Offensive Line Discussion 2024

Well, with ONiel and Darrisaw, I don't think the word offensive will be appropriate this year. But all I want for Christmas is one of the IOL players (preferably Brandel) to really step up and be an above average player in the pass and run so that one of those spots are fixed.

After an early pressure/sack by Dexter Lawrence allowed by Ingram and penalties by Bradbury and Brandel, I felt like Bob Ueker in the smash-hit film, "Major League" after rookie Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn came on in the 9th to try and close out a game early in the season:



...but, I will say, after those early mistakes (which do often happen in Week 1), the OL settled down as a whole and we didn't mention them much for the remainder of the day - at least per the "eyeball" test and not reading into PFF grades (which I haven't seen quite yet).

The running game was relatively effective, and I do think KOC's playcalling was solid most of the time. And on that subject, the broadcast team pointed this out and I think it bears repeating - when Lawrence was out of the game, that's when Darnold/KOC ran the ball effectively. I do think that the majority of the successful running plays were either outside the tackles or outside the OG's (at least) and one run that seemed to be quite effective was sort of "washing out" the entire line of scrimmage one way, only to have the RB (Jones/Chandler) bounce it the other and get around the corner into more open field. I don't know if those were more of the "Pin-and-Pull" techniques that Green Bay deployed when Jones was there or if it was just Jones/Chandler having really good vision and seeing holes were clogged inside and bouncing it out where they could use their athleticism (I know on the early Jones TD, he did just that: saw the middle of clogged and bounced it outside and beat the defender to the corner pylon). We also saw a fair number of play-actions and boots to either side to roll Darnold away from Lawrence, too.

I also didn't notice Brian Burns or Kayvon Thibodeaux at all, either, so definitely credit to Darrisaw/O'Neill to stopping the outside rush.

I think KOC/Kuper/Darnold tried out some early plays with Darnold dropping back and having Ingram/Brandel go 1-on- with their guys and after realizing that it wasn't going to work (to be fair, Lawrence 1-on-1 with nearly any NFL OG/OC is a mismatch), they called plays away from Lawrence and took advantage of when he wasn't in the lineup and taking a breather on the sidelines.

Like most of Week 1, I think we'll say it was a very solid start by the entire OL and hope to see it continue for the remainder of thte season.

Three of our offensive linemen played really well, and Brandle looks like he might be the answer at LG we have been looking for for years. He was 4th in pass blocking grade so far this week.

The other two? Out of 84 starting offensive linemen with grades so far, Ingram is 84th in pass blocking grade with a 9.3 Bradbury is 82nd with an 26.8.

The Vikings had by far the worst startimg guard and center of any of the early games and gave up 10 of the 12 pressures given up by our Oline. They suck, they are a liability and I don't care if Lawrence is really good. A player who is brutally bad whenever they face good competition is not starting quality.

He was no better than Ingram is Pass Pro. Risner allowed the most QB hits of any Guard from week 7 through the end of the season. Allowed 30 pressures during that span, 5th worse. 9th worst run blocker in the League.

Dalton doesn't give up outright sacks, but his vaunted Pass Protection was bad. Not quite as bad as Ingram, but not good enough to offset the difference in run blocking. And all 32 Teams know it, which is why he's back in Minnesota as depth.

I'd much rather give Robinson a look.

and Ingram still sucks

Ingram got a 9 pass blocking grade 🤣