OL article

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(10-20-2023, 10:02 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Anyway, they've had to face three elite pash rushers in their first 6 games.

Browns - Myles Garrett
Rams - Donald
Titans - Simmmons

I'd give the unit a B- so far this year.

Aaron Donald still seems like a shell of his former self since he was thinking about retiring but came back only for the money. Still good, but certainly not the Aaron Donald that his name makes you think of. 

Simmons also has a career high of 8.5 sacks and 16 QB hits in 17 games, back in 2021. Good, but not elite.

I don't think either of them are elite and both of them have less sacks this year than either BJ Hill or Sam Hubbard. There are 74 players with as many sacks as them right now, and neither of them are in the top-15 among DTs.

They are good players, but talk of them being elite in 2023 is largely name power right now. Nearly every team has a player of their current production caliber on it.

(Obviously Garrett out of that trio is still great.)

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I do think the OL is probably slightly improved, but ultimately the run game is still trash and it's really hard to tell how much the OL has improved in pass blocking because they're running a quick dink-and-dunk passing game that's shorter than can be effective, so they're not being asked to block for long. 

I mean, Burrow is on paced to be sacked 39.7 times this year. I guess that's better than the 41 sacks in 16 games last year, but not by much, and certainly not worth the drop from 7.4 yards per attempt to 5.3 yards per attempt.