FanPost

The Offensive Line production

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Hello, I was trying to add something to the wonderful Ozark post about Okung, but it was so long that I created my own post.

Some may know me as a Stat Nerd, I love them and always check them to confirm if what my eyes tell me is true or not... What I learned during my own career is that trusting your eyes too much can lead you to die if you don't follow the instruments that have been created in order to help you (true aeronautic story).

The Washington post has some really interesting players stats that are kind of hard to find : Sacks allowed per O-line players.

So I searched for our line 2016 results, then compared their results to their career average and lastly took 5 players that are playing for elite O-lines or are often discussed here as a potential improvement at LT.

The Broncos O-line results before the last 2 games

From left to right:

  • Okung: 4 sacks allowed, 8 penalties = 12 negative plays in 14 games started
  • Garcia: 3 sacks allowed, 2 penalties = 5 negative plays in 14 games started
  • Paradis: 3 sacks allowed, 3 penalties = 6 negative plays in 14 games started
  • Schofield: 0.5 sacks allowed, 4 penalties = 4.5 negative plays in 14 games started
  • Stephenson: 3 sacks allowed, 4 penalties = 7 negative plays in 10 games started
  • Swing Tackle Ty: 7 sacks allowed, 3 penalties = 10 negative plays in 4 games started

Compared to their career average (CA):

  • Okung: 2016 = 0.28 sacks per game started (S/G), 0.57 penalty per game started (P/G) /// CA = 0.28 S/G, 0.56 P/G
  • Garcia: 2016 = 0.21 S/G, 0.14 P/G /// CA = 0.21 S/G, 0.37 P/G
  • Paradis: 2016 = 0.21 S/G, 0.21 P/G /// CA = 0.13 S/G, 0.13 P/G
  • Schofield: 2016 = 0.04 S/G, 0.29 P/G /// CA = 0.39 S/G, 0.26 P/G
  • Stephenson: 2016 = 0.3 S/G, 0.4 P/G /// CA = 0.44 S/G, 0.68 P/G
  • Swing Tackle Ty: 2016 = 1.75 S/G, 0.75 P/G /// CA = 1.14 S/G, 0.71 P/G

Now we can add the elite type of production:

Here I made very few researches. First, I just took the example of Joe Thomas that we might maybe recruit next summer if he want to finally leave his wonderful crappiest team ever. Second, I took the LG and C from the Raiders. Thrid, I took the RG and RT of the Cowbooys.

Nothing else, I didn't look at pro-bowl votes or whatever.

  • LT: Joe Thomas career stats = 0.23 S/G and 0.38 P/G /// 2016 = 0.14 S/G and 0.14 P/G
  • LG: Kelechi Osemele career stats = 0.23 S/G and 0.42 P/G /// 2016 = 0 S/G and 0.46 P/G
  • C: Rodney Hudson career stats = 0.10 S/G and 0.27 P/G /// 2016 = 0 S/G and 0.50 P/G
  • RG: Zack Martin career stats = 0.13 S/G and .28 P/G /// 2016 = 0.14 S/G and 0.14 P/G
  • RT: Doug Free career stats = 0.38 S/G and 0.54 P/G /// 2016 = 0.50 S/G and 0.36 P/G

My conclusions

  • Everyone on the line this year has failed at one point
  • Penalties are as much of an issue than sacks
  • Garcia is better than in 2015 where he was used as a swing guard
  • Schofield is much better than in 2015, most improved Broncos o-lineman
  • Paradis had a better year in 2015 when the guards were seasoned veterans
  • Okung has a typical Okung year, and as such he is a penalty machine, we can probably have a better Tackle, but it could be much worse too
  • Stephenson has a better year than his average, but it's not enough
  • Ty has a horrible year, worse than Schofield in 2015, but his first 3 games of 2015 were not that bad, injuries have hurt him more than just physically... Hopefully this will help him improve like Schofield if he can finally stay healthy, 2017 O-lineman surprise of the year???

All in all, the line is:

  1. Improving in the middle as all the 3 players are really young and not that bad overall, which is promising
  2. the Tackles are the weak spot of the line (elite defenders are DE and OLB so they also have a more difficult job), but are not worse than they have ever been, pretty much the same players they were before joining the Broncos
  3. so damn frustrating as each play there is always 1 of the 5 O-lineman that is failing in his assignment, and all of them are equally responsible

Of course this doesn't take into account the run blocking (except some holding penalties) so it might all be taken with a grain of salt.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.