The OL will go only as far as the LT and C allow it to go. Our C last year was horrible. I believe Long and/or Swanson will be a considerable upgrade. Will this be the best OL in football? No. Can it be adequate? Yes, especially if Brian Winters doesn't have to play the entire season injured and if Brandon Shell can stay on the field. There are legitimate concerns with injury prone players (Shell to an extent, definitely Long), but on paper the OL is better situated this season with Long and Swanson replacing Johnson and Harrison, although Harrison could still make the team.
I was reading through the forums of both Redskins and Lions fans to get their perspective on these guys. Redskins fans liked Long, but didn't feel he deserved starter money. One of those nice to have, good attitude, grinder, but not especially talented types. Lions fans felt Swanson was good and looking very promising right up until he started having significant concussion issues, and at the end he became one of those frustrating players who was constantly missing time. Sounds like he has more natural talent than Long, but there is serious concern that what's left of his brain at this point is jelly.
There's no doubt that they both have their issues and concerns. This regime has loved to bring in injury prone players in the past and it's worked out a good amount of the time so far. I'm hopeful the training staff can keep at least one of them on the field before we look for a long-term solution in 2019 or 2020. Long may be, but he's missed so many games, it's hard to judge. I think in an ideal world Swanson never really sees the field for the 2018 team, he's just insurance because counting on Long for 16 games would be foolish.
He was. It still wasn't very impressive. I was excited about Winters when we drafted him, but he's been below average at his very best since then.
Carpenter looked really good, and Winters looked like if he kept at it for three more years, he could be average.
i think some of yall are focusing too much on the individuals on the line and not the system bates is a shanahan disciple. shanahan rarely had guys who were uber talents on his lines. they just fit the system very well kubiak and kyle shanahan also had some prolific offenses (the 2016 falcons was one of the best ever) without many stars on their lines it will take some time to find the right guys, but dont be discouraged if theyre not highly regarded by "experts"
Shanahan had extremely talented linemen--they were just smaller and quicker than the big bruising bulldozer types that the rest of the league wanted. When he was in Denver, the whole league was trying to build a copy of the Dallas O-line or the Hogs, so he had his pick of quick undersized linemen--he had no competition for their services at all. Much like the way the Steelers and Patriots (Or the Steelers and Bucs, or the Steelers and Raiders....pick your era) used to get the most out of their Defensive draft picks because they were the only teams in league running a 3-4, so 4-3 DEs were at an absolute premium, while 3-4 OLBs only had two teams chasing them. These days there are plenty of teams running all of these systems, so nobody gets a monopoly on certain types of players anymore.
