*Don't Kill Offensive Linemen You Twats

[TomHanks]

There is an abundance of career opportunities for anyone who wants them, 5 on each NSFL team, in fact, it's just a higher point of entry than some positions, similar to WR or QB. If they enjoyed the position, I imagine they would have no issue spending a couple seasons in the DSFL, as most rookies already do.

But it's not a couple seasons as rookies already do, it's likely going to be 4 seasons if you're a semi active user, which is double what most skill position players will end up doing. With expansion coming, skill position players will seldom spend more than one season in the DSFL, but it will still be several years if you are an offensive linemen.

The recent suggestion promoting the abolishment of the o-line position was for one very simple reason: we need players. Now, this may seem like a strange step to take here, but hear me out. With expansion about to read it’s ugly head (which in my mind was a mistake altogether brought about as an overreaction to one overly large draft class, but I digress) the league in general is going to be in short supply of active users at many skill positions. While there is no inherently good way to dole out “bots” and whatnot to most of these positions, there is a current system in place to do so with the o-line. It seems like quite a waste of talent and activity to have users in a position where you have such a high entrance point that many users never make it out of the DSFL. These players could be making WRs or DBs or DLs that will eventually be much more useful to their teams than at OL. Most teams can field a fairly competitive OL, entirely without the use of active players. On the other hand, why would we boost a position? If you choose to play OL, that’s a decision that you make as a user. The league goes to pains to spell out why it is an “undesirable” position. Picking something you know is going to be hard and then expecting the league to make it easier on you is asinine.

I'm with you that we may not have enough players to deal with expansion, but that was a league decision and shouldn't come down on people who want to play on the offensive line. I'm with Beaver, taking away players' choices is ridiculous. The high entrance point you mentioned is the real issue. Yes, it is ridiculously hard to be an offensive lineman and make it in this league, but changing some things so that people who want to come in to the league as a lineman and have fun their own way can should be the solution to that. It's not a matter of the league making it easier on you, it's a matter of making it so that the same level of activity would allow you to have a similar career path of someone in a skill position. I get that there is a system in place and the reasoning for it, I just don't think it's fair to potential new members to tell them that they can't play on the line, that that position is inherently a waste, and that they should either change positions or leave.

Here's the problem, though - we already know that is true. Back in S3, a prospect who was a late-first caliber prospect went 1st overall just because he was OL. Back in S2, the only team that had a >50% active OL was the Outlaws, and their highest TPE OL was a multi. The S1 Baltimore OL was completely bots iirc, and it forced them to spend three consecutive picks on OL in a draft that was every bit as good as S15. Those three OL were all reaches, and only one of them worked out (it was slm). But my point is there are soooooo many examples of insufficient interest at OL. The examples keep coming, too. Every single human OL except some from this class have either switched away or gone inactive.

I can't really speak to this because I wasn't around then. What I can say is that surely the league has changed a great deal since S3. As for the constant examples of people switching, of course people will constantly switch out of a position if their isn't a serious way for them to have a career.

I'm obviously biased coming from Tijuana, and TC is 100% correct, this all needs some serious testing before we even seriously talk about changing rules. To my mind, this is just an option that could make O line a viable option in the future, but that won't be a debate at all if the position gets killed entirely. Even if the rule changes don't happen, it should still be possible for people to play in the position of their choice in my opinion.