PFF: Bengals OL Ranked 30th

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

This shows that the OC has done some great things to scheme around the weakness, and Dalton has been money moving out of the pocket to buy time to make plays. It also shows how absolutely pathetically awful Zampese's offense was at trying to cover up weak spots.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-week-5-nfl-offensive-line-rankings
Starting Lineup:
Left Tackle: Cordy Glenn, 55.6
Left Guard: Clint Boling, 68.0
Center: Trey Hopkins, 54.2
Right Guard: Alex Redmond, 53.7
Right Tackle: Bobby Hart, 56.3

There may not be a more thankless player in the NFL than Bengals left guard Clint Boling. Early in his career, he was outshined by left tackle Andrew Whitworth then right guard Kevin Zeitler along the Bengals’ offensive line. Now, he’s been unfairly grouped in with one of the worst offensive lines in the league. The truth is, he’s been a consistently above average guard his entire career, and his 78.7 pass-block grade so far this season is easily the highest among Bengals starters.

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Saw someone online ask about Price, and he was at 57.7, which would be 26th if he had enough snaps.

Other OLs of note on the list...
Rams: 1st (Whit at 87.6, highest T in NFL)
Cowboys: 10th (far cry from their days of 1st)
Browns: 12th (Zeitler at 67.1)
Steelers: 13th
Ravens 14th
Bills: 26th (Bodine at 58.2)

[Joelist]

Just remember PFF is far from money when it comes to grading linemen.

[Interceptor]

O-Line ranked 30th out of 32 with a record of 4-1?
Ok, someone is lying here.....

[Shake n Blake]

I'm not buying that ranking right now.

We're 12th in yards per carry and we've only given up 9 sacks (19 teams have allowed more).

Yeah yeah, the pressures aren't good, but you can't be 30th with the above numbers. I'm not buying the "scheming around it" excuse, either. We've been attacking downfield and the line has been getting Andy time for those throws. They're also opening some decent holes in the run game.

We still have a ways to go before we can call the line an asset, but it's not 30th. Heck, 7 teams have given up double the sacks we have, and I'm sure their pressure numbers aren't exactly good. And again...we're 12th in YPC.

[Brimey]

Either the line is 30th and Andy is the best QB in the league or the line is closer to the middle and Andy is playing like a top ten QB. I believe the latter. They certainly outplayed Miami last week. The screen to Uzomah where Glenn was laying blocks downfield (Uzomah took the wrong angle) was something I don't know if I ever saw Og do. Remember last year? The amount of negative runs was staggering. Andy was getting destroyed on the regular. Heck remember the Jets game in 2016 WITH Zeitler and Whit? Andy is lucky to still be walking. The line stunk in 2016 too. I haven't noticed a line in the league that truly stands out this year.

[JumboTron]

(10-13-2018, 02:19 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I'm not buying that ranking right now.

We're 12th in yards per carry and we've only given up 9 sacks (19 teams have allowed more).

Yeah yeah, the pressures aren't good, but you can't be 30th with the above numbers. I'm not buying the "scheming around it" excuse, either. We've been attacking downfield and the line has been getting Andy time for those throws. They're also opening some decent holes in the run game.

We still have a ways to go before we can call the line an asset, but it's not 30th. Heck, 7 teams have given up double the sacks we have, and I'm sure their pressure numbers aren't exactly good. And again...we're 12th in YPC.

This.

I was just thinking when seeing this ranking that something isn't jiving with yards we have racked up along with the amount of sacks surrendered by this group.  In other words: this O-Line being the third worst unit in the NFL seems, at best, confounding.  

Of course, it is helping that Dalton is extending plays better than he has at any point in his career so far, but I personally see this group being relatively solid and reliable, especially compared to the absolute atrocity we bared witness to last season.

[Joelist]

I wouldn't call our OL good at this point yet, but compared to last year's disaster they are improved. And I do think Lazor and Pollack have a lot to do with it. To quote Hobson from the latest Hobson's Choice:

Quote:"According to profootballfocus.com, Dalton is completing 72 percent of his passes and has six TDs when he’s in the pocket less than 2.5 seconds. He’s getting it out of there like a hand grenade. I also think during the offseason Lazor worked very hard with new offensive line coach Frank Pollack to re-shape the pocket. Once Hue Jackson left, the offensive line failed to give Dalton not only time, but space, in the pocket. The guy could never see down field because the guards and center were in his lap. It looks like to me Lazor and Pollack have made the pocket stouter with quicker, firmer sets so Dalton can view the field. They haven’t been as effective doing it the last two weeks but, heck, they’ve got a guy playing center for the first time in his life playing his butt off. Still, the concept seems to have taken hold."

This is a good observation. They HAVE changed the technique especially with regards to how the pocket should be held. The issue of the pocket having no nose and being too narrow was one throughout Andy's career here and also Palmer's later years.

[*bfine32*]

Can't beat up PA and the Cowboy's olline too bad. Losing the best Center in football and staying top 10 is pretty good.

As to our ranking: surprised to see Hart higher rated than Glenn

[*Go Cards*]

OL has not been great, maybe not quite that low, but certainly not good.

Dalton has covered a lot of this up with quick decisions and releases.

Mixon and Gio have reversed fields many times to get yards when none were available.

Still better than last years OL but needs addressed in offseason once again.

[TSwigZ]

Imagine how good we’d be with a Top 10 OLine

[fredtoast]

How do they grade O-lines. If it is just a compilation of thr individual rankings that does not mean a lot.

But I thought they had a different way of grading O-lines that had to do with the performance of the unit as a whole instead of just adding up the individual grades. I have always trashed PFF's individual player rankings but I seemed to remember that when grading the unit they used some sort of objective stats instea of subjective grading like they do with individuals.

I know FootballOutsiders grades O-lines as a unit basedon objective stats.

[Nicomo Cosca]

(10-13-2018, 04:25 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Can't beat up PA and the Cowboy's olline too bad. Losing the best Center in football and staying top 10 is pretty good.

As to our ranking: surprised to see Hart higher rated than Glenn

I’m not. Glenn has been disappointing. Bodine higher than Hopkins is hard to believe though.

[Yojimbo]

Glenn hasn’t been right since he hurt his shoulder, I think it was at the end of Panthers game?

As to how we are 4-1 with the 30th ranked line, it’s been late game heroics and defense scoring, not any sustained offensive drives and scoring.

Getting Price back and Glenn healthy, then doing something about either Redmond or Hart, the line should improve as the season progresses.

[Whodey614]

Cordy Glenn's PFF grade went from the lower 70s to mid-40s after his bad game against Carolina. Definitely a little misleading. He's been far from perfect the last few weeks but still so much better than Ogbuehi. I'd bet that we're not 4-1 if he was the starter at LT.

O-line is far from perfect but you can't ask for better results in year 1 of Pollack. Dalton has a little more time to go through his progressions (helps that Dalton has improved at extending plays even when protection isn't perfect) and the running game is formidable. We'll only get better when Price comes back and maybe we'll get lucky and get a decent tackle from a tanking team for a mid-round pick.

[Joelist]

A lot of things have changed. OL blocking philosophy is different resulting in a pocket with a nose and someplace for the QB to step into, the receivers have been coached (FINALLY!) for correct reactions to the blocking breaking down and so on.

[*bengalfan74*]

I'm not really buying we're that bad either. Granted we haven't been great but we're not one of the worst.

We'll see just where this line stands tomorrow as I'm sure Pittsburgh will be sending the house often.

[Circleville Guy]

Dalton has played fabulous this year. The talent on the OLine this year is a tad better than last year, the results are a tad better than last year. Who would have guessed?

[Shake n Blake]

(10-13-2018, 06:51 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: Glenn hasn’t been right since he hurt his shoulder, I think it was at the end of Panthers game?

As to how we are 4-1 with the 30th ranked line, it’s been late game heroics and defense scoring, not any sustained offensive drives and scoring.

Getting Price back and Glenn healthy, then doing something about either Redmond or Hart, the line should improve as the season progresses.

The defense allowed 28 points per game over the first 4, and we started 3-1.

Just because the defense just had a great effort last week, doesn't mean it wasn't atrocious the first 4 games. 

The offense carried the team until last week.

[*SHRacerX*]

(10-13-2018, 01:04 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: This shows that the OC has done some great things to scheme around the weakness, and Dalton has been money moving out of the pocket to buy time to make plays. It also shows how absolutely pathetically awful Zampese's offense was at trying to cover up weak spots.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-week-5-nfl-offensive-line-rankings
Starting Lineup:
Left Tackle: Cordy Glenn, 55.6
Left Guard: Clint Boling, 68.0
Center: Trey Hopkins, 54.2
Right Guard: Alex Redmond, 53.7
Right Tackle: Bobby Hart, 56.3

There may not be a more thankless player in the NFL than Bengals left guard Clint Boling. Early in his career, he was outshined by left tackle Andrew Whitworth then right guard Kevin Zeitler along the Bengals’ offensive line. Now, he’s been unfairly grouped in with one of the worst offensive lines in the league. The truth is, he’s been a consistently above average guard his entire career, and his 78.7 pass-block grade so far this season is easily the highest among Bengals starters.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Saw someone online ask about Price, and he was at 57.7, which would be 26th if he had enough snaps.

Other OLs of note on the list...
Rams: 1st (Whit at 87.6, highest T in NFL)
Cowboys: 10th (far cry from their days of 1st)
Browns: 12th (Zeitler at 67.1)
Steelers: 13th
Ravens 14th
Bills: 26th (Bodine at 58.2)

My positive spin:

With almost no real contact in practice any more, and very little time played in the preseason, this line is just starting to gel.

They have FOUR or the FIVE spots entirely new vs. last year.

Bobby Hart was long seen as the biggest question mark, but he is steadily improving and had his best game last week.  

What also seems to be lost on PFF rankings is we are averaging a better YPC number in the rushing attack than we have in years.  The right side may still struggle a bit in pass blocking but those two big boys have made it so that every 3rd and 2 isn't an automatic pass play.

They will get better when Price returns and they will continue to get better as the season wears on.  Perhaps what is best about them is they seem to be doing their best when we absolutely need them.  The last drive against Atlanta?  The last offensive drive against the Dolphins?  

I am not saying the Pro Bowl will be littered with Bengal offensive linemen, but they are good enough right now and evolving in to "solid".

Compared to last year, I will take it.  

[RiverRat13]

Football Outsiders' rankings - https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol