How Crucial Do you Consider The Offensive Line?

[Bolts223]

On 5/6/2018 at 12:18 PM, BleedTheClock said:

It is most certainly the most crucial unit in football. You can't do anything with a terrible OL. Can't pass, can't run.

 

That being said, it isn't like you need to have 5 elite players on your OL to be successful either. You can get it done with middle of the road talent, but you absolutely cannot be in the bottom half of the league in terms of OL play and expect to be a championship caliber team.

I mean that's not necessarily true. The 2008 Steelers and 2015 Broncos both had pretty awful o-lines.

[BleedTheClock]

7 hours ago, Bolts223 said:

I mean that's not necessarily true. The 2008 Steelers and 2015 Broncos both had pretty awful o-lines.

Yeah it's not a golden rule. There are no golden rules. You can't expect to be a championship caliber team without an elite QB either, and several underwhelming QB's have won Super Bowls.

...but you're setting your team up for failure 99.9% of the time when you have an underwhelming OL.

[Bolts223]

On 5/14/2018 at 10:42 AM, BleedTheClock said:

Yeah it's not a golden rule. There are no golden rules. You can't expect to be a championship caliber team without an elite QB either, and several underwhelming QB's have won Super Bowls.

...but you're setting your team up for failure 99.9% of the time when you have an underwhelming OL.

I mean yeah, it's obviously better to have a great o-line rather than not.

You just said it as if it was a golden rule that any winning team needs to be successful.

[MOSteelers56]

I think you can get by with an average one. The Pats are a pretty good example of this. They never really have elite players on the line, just strong chemistry. The 08 Steelers and 15 Broncos are good examples of bad lines winning it all. There are a lot of examples of average lines winning it all or getting close. The recent Seahawks teams being one of them. Peyton, also, never really had elite lines in front of him. The Pats killers Giants teams didn't have elite lines, IIRC. Look back at the last 10-15 Super Bowls and find the elite O-lines. There aren't many. 

I think a strong DL is the most important unit in football. 

[Tetsujin]

"As long as it holds", I voted. Use those resources for game-changers & play-makers on offense.

I don't see the use of sinking extra resources into a decently-functioning OL. I don't see the benefit of spending a lot more money/high picks to "dominate" the DL as long as you can consistently find your blocks in the running game and keep your QB upright.

In contrast, I do see the benefit in spending big money on the DL to dominate the opposing OL.

[Tetsujin]

If I'm a team, the top 5 positions I spend my resources on are:

QB

DE1

WR1

DE2

WR2/TE

DT1 (do-it-all, or interior rusher-type)

[The Third Rider]

I order of most important to me it’s:

 

1) QB - a great QB can still be very good with a bad oline, in fact good QBs mask many of the deficiencies of bad OLines. I’ve seen greats like Brady and Manning still look amazing even with mediocre protection. It’s to the point that I don’t think you can properly evaluate how good an oline is if you have an elite QB. 

2) Dline - as was already pointed out, there have been several teams with bad olines and good dlines that have won the super bowl and I don’t think I’ve seen the opposite.

3) Oline - To me it’s the 3rd most important unit. If your QB is abysmal no amount of blocking is going to stop your QB from throwing incomplete passes or interceptions. A good oline can help you move the chains and keep a lead but if you fall behind it’s up to your defense to get the ball back and for your QB to regain that lead. At that point all the oline can do is do their part and hope for the best, so in the end it’s the other positions that are relied upon to win the game.

on another note, I’ve always heard that you need to get a LT before a QB. Well the Browns had one of the best LTs ever for over a decade and not once did they have a good QB or a team worth mentioning. The Browns would have been a much better team with an elite QB and a bad LT then a HoF LT and a bad QB. A TE and RB can always chip the blind side.