With the tackle market slow to develop, the Patriots have finally reached a deal with one of their own. According to Field Yates of ESPNBoston.com, the Patriots have agreed to a contract with right tackle Sebastian Vollmer. Vollmer’s signing could shake something loose for Cincinnati’s Andre Smith, as the two right tackles seemed to be stuck after Jake Long reached a deal with the Rams. Volllmer’s back issues have been a concern, but the Patriots must be convinced he’s well, and now they’ve got their entire starting line under wraps for next season.
Anyone know the average salary of an offensive line as a full unit? Plenty of ways to find it, just curious if anyone has a list already compiled. I'm curious to see where teams rank there. I have to assume NE's is one of the most expensive, even with Solder playing on a rookie deal, which would make sense having a franchise QB. I feel like people complain about the price of an OL too often and undervalue the importance of having 5 talented starters among it.
Patriots are at 19th according to overthecap. There appears to be little correlation between pay and line play. Jets are 8th with a pretty shitty line, Seahawks have an excellent one and are 3rd, Cardinals were historically bad and are 9th.
It doensn't matter who plays OL for them their OL coach is a fuckin wizard whoever he coaches gets it done. I'm done trying to figure it out. I guess the short passing game helps nullify passrush as well.
Yeah the way they looked as a unit in preseason this past year, along with the former Chief Guard (Shields?) deciding not to return after speculation he would for NE.....I thought they were gonna get Brady knocked out before week 17 but somehow they turned it on once the season started and played solid as always. I think Brady's quick decision making, release, and having quick slot guy in Welker plus the big TEs helps alot. Their run game also improved too.....so definitely need to give credit to both the line and position coach as well. Sent from my LG-P999
Best example: Brady (2006): Sacked 26 times (20 attemps per sack) Brady (2007): Sacked 21 times (27.5 att per sack) Cassell (2008): Sacked 47 times (11 att per sack) Brady (2009): Sacked 16 times (35 att per sack) Brady (2010): Sacked 25 times (20 att per sack) Brady (2011): Sacked 32 times (19 att per sack) with KC, Cassel (2009): Sacked 42 times (12 attempts per sack) Cassel (2010): Sacked 26 times (17 att per sack) Cassel (2011): Sacked 22 times (12 att per sack) I use Cassel as he is the only QB to play with the Pats OLine. You can see a definite trend with the QB and passing attempts and sacks. OLine is important but the QB play does have a significant aspect to the pass rush. Brady's quick release is key to his success (also the short game as the ends and LBs can't rush 100% of the time if they are worried about dump offs). This is a well-known fact...the book on beating Brady is to get to him early and often as he is unaccustomed to dealing with consistently being hit due to his quick release. A QB pressure analysis would probably give a better overview but I don't feel like searching for more data right now. Edit: Just wanted to note that Scab is probably the best OLine coach in the NFL. Something that Brady probably appreciates greatly.
Some interesting numbers there, good post. Brady processes the field pretty quickly and has a good idea pre-snap what's coming (with some notable exceptions). When they've lost, it's been because teams did a good job of clogging up the middle of the field. Protection eventually breaks down and he starts taking shots. Dante Scarnecchia (sp?) is indeed a great coach... he's been with the Pats since the mid 1980s, through something like 8 coaching changes.
