PFF Ranks all 127 Offensive Lines in D1

knapplc

knapplc

Active member
PFF, who "analyzes every player and every play of every game to deliver player grades, stats, and rankings for the NFL, fantasy football, and NFL Draft," is not high on the Huskers O Line.

I believe these are the same guys who ranked Adrian Martinez second to last in the offseason. Which I disagreed with then and still do now. 

Any reason to believe they're wrong about the line, though? Seems pretty spot-on.


 


94. NEBRASKA


Left tackle Brenden Jaimes was the only Cornhusker offensive lineman with any high hopes of good play this season and that’s exactly been the case so far. Jaimes hasn’t been nearly as good as what he was last year in pass protection when he earned an 88.1 grade in that facet, but he has still been good relative to his counterparts. The left tackle has recorded a 75.4 pass-block grade this year and allowed the fifth-lowest pressure rate among Big Ten tackles at 1.9%. As for everyone else on Nebraska’s offensive line, they have allowed over twice the pressure rate of Jaimes and are all under a 60.0 pass-block grade for the year.
Click to expand...

 
Pretty sure we have found the top issue for the offense. We can keep talking in circles about WR and QB but if there is no time/they expect they won't get anytime I can imagine it messes with everyone.   Throw in Joe Bauserman at center and here we are.

 
Our offensive woes do start with the OLine. Poor run blocking, mediocre pass blocking, drive killing penalties, and uniquely to Nebraska - snap issues.

Some of that is on individual players, some of that is on coach Frost. Hopefully the line improves as some of the young recruits develop.

 
Several posters have pointed out for the past few years that our success, or lack thereof, absolutely MUST start with the line(s), both O and D.

Get it fixed, and we start winning games. 

 
I think the youth on the offensive line is the most problematic part of the large percentage of young players on the team.  I think they can all progress, but three of the five are redshirt freshmen or sophomores. The more experience they get in the trenches, the better the team will be in the future.

 
Our line has been so much worse than I was expecting this year.  Couple that with all of the inexperience at WR and you've got a big mess on your hands offensively.  Probably the main reason I haven't been as hard on LM as a lot of people on here.  How do you also start a new QB without decent protection upfront along with a bunch of new wide receivers out there as your targets some of them who let's just be honest aren't even true threats to stretch the field???? 

I have been looking at Austin a lot more critically this year also but then have thought about things like youth and just getting the right guys on the line.  Do we simply not have those guys yet or is this a coaching issue?  I guess we'll find out.

 
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What is dumbfounding to me is that we always hear in the preseason about how depth has improved and we will see some rotation (amount differs every year). While we saw some rotation early this year at the LG spot, such a statement has proven to be false once again. Rather than try to rotate a few new guys in to give them a chance (Bando or Nouili) it seems the 5 that start are even more entrenched. This isn't a comment on just Austin, but something that has carried over from the past couple regimes. 

 
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Is our scheme so complicated that it takes longer to teach blocking?  I don’t get it. Our B1G West peers don’t seem to have this problem.  It’s not like some of the other 93 teams ahead of us aren’t starting underclassmen too.  

 
The O line issues are so encompassing of all of our other issues at QB, RB or WR.  Yes, individual players on the line could be playing better.  But, when we don't have a down field threat or a group of WRs that can create space to get the ball to and the defense can stack the line of scrimmage....the line's job becomes exponentially more difficult.  

If we could have the offense with everyone else running like Frost wants, the line's job becomes all of a sudden a lot easier.

And, our O line should be playing better.  But, I have little faith in these types of rankings.

 
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