno James finally played well against Buffalo. It looks like he had some decent kick out blocks that enabled some decent runs by Sammy Morris. Carey seems like he has potential, but I am concerned about his agility on pass protection. One way or another, though, Carey and James look like 2 decent cogs out of 5.

Certainly, we need a franchise LT. That is obvious. But, what about C and RG? From my view, Whitley is shockingly inept. It amazes me that Wannstedt doesn't give Hadnot a shot. Wanny himself said that Hadnot is going to be a really good player. Physically he just looks better put together than Whitley.

That leaves us McKinney. From what I see, he is another weakness. Is this correct? An intriguing possibility would be to play St Clair at center. He played there in college at Ohio State. But, is it just my perception that McKinney is an awful center (because I get the idea Wannstedt thinks he is fine)?

How about a lineup like this:

LT D Mac
LG James
C St Clair
RG Hadnot
RT Carey

Anyway, this is a long winded way of asking, how many keepers do we have? I'd say that Carey and James are keepers, and I'd like to think that Hadnot could be plugged in at RG. That leaves Center and LT as the 2 slots where we need to upgrade.

Thoughts on this and on McKinney in particular.

 

[Shawn-l]

McKinney just can't get the mental part of the game down, he also has technique issues as well. He would be a 3rd string lineman on any other team. Whitley doesn't have as much of a burden mentally playing the guard position but he just can't handle the game physically and lacks good technique, he also would be a third stringer anywhere else.

Concerning the rest, Carey has good upside potential and should (under good coaching) be a good starting tackle for years to come. James seems to have dropped his performance from last year but when he's at his best he's solid. Hadnot actually played Center his senior year in college and was supposedly a man among sheep against his competition. He is physically "powerful" and showed good football intelligence, didn't allow a sack in 500 pass attempts. Although, they say his shortcoming is his lack of speed to pull and trap and get to the 2nd level (i.e. LB, SS). Here's a little info:

"graded out at 85% against nationally-ranked Longhorns...recorded seven pancakes, 13 knockdowns and four ESPN blocks in that contest...set team records with 160 pancake blocks, 196 knockdown blocks and 122 ESPN blocks...yearly grade average is 89 percent..."

So, yeah, he apparently has potential. Although, we'll probably never know with Wanny holding the reins. St Clair has been competent so far but switching him to center now I believe would set him back, I believe if we're going to switch him anywhere put him in at RG. D-Mac really hasn't been given a fair shake. The guy was recovering from injury the whole off-season then when he gets medically cleared we immediately put him in to replace Smith. That really isn't fair to him, you have got to have some type of conditioning to play football you don't just throw someone out there after recovering from surgery and expect their best. Although, his best may very well be average, which isn't bad but we should improve the position in the off-season. So given the current circumstances I would like to see the following:

LT - D-Mac
LG - James
C - Hadnot (although a rookie center is not ideal, if Rex is as smart as they say he is, he should be able to pick it up pretty quickly)
RG - St Clair
RT - Carey

 

[inFINSible]

The fact is, McKinney has been here three years and shouldn't be having the problems that he has. Now, whether it's because he isn't capable or because he's being coached by a staff that has failed to improve ANY lineman that has played for this team, I don't know so, it's still hard to judge him. However, if he's due to be re-signed soon, I would be against keeping him.

Obviously Carey, James and Smith (capable back-up) are keepers for sure and Hadnot should stay because of his decent pedigree and center needs, if we lose McKinney.

I'd like to see St Clair and D-Mac fight it out for the RG spot and Alex Barron lined up at LT next year ....Carey at RT.....Hadnot, or a top FA C.... and James a LG.

 

[Dudeman]

St. Clair was an All American center at college....it was the Rams who moved him outside for some reason