He just likes to start shit to say he is going to be right. I wouldn't pay too much attention to him.
I wouldn't be surprised in the least if our run game suffers with the loss of Faneca, especially early in the season. I think I'd be more surprised if it doesn't. Granted, we should see an immediate upgrade in pass pro, at least one would hope.
Ducasse was an absolute mauler in the running game at UMass. If anything, it's his pass pro he needs to work on. Although, sliding him into the guard spot would take a lot of pressure off of him.
That's fine, UMass isn't exactly the NFL and Faneca is still a very good NFL run blocker. I highly doubt he steps in and performs at the level Faneca had been, but I suppose it's possible. That sucks his pass pro needs work.
He played tackle in college so most of the knocks on his pass pro were coming against ends and linebackers while he was alone on an island against them. It was mostly how he chose his angles that bothered scouts. His footwork and aggression were impeccable. Moving him inside takes away a lot of that problem since he is going to have help on either side of him and behind him with Richardson and Tomlinson being two of the best pass pro backs in the league. Of course, all of this is assuming that he wins the starting job. I'm still ready to sell out Slauson just yet.
Might wanna take a look at this. According to this, Faneca was one of the worst guards in the league. Well apparently my post count isn't large enough to post it. *shrug* Go to ProFootballFocus and sort overall guards in 2009.
Despite Faneca's penchant for poor pass-blocking...he did pass on his experience to Mangold/Brick and was great against the run. I agree with the move to go younger......but i also want to thank Faneca for what he did for this team and wish him luck in the desert.
+1 Thank you for mentoring D'brick and (especially) Mangold... and thank you for being your contribution in the run game.
I thought he was 18th worst. I'll check, but I thought the standings were inverted. With a minimum of 64 guards starting in the league, that's definitely tough to justify $7.5 million for. That's even tough to justify $2.5 million for. EDIT: Yes, he was 67th out of 84 guards. The biggest names/contracts ranked below him are: Eric Steinbach (an atrocious #83 at 7 million a season, but the Browns still owe him plenty of guaranteed money. With four more years on his contract, good luck cutting him in a capped year next year, too! Mike Goff (Cheap) Davin Joseph (Cheap) Justin Blalock (Cheap) To give a little perspective, Brandon Moore ranked 9th BEST, as did Ferguson among Tackles. Woody was 4th, and Mangold...of course...#1 by 13 full points. It's easy to see where the problem was on our line.
