The 5 worst pass protecting OLs in football (1 Viewer)

[Ministry of Pain]

Here's the deal guys and I learned this from a prominent FBG staffer over the years. When you talk about pass protection in the NFL, a good portion of it are the Tackles. Those are the guys that keep the real speed demons off the QB. Yes there is pressure that can come right up the middle but for the most part if you have good to great Tackles along the OL you should be able to drop back, set up, and fire the ball. I see guys like Fitzpatrick being pimped as a solid QB2, that might be true but some of these OLs have me scared.

Chicago-Gave up 56 sacks a season ago. What have they done to upgrade the OL? Perhaps they have but I would like to know more.

Arizona-50 sacks last season. have they improved?

Carolina-50 sacks last season but I think Cam Newton can buy a little more time so I am not ready to say they are a lousy OL just yet.

Philly-49 sacks, this surprised me a lot but I'm not convinved they have poor OTs as much as maybe Vick scrambles until the last second at times.

Washington-46 sacks and by all accounts their OL is just as bad if not worse. SkinsNation what say you?

Honestly there are a ton of teams in the middle adn the difference between Atlanta at 23 sacks and 3rd overall last year vs San Diego who yilded 38 last year and are bottom half of the league is only about 1 sack per week. Interested to see what folks are saying about the OLines since most big talk and signings is ont he flash, not the big uglies.

Buffalo gave up 34 sacks last year and the team scares me as they seem to be content to watch a lot of their guys leave. Any teams you all see that will be exploited this year in pass protection?

Thanks!

 

[gethugefast1]

According to last year's stats (Sacks allowed)

Chicago 56

Philadelphia 50

Arizona 50

Carolina 50

Washington 50

http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/stats/teamsort/NFL/OFF-PASSING/2011/regular?sort_col_1=11&_1:col_1=11

 

[Ministry of Pain]

According to last year's stats (Sacks allowed)

Chicago 56

Philadelphia 50

Arizona 50

Carolina 50

Washington 50

http://fantasynews.c...=11&_1:col_1=11

link

 

[Anthony Borbely]

According to last year's stats (Sacks allowed)Chicago 56 Philadelphia 50 Arizona 50 Carolina 50 Washington 50http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/stats/teamsort/NFL/OFF-PASSING/2011/regular?sort_col_1=11&_1:col_1=11

The thing I notice that are beyond the line play: The Bears may not have a great line, but most of their passing game is 7-step drops and they usually don't give the line much extra help. As noted above, Vick often waited until the last second to throw. I'd be interested to know how much time elapsed on his sacks (as well as the others). Arizona and Carolina had by far the worst QB situations in the league. The Redskins had below average QB play, below average line play, and very little help from the receivers.

 

[GroveDiesel]

. Buffalo gave up 34 sacks last year and the team scares me as they seem to be content to watch a lot of their guys leave. Any teams you all see that will be exploited this year in pass protection? Thanks!

What guys on the O-line has Buffalo been content to "let go" of this year? They're returning all of the guys that they were starting last year. And right now they are all healthy, which they weren't at all last year. I'm still not sold on them, but if the starters stay healthy, they could be ok.

 

[azgroover]

According to last year's stats (Sacks allowed)Chicago 56 Philadelphia 50 Arizona 50 Carolina 50 Washington 50http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/stats/teamsort/NFL/OFF-PASSING/2011/regular?sort_col_1=11&_1:col_1=11

The Bears may not have a great line, but most of their passing game is 7-step drops and they usually don't give the line much extra help.

The QB goes down a ton in a Martz scheme. Someone pick Marc Bulger up off the ground and ask him.

 

[Captain Hook]

Arizona should certainly get itself off the worst five list

1) They signed Colledge (from Packers)

2) Hopefully a BIG improvement in the quarterback play

3) More of a commitment to and I think success in the run game with Beanie Wells healthy and getting his chance (finally)

I need to see if they have made any other OL signings

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Arizona should certainly get itself off the worst five list1) They signed Colledge (from Packers)2) Hopefully a BIG improvement in the quarterback play3) More of a commitment to and I think success in the run game with Beanie Wells healthy and getting his chance (finally)I need to see if they have made any other OL signings

Deuce Latui resigned as well Hook if I'm not mistaken.

 

[adrenaline]

Gerat thread topic, props MOP.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Gerat thread topic, props MOP.

 

[JaxBill]

Interesting analysis here.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol

Which comes up with

CHI

CAR

SF

PIT

PHL

 

[netnalp]

According to last year's stats (Sacks allowed)Chicago 56 Philadelphia 50 Arizona 50 Carolina 50 Washington 50http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/stats/teamsort/NFL/OFF-PASSING/2011/regular?sort_col_1=11&_1:col_1=11

The thing I notice that are beyond the line play: The Bears may not have a great line, but most of their passing game is 7-step drops and they usually don't give the line much extra help. As noted above, Vick often waited until the last second to throw. I'd be interested to know how much time elapsed on his sacks (as well as the others). Arizona and Carolina had by far the worst QB situations in the league. The Redskins had below average QB play, below average line play, and very little help from the receivers.

According to PFF, the Bears are 4th highest for number of extra blockers per pass play. Bears line was just that bad, that the extra help didn't do much. Forte got a high ranking for blitz pick ups, so it's no on him.http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2011/06/08/extra-blockers/Vicks high sacks are probably due to his scrambling ability. He rarely throws the ball away, tries to scramble out of the pressure.

 

[stuckinthemuck]

According to last year's stats (Sacks allowed)Chicago 56 Philadelphia 50 Arizona 50 Carolina 50 Washington 50http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/stats/teamsort/NFL/OFF-PASSING/2011/regular?sort_col_1=11&_1:col_1=11

The thing I notice that are beyond the line play: The Bears may not have a great line, but most of their passing game is 7-step drops and they usually don't give the line much extra help. As noted above, Vick often waited until the last second to throw. I'd be interested to know how much time elapsed on his sacks (as well as the others). Arizona and Carolina had by far the worst QB situations in the league. The Redskins had below average QB play, below average line play, and very little help from the receivers.

According to PFF, the Bears are 4th highest for number of extra blockers per pass play. Bears line was just that bad, that the extra help didn't do much. Forte got a high ranking for blitz pick ups, so it's no on him.http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2011/06/08/extra-blockers/Vicks high sacks are probably due to his scrambling ability. He rarely throws the ball away, tries to scramble out of the pressure.

Sacks are very much a function of the QB. He has a symbiotic and dynamic relationship with the OL. Isolating the OL from the QB (and RB) creates paralysis by analysis.

 

[LHUCKS]

Arizona has a decent pass blocking line...sack numbers are misleading because the AZ QBs were among the worst in the league.

Peyton Manning behind the AZ offensive line doesn't have half of those sacks.

 

[Captain Hook]

Arizona should certainly get itself off the worst five list1) They signed Colledge (from Packers)2) Hopefully a BIG improvement in the quarterback play3) More of a commitment to and I think success in the run game with Beanie Wells healthy and getting his chance (finally)I need to see if they have made any other OL signings

Deuce Latui resigned as well Hook if I'm not mistaken.

corect MOP although not sure that is great - the only reason they resigned him was he failed his physical in Cincinnati (or Cleveland) because he is FAT......not PHAT......just HUGE..........but maybe Whiz can get him down to a manageable number of cheeseburgers per dayThey also resigned their center Sendlein (?sp) which was a good move

 

[netnalp]

Sacks are very much a function of the QB. He has a symbiotic and dynamic relationship with the OL. Isolating the OL from the QB (and RB) creates paralysis by analysis.

I don't understand what your saying. "Paralysis by analysis" refers to over-analysis, either spending so much effort to do analysis that the business stalls till all the research is done, or so much analysis is done that there is strong support for and against taking a particular action, so the progress of the business gets "paralyzed while debating what to do.PFF was the ones that did the analysis, but how were they paralyzed?

 

[Pigskin Fanatic]

Chicago-Gave up 56 sacks a season ago. What have they done to upgrade the OL? Perhaps they have but I would like to know more. Arizona-50 sacks last season. have they improved?Carolina-50 sacks last season but I think Cam Newton can buy a little more time so I am not ready to say they are a lousy OL just yet. Philly-49 sacks, this surprised me a lot but I'm not convinved they have poor OTs as much as maybe Vick scrambles until the last second at times. Washington-46 sacks and by all accounts their OL is just as bad if not worse. SkinsNation what say you?

Nice topic MOP. There should be some consideration for teams that throw more than run. The worst team would still be Chicago, but adjusting for pass-run ratio, the rankings look like thisass Attempt - Rush Attempt - SackChicago 466-414-56Carolina 484-428-50Arizona 561-320-50Philly 561-428-49Pitt 479-471-43SFO 500-401-44Oak 491-504-44Wash 605-351-46I would not have guessed that Washington threw more than Philly or Arizona, although it makes sense playing from behind in most games. On the flip side for a team like Pitt to give up 43 sacks while only attempting 479 passes is much worse compared to Washington. I can say pretty much the same for SF and the Raiders.

 

[ZWK]

PFF has the bottom 5 pass blocking lines as:

Chicago

Pittsburgh

Tampa

Oakland

Washington

 

[LHUCKS]

PFF has the bottom 5 pass blocking lines as:

Chicago

Pittsburgh

Tampa

Oakland

Washington

this looks better, no way is AZ a bottom 5 pass blocking linerunblocking has always been terrible, and I'd put us in the bottom five easily there

 

[Ministry of Pain]

PFF has the bottom 5 pass blocking lines as:

Chicago

Pittsburgh

Tampa

Oakland

Washington

Here is the thing, I am on board with the Skins maybe being the worst, seriously. Chicago right there as well but martz puts a lot of pressure on the OL with his play calling.Pitt...I have been saying they stink for years but the pudding at the end would say otherwise so I'm not going there.

Tampa...no way with the resigning of Trueblood and Joseph, no way on Earth that's true.

Oakland has added a lot of OLinemen and some are quite promising but the loss of Gallery inside and what I feel is going to be a very poor coache team, maybe bottom 3, I just do not like Oakland this year and will be doing a full blown thread on the blow by blow.

 

[adrenaline]

I found this a while back when I was trying to figure out sacks allowed by player.

http://stats.washingtonpost.com/fb/teams.asp

If anyone has a better source please share.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

I found this a while back when I was trying to figure out sacks allowed by player.

http://stats.washing...om/fb/teams.asp

If anyone has a better source pleas share.

I like it but where are the sacks allowed per player along the OL? I couldn't find it. nice link AD!

 

[adrenaline]

I found this a while back when I was trying to figure out sacks allowed by player.

http://stats.washing...om/fb/teams.asp

If anyone has a better source pleas share.

I like it but where are the sacks allowed per player along the OL? I couldn't find it. nice link AD!

Open depth chart then open the player.

 

[dhockster]

Assuming they stay healthy, Philly's line should be better. They drafted Watkins, a guard, with their first pick, and added Mathias from the Bengals to provide depth. Add in that they hired the Colts long-time Oline coach, Mudd, and they should definitely be improved. I'd say he did an okay job keeping Manning upright all these years (of course, some of that is due to Manning himself, but the line did pretty good). Vick being the starter from day one will also help as the line will get to work with him in training camp, and Vick will have that much more time to get comfortable with the Philly offense. He did not have that luxury last year.

 

[mbuehner]

I don't know if this makes it better or worse for the Bears, but they gave up 27 sacks in their first 6 games... and one of those weeks Cutler was out and they pretty much played 1920s football barely even pretending they would let Todd Collins throw the ball. The fact that they 'only' gave up 56 by the end of the season means they had a reasonable improvement, and then 5 more in the playoffs including that brutal NFC title game Cutler got knocked out of again.

So- they went from potentially record breakingly bad to only bottomish of the league bad in pass protection by the end of last season, but, theyre now replacing their center, adding a rookie tackle, and have missed the entire off season, which will undoubtedly not help their chemistry.

I would be very worried about Cutler the first month of the season. After that, I think Tice has shown a pretty strong track record of making chicken salad (and hopefully Carimi will be an upgrade). If they can survive the first few weeks, I think theyll 'only' be bad. But like #23 bad, not worst in the league bad.

 

[BigSteelThrill]

The Steelers OLine is absolutely in the bottom 5 in pass protection.

 

[Mark Wimer]

HERE is a list sorted by QB Hits allowed (rather than sacks), which I think helps illustrate which QBs hold the ball too long/scramble a lot and which are just plain victimized by poor OL's

The three worst in QB hits allowed (over 100) were:

Jacksonville 110

Washington 110

Philadelphia 101

next tier:

San Francisco 95

Buffalo 94

Arizona 93

Carolina 93

Chicago 92

Of those eight, six of the teams are also among the top eight (top 25%) in sacks allowed

Chicago 56

Carolina 50

Arizona 50

Philadelphia 49

Washington 46

San Francisco 44

So, my short answer is whether through incompetence at pass blocking, poor QB play, or some devils brew of both, Chicago, Carolina, Arizona, Philadelphia, Washington and San Francisco are the worst pass protecting lines given the raw data.

Chicago's problem is that Martz's system doesn't concern itself with passer protection - Martz QBs get routinely spammed. Tough Luck Jay Cutler.

Carolina had crappy starting QBs and they lost RT Jeff Otah for the entire 2010 season, which really weakened the OL. They were a devils' brew of bad QBs and a deficient line, IMO.

Arizona had good names on the line but they didn't jell, and they had poor QB play - another devils' brew situation.

Mike Vick takes more hits due to his style of play, and always will. I put the bad line numbers more on his shoulders than on the line's, though there is a lot of room for improvement in pass blocking in Philly.

Washington flat out stank last year in many phases, and looks likely to stink up the joint again.

San Francisco's problem is that Alex Smith doesn't get rid of the ball fast enough. They also lost key C/G David Baas in free agency, which won't help matters. The lack of a credible WR rotation (Michael Crabtree is a bust IMO) lets teams crowd the line.

I'll knock Philadelphia out of top five contention as the line there can't be responsible for hits on Vick when he is scrambling on broken plays instead of throwing the ball out of bounds.

So that makes my top five worst OL's in pass blocking due to both a poor OL and QB tendencies and/or system: Chicago, Carolina, Arizona, Washington, and San Francisco.

 

[twistd]

PFF has the bottom 5 pass blocking lines as:

Chicago

Pittsburgh

Tampa

Oakland

Washington

31. Chicago Bears (2009 Rank: 26th)Run Rank 21st, Pass Rank 32nd, Penalties Rank 31st

On the plus side, Jay Cutler is somehow still walking. Any lineman who played considerable snaps graded worse than -10.0 in our ratings, with one at -20.4 (Chris Williams), another at -31.6 (Frank Omiyale) and the worst at -42.7 (J’Marcus Webb). Brutal blocking in pretty much every respect that you makes you appreciate the work of the skill players all the more.

Best Player: With a -12.4 grade, Roberto Garza was the ‘best’ of a bad bunch.

Biggest Concern: You’d expect J’Marcus Webb to improve a little in year number two, but he has a long way to go. Let’s hope Gabe Carimi is NFL ready.

The only real positive change the Bears made was drafting Carimi, and as they say above, Carimi better be able to play immediately. What kills me is the Bears are all set to start Webb at LT. He graded out the worst of the linemen. They also replaced Kreutz with Spencer, which is a mild upgrade, maybe. But I bet Spencer didn't grade out very well either. Not like Seattle is crying about losing him. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. The Bears drafted Carimi and decided that was enough. They did go after Colon, but that is the only offensive linemen they showed any interest in besides Spencer. I think Spencer was simply a response to Kreutz playing hardball on his salary demands. Carimi certainly should be better than Omiyale, but unless Webb takes a gigantic leap forward this year they will be on the list again next year as one of the five worst IMO.

 

[PlasmaDogPlasma]

Most or all of these lines have had changes since last year haven't they?

HERE is a list sorted by QB Hits allowed (rather than sacks), which I think helps illustrate which QBs hold the ball too long/scramble a lot and which are just plain victimized by poor OL's

The three worst in QB hits allowed (over 100) were:

Jacksonville 110

Washington 110

Philadelphia 101

next tier:

San Francisco 95

Buffalo 94

Arizona 93

Carolina 93

Chicago 92

Of those eight, six of the teams are also among the top eight (top 25%) in sacks allowed

Chicago 56

Carolina 50

Arizona 50

Philadelphia 49

Washington 46

San Francisco 44

So, my short answer is whether through incompetence at pass blocking, poor QB play, or some devils brew of both, Chicago, Carolina, Arizona, Philadelphia, Washington and San Francisco are the worst pass protecting lines given the raw data.

I think Jax is getting a pass here just because Garrard is hard to bring down.

 

[GroveDiesel]

Blaming the sacks in Philly on Vick isn't fair. That o-line was atrocious last year. How many sacks were given up when Kolb was the QB? They were missing their starting C all year and that position was a disaster. And despite paying him a ton of money, Jason Peters was mediocre at best. Vick's scrambling ability probably prevented 10-20 MORE sacks in Philly last year. There were constantly defensive players in the backfield.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

HERE is a list sorted by QB Hits allowed (rather than sacks), which I think helps illustrate which QBs hold the ball too long/scramble a lot and which are just plain victimized by poor OL's

The three worst in QB hits allowed (over 100) were:

Jacksonville 110

Washington 110

Philadelphia 101

next tier:

San Francisco 95

Buffalo 94

Arizona 93

Carolina 93

Chicago 92

Of those eight, six of the teams are also among the top eight (top 25%) in sacks allowed

Chicago 56

Carolina 50

Arizona 50

Philadelphia 49

Washington 46

San Francisco 44

So, my short answer is whether through incompetence at pass blocking, poor QB play, or some devils brew of both, Chicago, Carolina, Arizona, Philadelphia, Washington and San Francisco are the worst pass protecting lines given the raw data.

Chicago's problem is that Martz's system doesn't concern itself with passer protection - Martz QBs get routinely spammed. Tough Luck Jay Cutler.

Carolina had crappy starting QBs and they lost RT Jeff Otah for the entire 2010 season, which really weakened the OL. They were a devils' brew of bad QBs and a deficient line, IMO.

Arizona had good names on the line but they didn't jell, and they had poor QB play - another devils' brew situation.

Mike Vick takes more hits due to his style of play, and always will. I put the bad line numbers more on his shoulders than on the line's, though there is a lot of room for improvement in pass blocking in Philly.

Washington flat out stank last year in many phases, and looks likely to stink up the joint again.

San Francisco's problem is that Alex Smith doesn't get rid of the ball fast enough. They also lost key C/G David Baas in free agency, which won't help matters. The lack of a credible WR rotation (Michael Crabtree is a bust IMO) lets teams crowd the line.

I'll knock Philadelphia out of top five contention as the line there can't be responsible for hits on Vick when he is scrambling on broken plays instead of throwing the ball out of bounds.

So that makes my top five worst OL's in pass blocking due to both a poor OL and QB tendencies and/or system: Chicago, Carolina, Arizona, Washington, and San Francisco.

For any noobs Mark does a weekly match up for both passing and rushing in the subscription service and its a weekly read for me. He has a strong grasp on what he's talking about. This is good stuff Mark, tyvm.

 

[sihaokills]

Some different perpectives very interesting

 

[DoubleG]

PFF has the bottom 5 pass blocking lines as:

Chicago

Pittsburgh

Tampa

Oakland

Washington

31. Chicago Bears (2009 Rank: 26th)Run Rank 21st, Pass Rank 32nd, Penalties Rank 31st

On the plus side, Jay Cutler is somehow still walking. Any lineman who played considerable snaps graded worse than -10.0 in our ratings, with one at -20.4 (Chris Williams), another at -31.6 (Frank Omiyale) and the worst at -42.7 (JMarcus Webb). Brutal blocking in pretty much every respect that you makes you appreciate the work of the skill players all the more.

Best Player: With a -12.4 grade, Roberto Garza was the best of a bad bunch.

Biggest Concern: Youd expect JMarcus Webb to improve a little in year number two, but he has a long way to go. Lets hope Gabe Carimi is NFL ready.

The only real positive change the Bears made was drafting Carimi, and as they say above, Carimi better be able to play immediately. What kills me is the Bears are all set to start Webb at LT. He graded out the worst of the linemen. They also replaced Kreutz with Spencer, which is a mild upgrade, maybe. But I bet Spencer didn't grade out very well either. Not like Seattle is crying about losing him. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. The Bears drafted Carimi and decided that was enough. They did go after Colon, but that is the only offensive linemen they showed any interest in besides Spencer. I think Spencer was simply a response to Kreutz playing hardball on his salary demands. Carimi certainly should be better than Omiyale, but unless Webb takes a gigantic leap forward this year they will be on the list again next year as one of the five worst IMO.

Webb's end-of-year grade is a bit misleading. He was TERRIBLE early - but they knew he'd have his growing pains. They wanted him to "learn on the job" as it were. As the year progressed he showed good signs of improvement. I do agree that Spencer should actually be a slight upgrade over Kruetz (he's 5 years younger and Kruetz has been pretty mediocre to bad the last two years - from poor exchanges, to poor run blocking and weak pass protection).I think they will actually be a better unit this year - maybe significantly so. Will Cutler still get sacked a lot? Sure - it's the Martz way - but not 56 times. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say 45. I realize that's still bottom of the bunch - but in the Martz offense that's gettin 'er dun.