Most of the great OLine players in NFL history were not "great" athletes by their own rights. OLine players are cultivated, not picked.
OLineman are typically mid-to-late round picks. They only become great after time. It's attributed to coaching and putting the right guy in the right system.
In order to get better at some positions, you must be willing to temporarily step backwards. Seth McKinney, while serviceable, had reached his plateau as a center. He was simply playing to best of his ability. He could have refined his technique over the years, but the increase would have only been marginal. Fact was he was undersized and underpowered.
Rex Hadnot is a complete upgrade. But, he needs some time to get up to speed mentally. Once he's completely there, he will be a force for us in the middle.
Many times in the previous games, I've seen the pocket collapse. It's disheartening, but you have to look to see why it's collapsing. An OLine is like a stack of dominoes. If one falls, everyone shifts to compensate, inheritently making every other position weaker to some degree.
One thing I've noticed while the pocket is collapsing in preseason... Culpepper and Harrington have been able to step up to avoid the rush. That tells me that Hadnot is getting a push and is winning the 1-on-1 battle. Last year, AT BEST, Seth could contain his man and stalemate his block. He was not getting a push.
And, honestly, most of our weakness appears to be RG. But, it seems to be mental mistakes. To me, that's an indication of lack of reps and lack of cohesion. That makes sense considering Anderson just got here.
Shelton was brought in because of physical tools. Houck's work last year was noted around the league. And, if you look at our line stats, we have one of the better lines in the league. But, it didn't look it, did it? That was Houck's work. But, he saw the limitations in the line. He knew Seth wasn't the answer at C and McIntosh wasn't the answer at LT. But, I believe he saw Hadnot, James and Carey as the anchors.
You can see in the ground game right now we are getting massive holes and deep penetration on the front lines even against some of the best DLines in the NFL. The Bucs and Jags sport 2 of the best DLines around. And, after watching the games, I honestly felt good about the potential of the line. If you subtract the negatives and see those as coachable improvements, now look at the positives. The wide open holes, the deep penetration, the sustained blocking.... I see a unit that is leaps and bounds ahead of last year's. I feel this line can be the best we've seen since Dan was here. And, I think it will show up in Week 5 or 6. Just about the time the rest of the offense finally gets on the same page.
We won't have this problem next year. The near future of our line is in place. Now, it's time to build chemistry. I honestly feel we finally have made the OLine one of the strengths of our team. And, it's been a long time coming.
