Offensive Line: It's NOT the Players. It's the Scheme

[SunsetBengal]

(10-12-2020, 11:28 AM)Wyche Wrote: Nah, it's both. Og sucks, Price sucks, Fisher sucked, Jordan isn't very good, Redmond is below average.

While all of those guys have performed miserably in a Bengals uniform, they were each outstanding players at the college level.  Sure, we can write off one, maybe two as just unlucky draft selections, but that is a lot of guys drafted that have not even come close to achieving their expected potential.  Now, we have Jonah Williams, a top 10 selection at LT, who seems to be having difficulty knowing who he's supposed to be picking up on any given play.

Now, it's also been well talked about on here that the OL coming out of college these days, particularly the Tackles, are just not "game ready".  So all teams are struggling to find and develop new starting talent at T in the NFL.  What I'm having trouble wrapping my head around, is why we are struggling so hard to find a pair of competent Guards?  Guard has literally got to the most basic, fundamental position in Football.  You have to really have a jacked up blocking scheme, in order to have college educated Guards not knowing who to pick up, repeatedly.

Now, with the talent new talent pool issue out in the open;  How is that other teams are able to put competent, cohesive OLs out there?  Sure, 3 OL coaches in 4 seasons isn't helping things, but there needs to be a greater commitment from the organization as a whole.

(10-12-2020, 11:58 AM)Joelist Wrote: Kettering is right. When one player fails to perform at or near their college level it is a player problem (happens to every team). When multiple players do this you have to look at the coaching and scheme and technique being taught.

The blocking scheme is defective - our linemen always are too high and they also retreat immediately making for a tiny pocket. In the run game they don't fly off the snap driving into the defense. They lack aggressiveness. Communication is obviously a problem and so is reaction. So, we are using a scheme that is too complex for the current state of the line. It needs to be simplified into something that they CAN process and execute.

Yep, part of it is players.  But a much larger contributing factor to the crappy OL is coaching, talent evaluation, and roster budget management.