Om Field: Breaking Down the Lines (Pt. 1)

Meat and potatoes time.

Breaking Down the Lines (Pt. 1)
Dec. 10, 2008

I have been beating the drum recently about the woeful state of the Washington Redskins offensive and defensive lines.

More specifically, I have taken the front office to task over what I believe is the complete and ultimately disastrous failure to establish a functional pipeline of qualified young linemen to replace their rapidly aging (and based on the evidence in 2008, no longer adequate) starting corps.

Rather than basing that criticism solely on what I see with my own two eyes on game days, I have begun to research the nuts and bolts of how the Redskins have gone about constructing their lines over the past decade and how they arrived where they are today.

Over the coming days and weeks I will be posting the results of that research for reference, discussion and, depending on what we find, perhaps drawing supported conclusions as to whether the Redskins' current struggles to compete with solid opponents at the line of scrimmage are the result of a fundamentally flawed approach, or simply the vagaries of trying to stay competitive in the 21st century NFL.

Let's get to it.

To begin, I broke down the Redskins' college drafts over the past ten years. I limited it to ten years on the premise that beyond that period of time, the data has increasingly little practical relevance to the present, given the number of major external factors (ownership changes, front office changes, coaching changes, player aging and injury, etc.) that come into play.

Here are the raw numbers, broken down by year, total picks, number of linemen selected, player and round selected ...

CLICK HERE (http://www.theomfield.com/2008/12/breaking-down-lines-pt-1.html) to read more

Good analysis, Om. Really waiting impatiently for part two.

Good work Om. The Redskins have definitely put more emphasis on addressing the lines through free agents

As the OBC would say, "not to guuud."

What I'd really like to see is some evidence that the scouting department and the draft board constructors are focusing entirely on OL and DL this year for the first 5 rounds.

Hopefully, they won't take another TE with their first pick - - which could be in the third round if they use the first round pick as a way to make a trade for a FA ...

Great, great work Om! I am amazed by the number of lineman we drafted in the first 3 rounds compared to our NFC East rivals. That pretty much tells the story doesn't it? EXCELLENT WORK!!! Looking forward to your next post.

Great analysis. Our key NFC Beast opponents are drafting more overall picks AND using their highest draft options for the OL and DL. That's the how you get the best players and also depth for this critical area.

This correlates to the overall win/loss record for these same years for our opponents.

I hope that Vinny Cerratto changes our draft strategy this off-season. I'd love to have a monster pass rush DL rookie that we can watch for the next 5-10 years. Instead of hiring old, super-expensive DL players who have just 2 drops of gas left in their tanks.

What's struck me as much as anything is not just the number of picks used on linemen as compared to our division rivals, but the lack of high picks spent on the lines.

Since taking Samuels with the #3 overall in 2000, the Redskins have used a grand total of two picks higher than the 5th round on linemen--a 3rd for Dockery in '03, and a 3rd for Rinehard in '08.

It goes deeper. 11 of the 16 picks they have used on linemen over the past ten years have come in the 4th, 5th and 6th rounds. And 8 of those 11 have come in the 5th and 6th.

To me it speaks either of a bordeline arrogant belief that one can build legitimate starting-caliber NFL lines almost exclusively with late-round draft picks, or the belief that starters are better acquired through free agency. Either way ... it ain't working.

What's struck me as much as anything is not just the number of picks used on linemen as compared to our division rivals, but the lack of high picks spent on the lines.

Since taking Samuels with the #3 overall in 2000, the Redskins have used a grand total of two picks higher than the 5th round on linemen--a 3rd for Dockery in '03, and a 3rd for Rinehard in '08.

It goes deeper. 11 of the 16 picks they have used on linemen over the past ten years have come in the 4th, 5th and 6th rounds. And 8 of those 11 have come in the 5th and 6th.

To me it speaks either of a bordeline arrogant belief that one can build legitimate starting-caliber NFL lines almost exclusively with late-round draft picks, or the belief that starters are better acquired through free agency. Either way ... it ain't working.

But it's not all that unlike how we built our Super Bowl teams in the 80s. What I'd be really interested in though is how Cerrato drafted when he was the 49ers

I don't think it's arrogant at all to believe you can build solid lines with later round picks and FA's. Tons of quality lineman come in rounds 3 and beyond.