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“I don’t want no scrub” - TLC
The Panthers offensive line has been much maligned for the last several years. It’s a position that some feel we have neglected in the draft, and when Jordan Gross retired a few years ago he left us bereft of star power on the line, notwithstanding Ryan Kalil.
Needless to say the general public sees the Panthers offense as little more than Cam Newton and whichever offensive lineman he dives over during a highlight. But as many of us know, that’s an unfair representation of the Panthers. Corey/Philly Brown jerseys aren’t in the NFL Shop commercials, it’s not news if Greg Olsen creates an Instagram account, and our offensive line probably isn’t going to be in any slow motion montages of a cold winter game in some anniversary DVD of the NFL’s greatest whatevers. But Cam will be shown dabbing until the subterranean martians come to earth and introduce us to yingsstrome, some hybrid of rugby and that Aztec game they play in The Road to El Dorado.
But until that day inevitably comes, we have football, we have 11 men on offense, and we have position groups that are underrated on a national scale. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Panthers offensive line.
This is a graph from the 2016 Football Outsiders Almanac, analyzing the performance of our offensive line for last season. Football Outsiders looks at every play from the season in order to create a more complete narrative on teams and players than record or simple statistics alone can tell. The last three columns are the unusual ones. Sk refers to blown blocks that led directly to sacks. Pass refers to blown blocks leading to hurries and pressures (including sacks) on passing plays. Run refers to blown blocks leading to run plays gone awry. We can tell a few things here: if Remmers ever has a runny nose he need not worry—there is always a hanky around him somewhere. Ryan Kalil is an angel. Trai Turner is an emerging star. Michael Oher, is well...Michael Oher.
But wait, there’s more!
So here we have a few more advanced statistics about our offensive line, a few of which I will emphasize. Yards is average rushing yards per play. ALY is Adjusted Line Yards, i.e. a yards per play adjusted for the impact that the line itself has. 12th in the league! Not bad, not great. Power deals with running plays in third/fourth-and-short and goal line situations.
It means that we converted 76% of those types of plays (for first downs or touchdowns) and that was SECOND best rate in football. It helps when you have a two-yard tall quarterback and you need one yard, but it also speaks to the strength of our offensive lineman when we need a push at the right moment. Cont in the far right column speaks to the continuity of the line over the season. A perfect score is 48, and then subtracts:
• The number of players over five who started at least one game on the offensive line;
• The number of times the team started at least one different lineman compared to the game before; and
• The difference between 16 and that team’s longest streak where the same line started consecutive games.
The perfect continuity score is 48, which Minnesota received by starting the same five linemen in all 16 games. Last year’s lowest score, and lowest score since we began tracking this stat, was New England at 15.
Listen. I know. I would love to have the Cowboys offensive line also. Our line isn’t transcendent. All I am submitting is that our line does not get as much credit as it deserves. Our line is like a DC superhero movie. I haven’t seen Suicide Squad yet, and I have heard everything that’s out there. But you know? I’ll probably still see it.
Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker, maybe it’s because I have just a little hint of that “if you don’t like something I like, you’re just wrong” mindset (as seen most strongly in the Panthers, UNC, LOST, or Seinfeld), or maybe it’s because I want to believe that someday DC will get it right. There’s nothing wrong with them being a few years behind Marvel. But it tricks the general public into believing anything with the DC tag is going to be bad. “Man of Steel? Garbage bro”, “Batman v Superman? UGH WHAT A WASTE.” “Michael Oher? What, is Sandra Bullock gonna be our coach now?”
We might be a little bit behind. We might be preordained with the “piecemeal offensive lineman” tag, but our offensive line deserves a bit more credit. And we are looking at a bright future. Kalil is on the back nine, but Trai Turner is showing promise and Daryl Williams (a 2015 draft selection) is waiting in the wings for his chance. Give it a couple years. Gettleman will find his hogmollies. He doesn’t want no scrub.