If there was ever a word to describe our offensive line, “offensive” would certainly be appropriate.
Once again, we finished today fielding a unit that was different than the one we started with. I believe that's now at least the sixth time in eight games this has happened. Right guard
Richie Incognito left the game with a leg injury that apparently kept him from supporting his own weight at times on the sidelines. Now we’ve learned that he’s done for the year as well, the fourth linemen we’ve lost for the season (fifth if you include Steussie though he could come back). A significant injury to Incognito means the Rams are once again going to have to scramble to find a working unit.
On Sunday, for the majority of the game, our offensive line looked like this:
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LT Alex Barron - LG Milford Brown - C Andy McCollum - RG Nick Leckey - RT Brandon Gorin
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Now, be honest. What NFL team do you envision winning with this offensive line?
Former first round pick
Alex Barron is not playing well at all on the left side. Apparently trying to make the conversion to the right side caused Barron to forget most of what he learned in college as a left tackle. Combine that with his play on the right side to date, which in my opinion has been solid but hardly spectacular, and he simply has not impressed for a first round offensive tackle selection. I'm hoping we bring in competition for his job next season and see if that helps him step up. If not, at least he can be experienced depth on a unit that obviously needs it.
Milford Brown is simply a mediocre-at-best journeyman, and I think that's even being generous. He spent two years as depth on a poor Texans line, then finally got his chance in 2005 and did not impress. He was a free agent bust for Arizona and was cut after one year. He joined the Rams in the late summer before camp to provide depth and has now seen significant time at three different positions on the line.
Andy McCollum is a fan favorite but is 37-years-old this season and was beat out for his starting job by former practice squad player Brett Romberg. McCollum tried to shift to guard to help his injured team out but that experiment went about as well this year as it did when Martz tried to do it after the addition of Dave Wohlabaugh. McCollum has been guilty of a number of presnap penalties in recent weeks, and probably needs to hang them up sooner rather than later.
Nick Leckey... wait, who? Be honest with me. Before today's game or even before the Rams signed him, would you have known who this was without doing a Google search? Oh right, this is the guy who was in and out of the Cardinals starting line-up the last two years which means he has to be good, right? Apparently not, since the Cardinals went out and signed Al Johnson to be their starter at center and then cut Leckey in mid-September even though Johnson was struggling with his own injuries at the time. He sat available for two weeks without a sniff before we picked him up.
And that brings us to Brandon Gorin. Out of all of our street free agents, he's the one I have/had the highest hopes for. And my use of the term highest hopes is liberal. Gorin was a part of a Patriots Super Bowl team, which is good. But as we know through past experience (Kim Herring anyone?) simply being part of a Super Bowl team doesn't mean you're a superstar. Gorin was in a competition for the right tackle spot in New England before he was traded to Arizona (another former Cardinal?) and then promptly inactivated for 14 weeks. He didn't catch on with the offensive minds from Pittsburgh who took over the reigns in Arizona, and joined us on September 11th.
Separate yourself for a minute from this team and think about these names objectively. What NFL team wins with this line? Look at the successful teams in the NFL. Look at organizations like the Colts, Patriots, and Cowboys. Do they win with this line? They have a lot of talent at skill positions, but they also have stable lines that protect their passers. The Colts have given up a sack once every 40 pass attempts. The Patriots, who I think may have the best pass protecting line in football right now, have given up a sack once every 33 pass attempts. The Cowboys have given up a sack once every 21 pass attempts. The Rams? Try once every 10 attempts.
We are literally pulling guys from the unemployment line not just to be back-ups but to come and potentially start for this team. Nick Leckey? Seriously, Nick Leckey!?
Can the importance of an offensive line ever be underscored? Most fans recognize that the best offensive lines are the ones that have spent a lot of time together and have developed a certain level of continuity together. One needs to look back no further than the 2003 Rams to see a great example of this. All five of our offensive line starters made it through the season without missing a game. Is it a coincidence that the Rams went 12-4 that year? I certainly don’t think so.
We’ve been saying it for years now, primarily because Mike Martz as a head coach largely avoided addressing this issue and thought he could get by with journeymen and scrubs. But in order for this team to be successful, it needs to have a strong offensive line in front of
Marc Bulger and
Steven Jackson. We had the makings of a strong line as the season closed in 2006. That line has now been completely and utterly decimated with injuries and personnel shifts as a result of injury.
Yet I look across the internet and I still see fans that seem to think
Scott Linehan has some kind of magic wand he can pull out and make something happen with this group, some secret Bruce Banner gamma bomb he can detonate over this line to turn them into freaks of nature that never lose battles in the trenches. Let’s face the facts – he doesn’t, and I doubt any coach does.
That’s not to say Linehan hasn’t made his mistakes – for some reason you
always have to say this or else you’re giving him a free pass – but can anyone honestly say that in the grand scheme of what’s happened to this team this year, coaching has been a bigger factor to our lack of success than the massive amount of injuries? I’m sure people can and will, but I can’t see the logic in that point of view. Consider that I haven’t even touched on injuries to other offensive players such as
Marc Bulger,
Steven Jackson,
Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, Drew Bennett, Randy McMichael, Dante Hall, and
Dane Looker. We’re simply talking about the offensive line here.
This is not the unit that ended last year with such promising results. This is not the unit that spent all of training camp working together, gaining continuity and familiarity with one another. This is not the unit that worked together in the preseason, getting real-game experience side by side to prepare for this season. Instead, this is a unit whose left tackle shifted over from the right side and has not been playing well. This is a unit whose left guard is now manning his third position on the line after spending time at right guard and tackle. This is a unit whose center lost an open competition for the job in camp and then saw time at left guard before being forced to move back inside. This is a unit whose right guard was signed three weeks ago. This is a unit whose right tackle had experience in a winning organization but spent all of last year inactivated by the Arizona Cardinals.
If the inability and downright inadequacy of this group still hasn’t sunk in yet, I simply have two words to close out – Nick Leckey!?
