I was talking to a friend of mine and we got into the discussion of the importance of O-Lines. I’m of the opinion that an amazing top-5 O-Line props up nearly any QB enough to be a great QB. He’s of the opinion an amazing top-5 QB helps inflate O-Line stats.
Who is right - or is it a little of both?
Bad qbs make good lines look bad all the time lol. It’s like how the tampa line all of a sudden stopped sucking when Brady was on that team not Jameis wINTson
2009 Jets.
In Kyle Boller’s rookie season, Jamal Lewis ran for 2000 yards behind J.O., Zeus, and company.
If there’s a thread regarding top defenses being wasted by poor QB play, I still submit Kyle Boller; pick a year any will do.
2020 Eagles OL had a lot of injuries and inexperienced players, and a lot of week to week shifting around to cover for that, but according to PFF they were still one of the better units on the season, and Kelce played 16 games, which always helps
and Carson Wentz still shit his pants that spectacularly
I think the Rams had a very good offensive line in 2018, but I remember 5 minutes into that game after Goff’s first possession I KNEW the Patriots were gonna win solely because I could not see him moving the ball against that defense. That Patriots team was good but nothing particularly special. They won because they made fewer mistakes than their opponents and just were more complete.
I agree that an amazing QB does wonders for OL stats, but the other side of the coin is that I think bad QBs can make OLs look way worse than they are. Bad QBs get themselves sacked by holding the ball too long, running into pressure, generally having bad pocket awareness (think Zach Wilson) and they also allow defenses to always have a numbers advantage in the front 7 so it makes their rushing success worse as well
This site has the Falcons at number 3 so I’m going to go with them https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-offensive-line-rankings-week-9-2023
You could consider our Wentz year in this category. We had a winning record but what that doesn’t show at first glance is that he randomly self destructed against against a beatable Raiders team and then the Jags who were the worst team in the league that year with the playoffs on the line. I know he had good games (knocking off AZ and NE back to back) but if you have a near 2000 yard rusher and good OLine you need to win those games
The Bears all this season.
Mark Sanchez used to have great O-Line his first 2 seasons with the Jets and still posted very average numbers. He did get them to the playoffs though but mainly because of their great D.
I’d go to Pennington as an example before I went to Sanchez. Mostly because it was the O-Lines fault the butt fumble happened
Alex smith was behind an o line that was named player of the week twice, and had a pretty below average season
Staley Boone Goodwin Iupati Davis®
I believe for the chiefs Alex Smith had outstanding lines, and one year did not throw a td to a wr. He definitely got better. Frankly every chiefs team from the early 90s until the last year of Smith and obviously Mahomes had very solid olines with I believe two hall of famers on those lines over the years (Shields, Roaf), and many many really good ones
Great OLs can make shit QBs look shit for longer.
2021 Colts
It doesn’t even sound like these are two differing viewpoints. One doesn’t really (fully) relate to the other.
The 2020 Pats had a top 5 offensive line and Cam threw for 8 TDs and 10 Ints.
Man that Pats team was not good but was way more fun to watch than what we have now