* Pro Bowl Predictions

[jordan327]

I understand that Blocksdale had better sack numbers, but this:



Is just silly to say. Offensive line is probably the most cohesive unit in all of football, if everything is working together everyone will do well, but if not even the best lineman can't do it all alone. It is extremely difficult to grade out linemen there are so many factors. But, in general you have 5 OL going against 4 DL. If the OL are all good, the unit as a whole will do well and can work together. But, if you have just one good player on the line, as is the case in Philly where I am the only one over even 100 TPE, you're alone on an island. So sometimes the LT can depend on the LG for help, not in this case. I would say I'm doing really well in spite of what's around me. Look at pancakes and sacks allowed that I have relative to our team totals.

Not to mention, at LT you are facing a defensive end usually in a one on one situation, whereas at guard it's a defensive tackle. No offense to the few good DTs in the league, but in terms of the level of competition a guard goes against versus a tackle in any given game there is no comparison.

I know you also probably want to put Koch above me as well. Pretty sure he played tackle even though index lists him as guard.
Ok so at the tackle position, you get help from the tight end as well. In Baltimore's case you had Gibson most of the season who based on both attributes and statistics was a fantastic pass blocker and boosted the performance of your tackles. By that same coin, Paul is one of if not the worst blocking tight ends in the league despite being a fantastic receiver, so I got no help there either.

Also one thing you won't see just by glancing in the index is penalties which is a huge part of grading linemen. A 10 yard holding/tripping penalty can be just as bad as a sack. If you compare me and Koch on the year he has more than double my penalty yards so despite one more sack, really my statistical impact overall was slightly better

There's a lot more to grading lineman than just sacks allowed and pancakes, even though that can tell you a lot. The position you play and the unit you work with have a huge impact. I'm playing the toughest position on the line in likely the second worst Oline situation in the league and I still came away top 5 in pancakes and with a respectable number of sacks allowed our team had more drop backs than any other.

In terms of the guard vs tackle comparisons, through messing with the sim I've found that tackles end up with better stats. I tested it by using a maxed out player first at guard than at tackle, and through eight seasons the guard had 200 less pancakes, with similar sack numbers. I didn't record anything with penalties though.