Grading the new OL

[TecnoGenius]

There was/is a lot of chatter about the OL.  Essentially 2 new pieces, including the all-important RT (the other being LG).  Ya, Dobson isn't "new", but he certainly is new to being the star/main starter instead of the 6th man.

So, after game 1, what do you think?

[ModAdmin]

To Be Determined.

[TecnoGenius]

But based only on game 1?

[ModAdmin]

Personally I could not make any assessment based on their first regular season game together.  Perhaps after 3 or 4 games.  But I could be right on the first game and wrong thereafter. Have at it but IMHO it is too soon for any comment other than the OL needs to see steady improvement.

[Blueforlife]

Way too early imo
Sample size is insufficient

[TecnoGenius]

The new OL was quite weak on the run.  That's to be expected since Yoshi was often the road-grader or edge-sealer.  The proof is Brady mostly getting 2-4 yarders, when he usually gets 4-7.  I think he had just 2 decent 6+ runs, including that bigger one?  And that's against a MTL D that wasn't stuffing the box too much.

But they weren't hopeless on the run, so I'll give them that.

Lofton wasn't as bad as I feared.  We didn't suddenly look like SSK's 2023 OL.  So that's positive.

I can't say Dobson looked too much worse than Gray.  But for some reason Ko-man seemed to regress.  It may just be the C/LG duo is a critical thing and it's hard for them to gel.  We may be back to square one on the left side A/B gap problems, sigh.

Pass pro was very hit and miss.  In straightforward pass rushes they often did ok.  Zach did have up to 2.7s for many/most snaps.  Zach holding it past 3s when the OL is disintegrating is on him.

When MTL used stunts, the OL had a very bad time.  Simple stuff was confusing Dobson quite a bit.  Individual guys took turns getting beat by swim moves or side-stepping, especially Ko-man.

Big Stan was doing a pretty good job, as was Neufeld, though even he had a couple of mistakes with assignment.

My take is they did better than I would have predicted (which was a low bar), which equals out to slightly/moderately worse compared to 2023.  This is actually positive, as they can gel together over the following weeks and possibly be as good as 2023, as least in pass-pro (which Yoshi and Gray struggled with once in a while).

I'm not sure we'll ever be as good in the run game in 2024, however.  Brady's stats may reflect this come season's end.  I don't know why, but Lofton looks a heck of a lot smaller than Yoshi out there.

[BomberFan73]

Did Wallace beat out Eli as the 6th man, or is Eli hurt?

[Blueforlife]

Did Wallace beat out Eli as the 6th man, or is Eli hurt?

I was surprised to see him in as well

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Did Wallace beat out Eli as the 6th man, or is Eli hurt?

No Eli also played, rather interesting they dressed Wallace as well.

[GOLDMEMBER]

To early to grade anything.

[BomberFan73]

No Eli also played, rather interesting they dressed Wallace as well.

He did?  I didn't notice.  So they dressed 7 OL?

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

He did?  I didn't notice.  So they dressed 7 OL?

yep.

[Blue In BC]

That's nothing new. We dressed 7 OL last year. Both Dobson and Eli were extra OL used in rotation etc etc.

[Jesse]

I think if you're trying to reasonably assess the OL in order to truly understand their capabilities, you need to wait until after they have the opportunity to play with each other more than one time.

If you're insisting on an assessment now, after a terribly played game, which was the first time they've played gather, and first opportunity to play in front of Collaros and Oliveira, then you're not asking for an assessment, you're just looking for an opportunity to dump on them.

[dd]

where did geoff grey go??