Offensive line rankings for 2007 (1 Viewer)

OL plays a huge part in projecting rankings for your fantasy squad. I've seen many different positional rankings so far, but haven't seen one for OL's. To stir up discussions, here are four rankings in 2006 to consider - team YPC, sacks allowed, pass attempt, and % of sacks allowed based on pass attempts:

YPC

Atlanta 5.5

Jacksonville 5.0

San Diego 4.9

San Francisco 4.9

Philadelphia 4.8

Tennessee 4.7

New York (N) 4.7

Washington 4.5

Denver 4.4

St. Louis 4.3

Kansas City 4.2

Pittsburgh 4.2

Miami 4.2

Minnesota 4.1

Dallas 4.1

Indianapolis 4.0

Seattle 4.0

New England 3.9

Green Bay 3.9

Carolina 3.9

Oakland 3.9

Houston 3.9

Chicago 3.8

Tampa Bay 3.8

New Orleans 3.7

Detroit 3.7

Buffalo 3.7

Cincinnati 3.7

Cleveland 3.6

New York (A) 3.5

Baltimore 3.4

Arizona 3.2

Sacks allowed, pass attempts, percentage of pass attempts

Oakland 72 483 14.9

Atlanta 47 416 11.3

Buffalo 47 431 10.9

Cleveland 54 511 10.6

Detroit 63 596 10.6

Seattle 49 512 9.6

Pittsburgh 49 523 9.4

Kansas City 41 450 9.1

Houston 43 481 8.9

St. Louis 49 592 8.3

Minnesota 43 540 8.0

San Francisco 35 444 7.9

Dallas 37 506 7.3

New York (A) 34 488 7.0

Cincinnati 36 523 6.9

Miami 41 591 6.9

Denver 31 454 6.8

Jacksonville 30 446 6.7

Tennessee 29 447 6.5

Arizona 35 545 6.4

Tampa Bay 33 535 6.2

San Diego 28 466 6.0

Carolina 32 539 5.9

New England 29 527 5.5

Philadelphia 28 544 5.1

Chicago 25 514 4.9

New York (N) 25 523 4.8

New Orleans 23 580 4.0

Washington 19 470 4.0

Green Bay 24 630 3.8

Baltimore 17 524 3.2

Indianapolis 15 557 2.7

Of course there are many other variables to consider (mobility of QB, talent of RB, was team behind and forced to pass, etc.). I noticed that WAS, NYG, and PHI were the only 3 teams in the top 10 in YPC and sacks allowed per pass attempts. Conversely, HOU, DET, CLE, and BUF were in the bottom 10 in both categories. Taking into account all the transactions (draft, free agents coming and going, retirements, years OL has gelled) to OL's, anyone care to give their shot at rankings? Here's my crack at the top 10 for 2007:

IND - middle of the pack in YPC, but they sure can protect a pocket passer

WAS - #8 in YPC, #4 in % sacked, will the young Jason Campbell take advantage of this?

NYG - #7 in YPC, #6 in % sacked, Eli still throwing, new runners for 2007

PHI - # 5 in YPC, #8 in % sacked, McNabb/Westbrook combo staying healthy?

SD - great sack % in 2006 for such a young QB, should only get better

JAX - Opened holes for Fred/MoJo, protected QB fairly well

DEN - Cutler's decision making in the pocket key ingredient in 2007

MIA - middle of the pack in YPC and QB protection, expect better in 2007

NE - below average YPC in 2006, WR corps upgrade lead to nice passing stats for Brady in 2007

and my #10, sleeper OL is ARI - last in YPC in 2007, Edge will be asked to run more, block less in 2007

There is just so much information out there when it comes to stuff like this.

I stumbled onto "Cold Hard Facts", billed as the site that dispenses good information and "where the truth hurts and our facts beat up on your opinions."

Now that's a hard claim to back up but once you read their information, they are right on.

Here's the link for the 2006 Offensive Hog Index; it's a good read:

http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Artic...&Category=2

I took the time to print out their articles and paste then on the wall so's that I can reference them when it comes to making decisions. If you want to know the upside of say a Marshawn Lynch, you may want (make that need) to know that he's running behind the #31 ranked Hog Index Offensive Line based on the 2006 season's stats. Take that information and couple it with BUF's #30 ranked schedule against the run and you've got an accurate picture of how difficult it's going to be for Lynch to succeed in 2007.

Holding penalties should factor in as well.

team average YPC can be inflated because of QB running. teams like atlanta and tennessee, for example, should be downgraded slightly because of their respective QB's rushing totals. it's not run blocking in the strictest sense when your QB scrambles for 1000+ yards in a season.

saintfool said:

team average YPC can be inflated because of QB running. teams like atlanta and tennessee, for example, should be downgraded slightly because of their respective QB's rushing totals. it's not run blocking in the strictest sense when your QB scrambles for 1000+ yards in a season.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Evaluating an OL based on YPC isn't that informative to me because a team can have a decent line but have awful RB's (like Houston) and get a negative grade as a result (I'm not saying that's the case with Houston) or have a good RB like Gore and get a very favorable rating. The same goes for sacks allowed/pass attempts stat. GB is near the best in this stat but they did not have a good line at all and only started getting average late in the year. Favre is the only reason that GB has a good %.

So I guess my point is that you really can't take these stats and come to any conclusions because there are a lot of factors at work that are difficult to quantify.

ETA...Football Outsiders does the best job that I've seen so far. Football Outsiders