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What About The Ol?

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volk

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Why is it that everyone is glossing the OL problem over? I know Houck can do wonders with OL, but certainly the level of talent available to him on our line is mediocre at best! Why is it that I see so many mock drafts, and none of them include even one OL? Is there a dirth of them in the draft? Is there no good prospect for our picks?

Drafting Brown, Edwards, or Smith would be OK, but what are they going to do behind our OL? I realize we have to draft one of these guys with the number 2 if we can't trade down, but none of them are going to impact our team right away. Brown will struggle as much or worse than any other RB on our roster with this OL. WR's rarely excel during their rookie season, so drafting one this year will likely have little impact on this season. Even on the rare exception that rookie WR's do excel, they all need the QB to have enough time to find them on the field and get the throw off. A QB is always a multi-year prospect, so they will ride the bench, anyway.

Why not trade out of the top pick and get some OL and DL, and then do what we can with what is left? Aren't their any good lineman out there?
 
They did get better towards the end of the year. And that was with Wise coaching. I agree we need some help, but I'm willing to give Houck a chance to see what he can do.
 
volk said:
Sorry to shout about it in the title here, but why is it that everyone is glossing the OL problem over? I know Houck can do wonders with OL, but certainly the level of talent available to him on our line is mediocre at best! Why is it that I see so many mock drafts, and none of them include even one OL? Is there a dirth of them in the draft? Is there no good prospect for our picks?

Drafting Brown, Edwards, or Smith would be OK, but what are they going to do behind our OL? I realize we have to draft one of these guys with the number 2 if we can't trade down, but none of them are going to impact our team right away. Brown will struggle as much or worse than any other RB on our roster with this OL. WR's rarely excel during their rookie season, so drafting one this year will likely have little impact on this season. Even on the rare exception that rookie WR's do excel, they all need the QB to have enough time to find them on the field and get the throw off. A QB is always a multi-year prospect, so they will ride the bench, anyway.

Why not trade out of the top pick and get some OL and DL, and then do what we can with what is left? Aren't their any good lineman out there?
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Trading down is something Saban would jump at. But the odds that anyone will want to trade up are slim to none. This is a weak year for Olineman. There are no premier tackles or sure fire 1st year starters. I'm sure we will draft one somewhere in the draft, but mainly to add some depth and competition. Like Saban has said: "Do you pass up a good player that will help the franchise for years to come in favor off reaching for a player to fill a need." I will take the good/great player. We have went 6 years now picking for need and that is why we really have no offensive stars on this team. At the top of the draft, we need to pick BPA.

Our Oline will be much improved. Tony Wise was a joke of a line coach. That's why he is still unemployed. With Houck, this line will be a lot better.
 
SCall13 said:
Trading down is something Saban would jump at. But the odds that anyone will want to trade up are slim to none. This is a weak year for Olineman. There are no premier tackles or sure fire 1st year starters. I'm sure we will draft one somewhere in the draft, but mainly to add some depth and competition. Like Saban has said: "Do you pass up a good player that will help the franchise for years to come in favor off reaching for a player to fill a need." I will take the good/great player. We have went 6 years now picking for need and that is why we really have no offensive stars on this team. At the top of the draft, we need to pick BPA.

Our Oline will be much improved. Tony Wise was a joke of a line coach. That's why he is still unemployed. With Houck, this line will be a lot better.
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Exactly. Addition by subtraction. Just getting rid of Wise will make the line better.
 
We did bring in some good talent and like everyone said Wise was horrible. He was like the Wanny version of OL coaches without the moustache. The line started jelling towards the end of the year and with the new additions should only get better. They couldnt really get to much worse.
 
I look for more beef to continue to be added to the line. They signed Cook and McDougle - 2 BIG guys. If you look at Minny's line they were huge and Linehan had success with that model. I would say this line will be a work in progress for the next 2 to 3 years. I would say Saban will have to resort to undrafted guys this year because of our draft pick situation. He hopefully knows enough of these guys that maybe he finds a diamond here or there. But I don't think we should have any visions of a top OL in '05.
 
Houck made a 7th rder a starter in a 12-4 team, I bet he can turn McIntosh, who already played for him, Jeno James who played great for the Panters, Carey who was a 1st rounder and McDougle who was good with the Lions and a 1st rder, all into solid players, the only spot Im ommiting is C, I dont know who is gonna start there, and though almost all Mocks in this forum have us taking Wilkerson. Now yes there are some sure fire Olineman this year, mainly at C and G being Baas the best Olineman in this years crop IMO.
 
I'd expect our late round picks to feature one or 2 OL. I'd honestly like to spend our 3rd on one of the center prospects since it's a good year to pick one and then pick up a guard prospect in one of the 2nd day picks.
 
I don't think the OL has been neglected unfairly. For one thing, there's not an OL worth taking in the top 10, let alone #2. LT remains a need, but left tackles don't come cheap. And there's not a star LT in this draft. If we can trade down with the Cowboys or something, maybe we take Alex Barron at 11.

Second, I liked the McDougle pickup. I thought it was one of the most underrated moves of the offseason.
 
phunwin said:
I don't think the OL has been neglected unfairly. For one thing, there's not an OL worth taking in the top 10, let alone #2. LT remains a need, but left tackles don't come cheap. And there's not a star LT in this draft. If we can trade down with the Cowboys or something, maybe we take Alex Barron at 11.

Second, I liked the McDougle pickup. I thought it was one of the most underrated moves of the offseason.
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Whoops. Sorry that was a typo on my part. That's what you get for rewriting your thoughts and just have them get jumbled up. I meant to spend our 3rd on a center prospect and one of our 2nd day picks on a linemen.

Next year we can pick up a LT prospect as the LT class will be pretty deep for a change.
 
some pretty good pick ups this offseason definatly help us.... Houck is money.... i don't think that many of you know what he can do....
 
The draft is considered very weak for offensive linemen, especially at LT. That's why I don't think you're seeing much speculation about it. Also, McIntosh, who was not close to healthy last year, was a 3-year starter under Houck in San Diego. Obviously, Houck thinks that he can be serviceable at LT, if healthy.
 
Yup but Saban and Houck I see as being on the same page as far as drafting lower round OL and grooming them as they are cheaper to keep around.
 
dolfanmark said:
The draft is considered very weak for offensive linemen, especially at LT. That's why I don't think you're seeing much speculation about it. Also, McIntosh, who was not close to healthy last year, was a 3-year starter under Houck in San Diego. Obviously, Houck thinks that he can be serviceable at LT, if healthy.
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I'd also note that next year's draft is shaping up to be a bumper crop for left tackles: D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Eric Winston and Marcus McNeil are all high first round prospects.
 
dolfanmark said:
The draft is considered very weak for offensive linemen, especially at LT. That's why I don't think you're seeing much speculation about it. Also, McIntosh, who was not close to healthy last year, was a 3-year starter under Houck in San Diego. Obviously, Houck thinks that he can be serviceable at LT, if healthy.
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Centers are actually very solid this year. Don't assume it's a weak year just cause of OT's. Centers are good and guards are pretty solid. It's just an utter crap year for tackles.
 
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