Rebecca Rollett on
Jul 19, 2012 10:00 AM EDT in
AFC North News This is the fifth article in the "Battle of the AFC North" series. The links for the previous four are at the bottom of the article. In the last article I broke the up the offensive line and only ranked the tackles. This is not a reasonable thing to do, but with so many players to look at an article about the whole line would be really unwieldy. But the weakness of the approach was zeroed in on by a commenter, UNH97, who disagreed about the pickup of Bryant McKinnie. McKinnie played better than I (or most Steeler fans) hoped he would. But, as UNH said,
Ravens oline was all about their interior players. In Yanda, Birk & Grubbs when healthy they had one of the best trios in the league.
So is this true? Let’s begin with the Ravens:
The line is anchored by Matt Birk. A sixth-round pick by the
Vikings in 1998(!) Birk was signed by the Ravens in 2009. I would presume he was considered to be a relatively short-term fix, but he just signed a new three-year contract this May. This means he will be approximately 190 years old in football years at the end of the contract. Birk is seemingly an all-round good guy, and won the Walter Payton Man of the Year for the 2011 season.
Last year's left guard
Ben Grubbs missed six games last year. UNH97 gave the regular-season stats for the Ravens with and without Grubbs:
In 6 games without Grubbs:
Ravens averaged 3.8 yard per rush
Gave up 2.3 sacks a game
8.4 pressures a game
3.3 QB Hits a game
In 10 games with Grubbs:
Ravens averaged 4.6 yards per rush
1.9 sacks per game (which included 7 sacks horror show in one game v Chargers)
5.2 Pressures per game (9 in Charger debacle)
1.3 Qb Hits per game
This sucks for the Ravens, because Grubbs is going to miss all 16 games this season, as he has signed with New Orleans. So who will replace him? Apparently, former Bengal
Bobbie Williams. At age 35 Williams is pushing Matt Birk for Old Man of the Sea status.
Finally, we get to
Marshal Yanda, OG
extraordinaire. The Raven’s 2007 third-round draft pick, Yanda made the pro bowl in 2011 after a spectacular season. He is sewn up through 2016.
As far as depth goes, behind Birk is
Tony Wragge, a 2002 UDFA signing by the
Cardinals who has played Arena League ball, played for the
49ers, spent last year with the
Rams, and was signed by the Ravens. He doesn’t offer much help on the age issue, as he turns 33 soon, but he does bring experience of all kinds.
Behind Williams is the Raven’s second-round pick in the 2012 draft, Kelechi Osemele. The received wisdom is he isn’t ready to start in 2012, but will be ready to come off the bench if necessary.
Behind Yanda is
Justin Boren, a 2011 UDFA signing who spent last season on the practice squad.
On to the
Browns. As noted in the previous article,
Joe Thomas is one of the best tackles in the NFL, but the line as a whole did not perform well. Let’s take a look at the interior and see whether things are likely to improve for the Browns this season.
At center is
Alex Mack. A first-round pick in 2009, Mack made the Pro Bowl in 2011. He also made the Tough Guy Bowl by playing a game against the
Titans with appendicitis. (He had surgery during the Browns’ conveniently scheduled Bye Week, thus managing to not miss a game.) His backup is
Garth Gerhart, a 2012 UDFA who is the younger brother of heartthrob RB Toby Gerhart.
Right guard
Shawn Lauvao was the Browns’ 2010 third-round pick. His backup is
John Greco, who was a third-round draft pick in 2008 by the Rams.
After a distinguished career at Pitt,
Jason Pinkston was drafted in the fifth round in 2011. He started all 16 games as a rookie when the starting guard was injured in training camp. His backup is
Ryan Miller, the Browns’ fifth-round draft pick this year. Projected to go much higher, many think Miller will eventually move to tackle.
read more:
http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2012/7/19/3168290/battle-of-the-afc-north-offensive-lines-how-do-they-compare-matt-birk-kevin-zeitler-david-decastro
