Rams Fans United - Los Angeles Rams Fan Discussion Forum

I respect their metrics and I think of lot of NFL guys do, too.

Rams rank 28th and their take on GRob is spot on, IMO.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2016/01/20/pro-ranking-all-32-offensive-lines-this-season/

was wondering when they would update their oline rankings for the season, the last time they did so was after week 8 i believe... anyway i'm a big fan of pff too, but i'm a much bigger fan of their raw number tallies than their evaluations and evaluation process, for lots of reasons... also i think it's important to keep in mind that their oline rankings are based on individual oline player grades, so synergy and chemistry, good or bad, isn't really accounted for as far as i can tell... also, 1 stud among a bunch of stiffs could artificially skew the overall oline grade or, better put, skew the implied quality level of an oline - for example, an oline consisting of 1 guy pff graded as elite and 4 guys pff graded as worse than backup (below replacement) could grade out better than an oline consisting of 3 guys pff graded as average starters and 2 guys pff graded as worse than backup (below replacement), i.e. 1 stud and 4 stiffs can grade out better than 3 average starters and 2 stiffs...

anyway, here's a look at how some of pff's overall, pass pro and run blocking oline rankings correlate to actual results...

Nobody gave up less sacks than we did. And if you go by sacks per pass attempt, we were 3rd best. We had the 7th best rushing attack by yards, 5th in yards per carry.

So yeah our offense was atrocious but i don't see the line as a main culprit.

Rams OL started out clumsy and disorganized, which is understandable given the fact none of them had ever played together. But as the season wore on and especially the last six games, they started to gell. When Reynolds slipped into the LG spot, GRob's play improved dramaticly. I noticed Reynolds pointing out DL sets and potential blitzing S and LB's to GRob, sort of a coach on the fielf for him. It worked. I believe Reynolds should start next to GRob next season. Lots of talk of GRob being a bust, but they don't get how raw he was coming out of college. I saw his improvement from the start of the season to the last 3 games. Huge improvement. No holding penalties, no false starts, good foot work and blitz pick up. GRob is going to have his breakout year this coming season. When he starts playing by instinct and not having to think, he will be a top notch LT.
Brown, Whichman and Havenstien all are going to be solid. they all got experience and improved. Havenstien was a great pick. Technicly solid and smart. Off season work and strength and conditioning his game will improve.
Center Tim Barnes, as much as I like the guy and the effort he puts out, he is just not starting caliber. Love his hustle (two recoverd fumbles in two sucsesive plays?). Barnes gets pushed back into the pocket way too often. I keep hearing "sign Wiesnewski", but he's not much of an upgrade over Barnes. Rams have 3 picks in the first 2 rounds, draft a bulldozer C in the 2nd or 3rd round, and get him groomed. Have to go with Barnes another year. don't think there's going to be a FA center worth signing.

The Rams OL has been a mess for years, and they finally figured out signing over the hill FA vets wasn't working (Bell, Wells, Joseph, Dahl, etc), and instead used the draft. GRob, who was raw and didn't know shit about playing LT, they knew would take three years to be NFL ready, and then Brown, Havenstien, Donnal and Wichman, who all played pretty well at the end of the season. There is hope for the Rams OL. Saffold should be relegated to swing guy. He is injury prone and should be played sparingly. He can play anywhere on the line so I think they should keep him.

For the first time in a long time I feel the Rams have turned the corner and have the makings of a good OL for the future, baring injury of course.

Dick84 wrote:I just think that the eyeball test worked pretty well for those of us watching the team. Maybe I'm completely wrong.

I think the line is decent and has excellent potential. Brown struggled this year.. if it clicks for him at one guard and they have Reynolds at the other guard and Robinson continues to improve.. they could start mowing people down.

agree, i think the oline has a lot of potential and is moving in the right direction... grob is a serious talent but needs a coach to work him more imo, i think he gets lazy in pass pro too often and resorts too holding, depends on holding, if you watch his college vids he did the same thing, the guy loves to hold, even when he doesn't have to, someone needs to break him of that habit. he also needs to get more comfortable in zone, whiffs to much at the second level, too much for a guy who is so athletic, but the guy can maul, and launch defenders into next week... reynolds had a solid season, did well for the falcons, i think he would be fine filling in for saffold next season if the rams decided to shop rs around, and at 29 next year reynolds potentially has some good years left... also, i would love to see rhaney get a shot at center, the guy is talented and hungry imo, did a hell of a job during the 2015 preseason in zone, especially in space taking out linebackers, he was very impressive i thought...

Elvis wrote:We had the 7th best rushing attack by yards, 5th in yards per carry. So yeah our offense was atrocious but i don't see the line as a main culprit.

if you back out qb runs from league rushing stats, the rams actually ranked 2nd in rush yards per carry, and if you back out gurley's numbers the rams still ranked 2nd... without gurley the rams averaged 4.8 yards per carry (sans qbs), the same as gurley's average...

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so how did offensive linemen taken in the first round from 2010-2015 fare in pff's final 2015 oline rankings? here's a look - spoiler alert: of the 33 1st round olinemen taken between 2010-2015 that are still in the league, over half (55%) graded out as below average or worse...

note: smith (dal) ranks 2nd among tackles whereas fredrick (dal) ranks 1st among centers... however smith appears higher on the list because his actual score is higher than fredrick's...

Yeah, I'm on the "Our offense will suck as long as Fisher is HC" bus, but some credit is due to how well the offensive line did play. Jamon Brown looked like a steal and Havenstein played much better than a rookie.

I think the happy feet displayed by Foles distorted the pass pro

I agree, PFF is great for stat accumulation. It's player ratings rarely support the data they collect though.

Elvis wrote:Nobody gave up less sacks than we did. And if you go by sacks per pass attempt, we were 3rd best. We had the 7th best rushing attack by yards, 5th in yards per carry.

So yeah our offense was atrocious but i don't see the line as a main culprit.

Notice how 5 of the top 6 teams on that list were not playoff teams? And the seahags were a pretty good offense, yet ranked worst than us. Just goes to show how important the quarterback and skill positions are. We not only need a quarterback, we need legit receivers. Britt's ok for the occasional deep pass. Austin's explosive and can do different things. But they need a legit receiver who can run routes, go after the ball and pick up first downs. They really don't have someone like that.

The Quick experiment can't end Quickly enough. Marquez might have some potential. Britt was a rudder for our drifting ship year one, but he tripped during his curtain call. Austin is interesting and would do better with another legit threat opposite him.
I have always thought if we had an upper echelon hurler those guy might do better .. Well upper echelon hasn't happened yet but,, we have had quite a few different QB's and the receivers haven't done well with any of them.

Chicken or the egg?

snackdaddy wrote:

Elvis wrote:Nobody gave up less sacks than we did. And if you go by sacks per pass attempt, we were 3rd best. We had the 7th best rushing attack by yards, 5th in yards per carry.

So yeah our offense was atrocious but i don't see the line as a main culprit.

Notice how 5 of the top 6 teams on that list were not playoff teams? And the seahags were a pretty good offense, yet ranked worst than us. Just goes to show how important the quarterback and skill positions are. We not only need a quarterback, we need legit receivers. Britt's ok for the occasional deep pass. Austin's explosive and can do different things. But they need a legit receiver who can run routes, go after the ball and pick up first downs. They really don't have someone like that.

and 3 of the top 5 ranked 30th, 29th and 24th in offensive points scored... re better targets, certainly wouldn't hurt, but you look at the seahwaks and you see a 5'10" undrafted guy (baldwin) who booked over 1,000 yards and hauled in 14 tds, what kind of season do you think he would have had with foles or keenum throwing to him, or with fish controlling the o?