Is Lions O-Line their strongest attribute?

I think the negative comments currently directed at our O Line are mostly about the inability to guarantee a two yard gain against a defence which is stacking nine players in the box and some exceedingly dumb penalties.

While I don’t think our O Line is our strongest unit, it is a good unit and well above average in the NFL. Even better, They fit what we do as a team very well and I see the dumb penalties [over aggressive ones] being eliminated. Besides, this group should be really motivated to perform well based on all the negativity around them. I like their chances to be a top four or five unit in the NFL this year.

isn’t near the top lines in the NFL overall, but this scheme and continuity has aided this group to be able to get the job done at a very high level in pass protection. We get a lot of passes out quick. Between Dom’s decade of experience calling protections and Stafford’s uncanny knowledge of the game this early on, I think we can expect to see a lot of efficiency out of that passing game.

I don’t think you can divorce run blocking from the equation though. There are too many mental lapses and interior lineman getting out-muscled in the run game for us to put the line way up there in the rankings…I see the line’s responsibility- in general – as 50% protect the QB and 50% open holes for the RBs…

In our case, we have a franchise QB who can absolutely shred defenses if given the time..therefore pass protection is much more valuable than run blocking…so for us, we’ve got a great thing going. And I believe Schwartz knows this and that is why he chose to invest in RBs instead of interior lineman this past year and says he doesn’t expect for us to be a “balanced offense”…If we need to pass to win, we will – as much as it takes!

as terrible as I thought it would be in fact i think after the first game we rank in the middle of the NFL. Two years ago I would have been ecstatic for ANY stat that put us in the middle of the pack.

I am still a proponent of finding some young guys to learn behind Backus and Raiola and be ready to take over when they retire, similar to what we have in Fox. As far as our strongest position, it’s gotta be quarterback. We went from having one of the worst backup QBs in the league in Dan Orlovsky, to having Stafford, who is emerging as a top 10 talent, Hill, who can easily start on many teams, and Stanton, who is better than most backups. And even after that, we have Zac Robinson sitting tight on the Bengals PS, ready to be snatched up by us if we need him. I dont see that depth anywhere else on the Lions, although the D tackle comes very very close, and will probably surpass QB once Fairley emerges

is that the 2 most important positions on the line are, IMO, LT and C.
And both are pretty dang old. There still pretty solid but age can become a problem.

First off, the line is adequate at best. Statistics are a fine resource, but seldom tell the whole story. It was against Chicago last year that Backus, he who is the Rasputin of Detroit, completely blew his block and got Stafford crushed. Raiola, after eleven years, is still undersized and gets pushed around. It was the addition of Sims, and the continued progression of Pettigrew and his fine blocking, that has taken the spotlight off of Backus and Raiola.

I have always said, and I stand by it, that if you sandwich Backus between two Pro Bowl caliber players, it would hide his glaring deficiencies, and it has. Don’t be fooled though, putting this guy on an island triggers a warning bell in Dr. James Andrews office to get the surgical room prepped and ready for incoming. Backus would not be a starter on 80% of teams in the NFL, and without Sims and Pettigrew, he wouldn’t be a starter here anymore either. Can no one else see the direct correlation between Rob Sims addition and the curtailing of calls for Backus’s head?

Don’t think I’m a total hater, I have a great appreciation for Jeff’s dedication, his work ethic, and personal character. This guy is a fine human being and a good person. That being said, I would wholeheartedly agree with anyone who graded this as a position in need of an upgrade. It would be negligent not to be prepared for his eventual departure, and it would be nice to see a guy we drafted to “develop” actually Develop and become a starter.

is not representative of the true nature of our ’O’line. I have a DVR with zoom that you can switch to 4 different views. Watch the last 6 games of last season and zoom in on our line play.
Gos is a backup player at best, Backus gets ’Backup’d into our pocket 3 out of 4 plays and Peterman is a third stringer.I love out team and think many of the changes this year are great and nothing but positive but if you ever want us to be more than a 10-11 win team we have to address our O’line.

We’ve always been strong at pass blocking so that isn’t a surprise. However, this season is one game old, I wanna see the line hold up and play well.

But when you hear former o-linemen (Jamie Dukes, Mark Schlereth to name a few) say they need to upgrade, then maybe they really do. I personally think they need upgraded, and I don’t understand why they haven’t, but as of the moment, its a pretty solid line.

I think it is clear that the defensive line has much more depth and talent overall. The best way to judge these things would be to analyze the positions based on how easy it would be to get an upgrade at the position. There are clearly some players on the offensive line that can be upgraded. I really don’t see any easy upgrades on the defensive line.

One of the problems with an analysis of the offensive line is how the offensive line functions as a unit. Poor players at a position can impact the players on either side of them as well. What we have now is a couple very good players on the offensive line and a number of mediocre ones. I would rate each player like this…

Jeff Backus is very good, He is a top ten tackle in the NFL. He is also very reliable. The problem with Backus is his age, but the Lions appear to have an heir apparent in Jason Fox. The Fox injury in the preseason really hurt because he was coming along very nicely. The Lions will need to find a way to give Fox more playing time when he returns so that we can see what we have.

Rob Sims is good, but if he keeps performing like he did against Tampa Bay he will be superb (top 5 at his position). My impression of Sims from the 2010 is that he pass blocks well but was only average at run blocking. That changed in the first game this season. Sims was a beast in Tampa Bay.

IMO, those are the two offensive line players that will be difficult to upgrade, at least until Backus’ age.catches up with him. You can add Brandon Pettigrew to that list if you consider tight ends as part of the offensive line.

Dominc Raiola is not as good as what we originally thought. We often gave Dom a pass because his guards were not very good. Now that Dom has decent guards we have discovered that he is not as good as we thought. He still gives up penetration into the backfield much too often. I don’t expect Dom to dominate a nose tackle in a one on one matchup. Very few centers can do that. I do expect him to be able to sustain blocks on double teams and maintain a pocket that Matthew Stafford can step up into. I rate Dom as below average, maybe around the #20 to #25 rank among centers. I believe he has become one of the weakest players at his position on the team because of other positions being upgraded with better talent. I firmly expect Dom to be “upgraded” within a season or two.

Steven Peterman is a frustrating player. He has the talent to be one of the best right guards in the game, as he was a couple seasons ago. He also has the potential to get injured a lot and when he does it reduces his effectiveness. Peterman also developed a tendency to commit bad penalties last season, that he did not have before that. We have all suspected the penalties were because he was playing hurt, but he seems to almost always be hurt. So that may prove to be a serious problem. Peterman was a below average right guard last season, but a top 5 right guard the season before. The real question is which Peterman will show up this season.

Gosder Cherilus is another frustrating player. His mental lapses during a game are well documented despite the attempts by a few people on this forum to downplay them. They have been chronicled by the sportswriters and mentioned by Jim Schwartz on more than one occasion. When Cherilus is dialed in, he can be one of the better right tackles in the game. When he is off in la la land, he is one of the worst. Like Peterman, we are looking for him to find some consistency, but his leash is now very short because the coaches have confidence that Corey Hilliard can do the job if needed.

So what we have is..

A good left side, and some problems from center and the right side. I concentrate on the center position because Raiola is not going to get better, only worse. So we need to find a replacement. If the guys on the right side of the line do not improve quickly, they will be gone too.

…a veteran squad, been together a while now. That continuity is important. Above average in pass protection, average in run blocking.

That said they are a veteran squad, and hopefully this years draft is where we infuse some awesome young talent like we did when we got Suh for the D-line.