Yes, I am aware that the title of this article is click baity. But there is an issue in how we evaluate Offensive Linemen. When we look at the stats there are only two stats that we look at; sacks allowed, and pancakes. There are obviously major issues with this, including the obvious fact that many good blocks do not end in pancakes, that giving up a sack is not the only bad thing an O Lineman can do.
There are obviously other more in depth ways of evaluating Offensive lines. We could look at how the opposing defensive lineman did. For example a Right Tackle holding an All Star defensive end to a day where he has no tackles for a loss and no sacks is an incredibly impressive day. Does it matter that the Right Tackle had only one pancake? Obviously it does not. I can see why we don’t use this evaluation method, it would clearly be more effort and it would be complicated. Not to mention it’s difficult to tell for interior linemen who is matched up with who, as well as blitzing line backers complicated the issue.
One other way to possibly evaluate Offensive Lines as a whole is to look at Yards per Carry by the running backs on the team. We already evaluate offensive lines on pass blocking by looking at sacks allowed, however there is no evaluation of run blocking at all. Again this would be difficult, and it would only evaluate the lines as a whole. We would not be able to use yards per carry to check individual performance.
So with all of this being said, there is an obvious solution that would be very easy. We should consider the penalties by each offensive lineman. There is no reason why when we keep track of stats we don’t also look at penalties. When looking at team of the week, MVP, All Star teams and every other aspect of prospect evaluation we ignore penalties. I don’t understand why that is. If an O-Lineman gets a 15 yard clipping penalty that is probably about as bad a sack. Yes you do not lose the down, but you give up 15 yards AND you possibly negate a solid play that we don’t know about by looking at the box score alone.
A good example of our poor level of evaluation is San Jose’s week 1 game against Philly. They had five offensive linemen. One of them had an insane game, so is not super relevant to our consideration here. Longshaw had no penalties, no sacks allowed and nine, yes nine, pancakes. Now lets evaluate their other four offensive linemen. Yates had three pancakes and no sacks, Sharp had two pancakes and no sacks, Sharpei had two pancakes and no sacks, and even the Bot had a pancake and no sacks. When looking at overall stats in our league page, and who had a better week immediately people would say Yates had the better week. However it is CLEAR that at least Sharp and Sharpei had a better week. Yates had a big 15 yard penalty. As stated earlier the impact of a 15 yard penalty is huge. I would in fact say that BigBoy9 had a better game.
My overall point is, what the hell do we even care about pancakes for. I get that it’s the only way we can evaluate O Lineman for, but IRL it is irrelevant. The only time that pancakes matter are in Madden or NCAA football. People cared about it during Orlando Pace’s Heisman campaign but aside from that, I can’t see why it matters at all.
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There are obviously other more in depth ways of evaluating Offensive lines. We could look at how the opposing defensive lineman did. For example a Right Tackle holding an All Star defensive end to a day where he has no tackles for a loss and no sacks is an incredibly impressive day. Does it matter that the Right Tackle had only one pancake? Obviously it does not. I can see why we don’t use this evaluation method, it would clearly be more effort and it would be complicated. Not to mention it’s difficult to tell for interior linemen who is matched up with who, as well as blitzing line backers complicated the issue.
One other way to possibly evaluate Offensive Lines as a whole is to look at Yards per Carry by the running backs on the team. We already evaluate offensive lines on pass blocking by looking at sacks allowed, however there is no evaluation of run blocking at all. Again this would be difficult, and it would only evaluate the lines as a whole. We would not be able to use yards per carry to check individual performance.
So with all of this being said, there is an obvious solution that would be very easy. We should consider the penalties by each offensive lineman. There is no reason why when we keep track of stats we don’t also look at penalties. When looking at team of the week, MVP, All Star teams and every other aspect of prospect evaluation we ignore penalties. I don’t understand why that is. If an O-Lineman gets a 15 yard clipping penalty that is probably about as bad a sack. Yes you do not lose the down, but you give up 15 yards AND you possibly negate a solid play that we don’t know about by looking at the box score alone.
A good example of our poor level of evaluation is San Jose’s week 1 game against Philly. They had five offensive linemen. One of them had an insane game, so is not super relevant to our consideration here. Longshaw had no penalties, no sacks allowed and nine, yes nine, pancakes. Now lets evaluate their other four offensive linemen. Yates had three pancakes and no sacks, Sharp had two pancakes and no sacks, Sharpei had two pancakes and no sacks, and even the Bot had a pancake and no sacks. When looking at overall stats in our league page, and who had a better week immediately people would say Yates had the better week. However it is CLEAR that at least Sharp and Sharpei had a better week. Yates had a big 15 yard penalty. As stated earlier the impact of a 15 yard penalty is huge. I would in fact say that BigBoy9 had a better game.
My overall point is, what the hell do we even care about pancakes for. I get that it’s the only way we can evaluate O Lineman for, but IRL it is irrelevant. The only time that pancakes matter are in Madden or NCAA football. People cared about it during Orlando Pace’s Heisman campaign but aside from that, I can’t see why it matters at all.
610
GRADED