The Bodine Witch Hunt

[SunsetBengal]

(05-05-2016, 07:28 PM)OBX Bengal Wrote: I thought this article that I read this morning was interesting and kind of related to this discussion:

Kyle Long, Bobby Massie hit back at offensive line critics

Kyle Long, Bobby Massie and panel of other offensive lineman disparaged Pro Football Focus' grading system and chided other critics "who don't understand what an offensive lineman does" during a roundtable interview with CBS Sports' Pete Prisco.


Long decried the unrealistic expectations faced by fellow guards and other positions on the line during the panel discussion published Thursday.


"We're the Mushroom Club," he said. "They throw us in a closet, feed us (bleep) and expect us to come out a finished product."

He added, "The system is set up where we don't have a voice. All we are are robots. Robots that get graded."


Massie, who will play right tackle for the Bears this fall, questioned how sites like Pro Football Focus can grade players when they can't be entirely sure what their assignments are on each play.

"They don't know the play," he said. "They don't know what each lineman has to do."

Massie was even more direct in assailing the lack of teaching from most coaching staffs today.

"In practice you have to do what the coaches want to make them happy. Make them feel like they have the big (bleep) in the room," Massie said. "On game day, you have to do your own stuff. The coaches, they're not out there blocking. They're in a big, comfortable chair with the clicker. The O-line and D-line are the best athletes on the field. It's not the quarterback, the receivers or the corners. We're going against the biggest, strongest, fastest in the world."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-kyle-long-bobby-massie-offensive-line-critics-20160505-story.html

As a casual observer of PFF, and their methodology, I have often questioned how they come up with their grades.  As for what Massie says about OL coaches, I tend to believe him.  The fundamentals of football are blocking and tackling.  The people coaching your OL and DL should be masterful at teaching capable individuals how to improve their blocking and tackling techniques.  While Massie points out that the coaches are sitting in a comfy chair with a clicker, he is making a valid parallel that perhaps the coaches are good at pointing out what they are doing wrong, but not so much at instructing them on how to change what they are doing to improve.

I tie this to Russell Bodine, by the fact that he is still making the same mistakes, and getting beat strength on strength, as he was as a rookie. If Paul Alexander were the true "maestro" that some think he is, certainly he can coach his hand picked guy to get more powerful and drive with the lower body. Right?