O-Line Rankings Have Me Excited!

[*ochocincos*]

(09-05-2023, 10:40 PM)tms Wrote: Honestly, I thought you were gonna go in another direction. I think depth is important, and I'm actually excited about ours. I've always used 3 years as the rule of thumb for OL development. If you think about the last two years, we were bringing along CV, JC, HA, Prince, Hill, Smith all in their first three years. Even Scharping, Cappa, Karras and Collins (and before them Reiff) were new bodies. 

Point being, we had a ton a guys who were just out of college, and another group who were trying to help us change the oil going full speed up the interstate. Besides OBJ coming in off the street and CV on the learning curve, that's not really the case anymore. JC, Smith and Hill are in their much ballyhooed third years. Cappa, Karras and Scharping (and later Collins) will know what to expect. We've been burned before, that's true, and it's important not to count the chickens before they're chickens, but I think we're in a good place.  

What exactly have you seen from the backups that make you confident in their ability to fill in?
About the only thing I am optimistic about is Carman, but only at LT. He's looked bad on the right side.
Smith can't run block to save his life.
Ford looked atrocious in the preseason.
Hill hasn't really looked any better, still just a meh IOL.
Scharping hasn't looked good on the right side either.
Collins coming back will help provide assurance for RT, but it will be interesting to see who they drop once he's healthy.