2x Voucher Claim
Hello everyone, and welcome to the S29 Offensive Line preview! We all know that OL sometimes doesn’t get the fairest of rubs from the ISFL community. Some look down on it as a position for the weak and others question the sanity of those who choose to play it. But in this writer’s humble opinion, users who choose to line up on the offensive line are among the bravest and most noble individuals the league has ever seen and deserve all the love and recognition that players at sexy positions get, especially those of you who enjoy playing at guard and center. I can only hope that this year’s Rules Summit rewards you with the Pro Bowl spots you deserve.
In this article I will examine each team’s O lines, see what’s changed from season to season and give a rating to each team’s blocking and pancaking fortunes in S29. I’ll also imagine a world where OL Awards exist and give some picks for names to watch out for this season.
The first bit of very positive news is that offensive lines as a whole are getting MORE HUMAN! You heard me! It seems that OL love is infectious, with the % of OL that are human increasing from 54% to 67%!
ARIZONA OUTLAWS
Pass Blocking Grade: A-
Run Blocking Grade: B+
Human Love Grade: A-
Pancake Prospects:
Arizona boasted 5 human O lineman last year and they’ve retained all five to repeat that feat for S29. Unfortunately the 3 at the lower end of the scale, McBobby, Raccoon and Cadaire, are all IA. Nonetheless, they’re all right around 500 TPE, so they’re saving a ton of cap space and benefiting from better position skill than if they’d gone with bots. Reigning OLotY Calvin Golladay went through his first bout of regression this offseason, so he’ll find it challenging to repeat this season. Brent Silva’s TPE continues to climb and looks to have been a great addition. Trust, encouragement, reward, loyalty... satisfaction.
One might assume from Arizona’s run heavy philosophy that their O linemen would be focused more heavily on run blocking attributes than pass, but this doesn’t appear to be the case. While the Outlaws blocking grades are fairly high and Golladay should be fairly high in the pancake rankings, the very low Hands ratings for their 3 IAs make their total pancake prospects fairly low overall.
AUSTIN COPPERHEADS
Pass Blocking Grade: C
Run Blocking Grade: C
Human Love Grade: A
Pancake Prospects:
Austin have gone from 3 human OL to a full complement of 5 this season, thanks to the position switches of Moe Skeeter and Gluteus Maximus. Both are a little on the low side in terms of TPE, but with both users active, expect them to be strong assets by the end of the season. The party worm himself Slurms McKenzie has struggled on the field over the last couple of seasons and hasn’t improved in terms of TPE since February. But with a recent slew of activity and signing an extension, maybe he’ll make the jump.
Quigley and Archstone continue to improve though, and will lead the line overall. Interestingly, despite an assumption that Austin will be run heavy this season, the leading OL have favoured Pass Blocking over Run Blocking.
BALTIMORE HAWKS
Pass Blocking Grade: A-
Run Blocking Grade: B+
Human Love Grade: F
Pancake Prospects:
Booooooo.. Baltimore repeats it’s extremely successful OL strategy of last season by signing up 5 top tier bots to make up its line. As much as I and other human OL lovers hate it, their bots were extremely effective last season, much more so than anyone else’s. What’s their secret? Is there a secret bit of code that bumps the bots up to a theoretical Tier 5 if you start 0 human O linemen? Who knows.
Their athletic bots this season have a massive 95 in Pass Blocking and just 86 in Run Blocking, so expect a pass happy offense out of Baltimore this season. And with strong attributes overall, including good investment in Hands, expect the Hawks bots to be pancake machine this season.
BERLIN FIRE SALAMANDERS
Pass Blocking Grade: A+
Run Blocking Grade: A+
Human Love Grade: B
Pancake Prospects:
I may be biased as a Berlin player, but the Fire Salamanders are the team to watch this year in terms of OL performance. Dolls and Cooper suffered their first bout of regression this offseason, while star guard Adyan has broken through 800 TPE. But the big difference maker is former cornerback Matt Krause. After switching, he has immediately become one of the top linemen in the league. If they have one weakness, it’s at center, with Cooper regressing to just above 500 TPE. Throw in a single Tier 4 bot to plug the gap at guard, and Berlin rank #1 in both pass and run blocking.
CHICAGO BUTCHERS
Pass Blocking Grade: A-
Run Blocking Grade: A
Human Love Grade: A-
Pancake Prospects:
Chicago could easily be ahead of Berlin in all ratings. They are the only other team to have at least 2 OL above 800 TPE (in fact, the have THREE above 962 TPE!). However, their last two OL to plug the gaps are league legend Givussafare Rubbe who is now deep into regression at just 249 TPE, and IA James Gath at 388 TPE.
As such, Chicago are likely to be pretty invincible at the edges but vulnerable through the middle, so it’ll be a tasty matchup for DTs. The three superstars, Jones, Riposte and Magic, are likely to be towards the top of the pancake charts in their respective positions. Butchers fans will just need to hope that Gath and Rubbe stay out of trouble.
COLORADO YETI
Pass Blocking Grade: C
Run Blocking Grade: B
Human Love Grade: A-
Pancake Prospects:
Yeti’s offensive line might be the most decimated overall year on year. While they’ve made the admirable jump from 3 human players to 5, the line is made up of a group of semi-IA players + Scorp and Duke. This past offseason, they lost 1000+ TPE Pro Bowler Greedy Sly and replaced their two 750 TPE bots with 414 TPE Button and 507 TPE and rising Project.
It remains to be seen how exactly these 5 will be used across the line, but Caliban might want to get his running shoes out, especially on those passing plays that he is so fond of.
HONOLULU HAHALUA
Pass Blocking Grade: C-
Run Blocking Grade: C-
Human Love Grade: C+
Pancake Prospects:
This might be the toughest line to write about this season. 2 of the 3 ISFL OL in the 200-299 TPE bracket are being given starting roles on the Honolulu line this season, Miglasķēms and Francis. And their 3rd human lineman is the famous Richard Littlewood, whose 45 Intelligence cost the Hahalua 11 penalties last season.
Making up for the TPE of their humans are 2 x 750 TPE bots. Encouragingly, the tier of ‘supporting’ attributes, Agility, Intelligence, Speed and Hands are all really strong. If anything, there’s a slight bias to pass blocking, so maybe Honolulu might lean a little heavier on the pass. It will be interesting to see whether these bots line up at tackle or whether they put one of the lower TPE humans there.
NEW ORLEANS SECOND LINE
Pass Blocking Grade: B-
Run Blocking Grade: B-
Human Love Grade: C+
Pancake Prospects:
New Orleans are only running with 2 humans this season, up from 1 last year, but what humans they are! Pro Bowler Adam Mellott is an absolute stud, and dude_man looks to also be a star of the future, already at 530 TPE before taking an ISFL snap.
While other teams make up for their IA humans with tier 4 bots, NOLA’s humans might be carrying their bot counterparts, who each have 550 TPE this season. They’ve all had their TPE allocated fairly evenly, so no clues as to which way NOLA might be leaning in terms of run/pass ratio this season. But with solid investments in the pancake attributes (Strength, Pass/Run Blocking and Hands), NOLA as a team should be fairly decent in the overall rankings.
NEW YORK SILVERBACKS
Pass Blocking Grade: B+
Run Blocking Grade: A
Human Love Grade: B
Pancake Prospects:
Switching Harley Fank to OL gives the Silverbacks three pretty good human linemen. Marlon Alexander leads the group with 853 TPE and a massive investment in Tenacious Blocker ready to be unleashed. Though at 35 Speed, he along with OCO’s Ne Mo, is the slowest offensive lineman in the entire ISFL and DSFL combined, which is to be expected as he is a fridge.
Hamel continues to earn, with he and Fank sitting at around 600-650 TPE. And to plug the two gaps, NY has enlisted the help of Tier 4 bots who excel in the pancake relevant stats. Look for these bots to be up there with the best of the pancakers by the end of the season. NY’s line is most definitely above average.
ORANGE COUNTY OTTERS
Pass Blocking Grade: B-
Run Blocking Grade: C
Human Love Grade: B-
Pancake Prospects:
While OCO do boast an offensive line of 4 human users, the same as last season, only Beaver is regularly active. The other three haven’t really earned any TPE in the last 6 months and heading towards the end of their careers. Beaver’s player Rico-Shea slots into the offensive line this season, replacing Lord Beerus at a slightly higher level of TPE.
Supporting the line will be a 750 TPE bot, which has very balanced stats across the board. Expect this bot to be a decent pancaker. The three inactives will likely weigh down the team totals though. Overall, OCO’s line should perform around the same as last season.
PHILADELPHIA LIBERTY
Pass Blocking Grade: B
Run Blocking Grade: B+
Human Love Grade: C+
Pancake Prospects:
The Liberty are rolling with 3 human users this season, an unchanged lineup from S28. However, Franklin has overtaken the regressing Tremblay as the lead lineman. Both players are heavily active which is a strong positive. The 319 TPE Macaroni Elephant is of questionable value for anything other than a cap saver, with no attributes above 80.
One big positive for Philly’s line this season is an upgrade from T3 to T4 bots. While Franklin is favouring Pass Blocking in his build, the bots and his fellow humans are more evenly built. Overall, this line should be a little better than last year and should be churning out pancakes pretty successfully.
SARASOTA SAILFISH
Pass Blocking Grade: B
Run Blocking Grade: B-
Human Love Grade: A
Pancake Prospects:
This is definitely one of the most interesting lines of the season. I believe Sarasota are the only team in the league to have too many OL, with 6 human users, and will need to bench one. Pennington Jr and Big Stumpy Jones have continued to earn well and return from last year’s cast. Running Back (now renamed Offensive Lineman) and Clay Stallworth return though are both IA. The Sailfish also made two shrewd pickups, switching both Lebron James III and Bob Bob to OL.
Now they boast a cast of 6 that range from 779 to 333 TPE, so not the highest in terms of TPE, but they’ll enjoy that sweet position skill boost from no longer having to field bots. Stallworth looks set to miss out, but you never know. If he comes back and starts earning, he’ll quickly pass Offensive Lineman for a starting spot.
Don’t expect much from this team in terms of pancakes this season. Bob Bob and Stumpy Jones will likely lead the way for them (depending on where they line up of course).
SAN JOSE SABERCATS
Pass Blocking Grade: B+
Run Blocking Grade: B+
Human Love Grade: C-
Pancake Prospects:
Jaja Ding-Dong faces his second straight season of leading the charge as the lone human OL. Backing him up again are 4 bots, though 2 have been upgraded this season to T4s. Ding-Dong is close to 800 TPE and has bumped up most stats fairly evenly, peaking with 95 Strength.
The bots themselves have been built with a fairly even spread of attributes, but have definitely prioritised the right ones for optimal pancaking. In terms of team totals, expect SJS to be up there in the pancake charts.
YELLOWKNIFE WRAITHS
Pass Blocking Grade: A
Run Blocking Grade: B+
Human Love Grade: C-
Pancake Prospects:
The Wraiths lost retiring Douglas Quail from last season and replaced him with a 550 TPE bot to go with their other 3. But leading the line once again is stud tackle Bruce Buckley. He’s been through a bout of regression but he’ll still be one of the best blockers in the league this season.
Interestingly, the attribute distribution of both Buckley and the bots point to a heavy pass game, so let’s see how much Yellowknife opts to run the ball this season. The line itself should perform around the same as last year
Here’s some way too early shortlists for some real and some imaginary awards this season.
OL of the Year
Bruce Buckley
Matt Krause
Julio Jones
Mo “Mamba” Magic
All Pro 1st Team
T - Bruce Buckley
G - Ananda Adyan
C - Icebox Riposte
G - Marlon Alexander
T - Matt Krause
All Pro 2nd Team
T - Julio Jones
G - Felix Archstone
C - Bob Bob
G - Rigby Raccoon
T - Mo “Mamba” Magic
OL Rookie of the Year
Maiteers Rico-Shea
Cade Williams
Manhattan Project
OL Breakout Player of the Year
Marlon Alexander
Stumpy Jones
Alexander Franklin
Brent Silva
Hope you enjoyed reading!
Hello everyone, and welcome to the S29 Offensive Line preview! We all know that OL sometimes doesn’t get the fairest of rubs from the ISFL community. Some look down on it as a position for the weak and others question the sanity of those who choose to play it. But in this writer’s humble opinion, users who choose to line up on the offensive line are among the bravest and most noble individuals the league has ever seen and deserve all the love and recognition that players at sexy positions get, especially those of you who enjoy playing at guard and center. I can only hope that this year’s Rules Summit rewards you with the Pro Bowl spots you deserve.
In this article I will examine each team’s O lines, see what’s changed from season to season and give a rating to each team’s blocking and pancaking fortunes in S29. I’ll also imagine a world where OL Awards exist and give some picks for names to watch out for this season.
The first bit of very positive news is that offensive lines as a whole are getting MORE HUMAN! You heard me! It seems that OL love is infectious, with the % of OL that are human increasing from 54% to 67%!
ARIZONA OUTLAWS
Pass Blocking Grade: A-
Run Blocking Grade: B+
Human Love Grade: A-
Pancake Prospects:
Arizona boasted 5 human O lineman last year and they’ve retained all five to repeat that feat for S29. Unfortunately the 3 at the lower end of the scale, McBobby, Raccoon and Cadaire, are all IA. Nonetheless, they’re all right around 500 TPE, so they’re saving a ton of cap space and benefiting from better position skill than if they’d gone with bots. Reigning OLotY Calvin Golladay went through his first bout of regression this offseason, so he’ll find it challenging to repeat this season. Brent Silva’s TPE continues to climb and looks to have been a great addition. Trust, encouragement, reward, loyalty... satisfaction.
One might assume from Arizona’s run heavy philosophy that their O linemen would be focused more heavily on run blocking attributes than pass, but this doesn’t appear to be the case. While the Outlaws blocking grades are fairly high and Golladay should be fairly high in the pancake rankings, the very low Hands ratings for their 3 IAs make their total pancake prospects fairly low overall.
AUSTIN COPPERHEADS
Pass Blocking Grade: C
Run Blocking Grade: C
Human Love Grade: A
Pancake Prospects:
Austin have gone from 3 human OL to a full complement of 5 this season, thanks to the position switches of Moe Skeeter and Gluteus Maximus. Both are a little on the low side in terms of TPE, but with both users active, expect them to be strong assets by the end of the season. The party worm himself Slurms McKenzie has struggled on the field over the last couple of seasons and hasn’t improved in terms of TPE since February. But with a recent slew of activity and signing an extension, maybe he’ll make the jump.
Quigley and Archstone continue to improve though, and will lead the line overall. Interestingly, despite an assumption that Austin will be run heavy this season, the leading OL have favoured Pass Blocking over Run Blocking.
BALTIMORE HAWKS
Pass Blocking Grade: A-
Run Blocking Grade: B+
Human Love Grade: F
Pancake Prospects:
Booooooo.. Baltimore repeats it’s extremely successful OL strategy of last season by signing up 5 top tier bots to make up its line. As much as I and other human OL lovers hate it, their bots were extremely effective last season, much more so than anyone else’s. What’s their secret? Is there a secret bit of code that bumps the bots up to a theoretical Tier 5 if you start 0 human O linemen? Who knows.
Their athletic bots this season have a massive 95 in Pass Blocking and just 86 in Run Blocking, so expect a pass happy offense out of Baltimore this season. And with strong attributes overall, including good investment in Hands, expect the Hawks bots to be pancake machine this season.
BERLIN FIRE SALAMANDERS
Pass Blocking Grade: A+
Run Blocking Grade: A+
Human Love Grade: B
Pancake Prospects:
I may be biased as a Berlin player, but the Fire Salamanders are the team to watch this year in terms of OL performance. Dolls and Cooper suffered their first bout of regression this offseason, while star guard Adyan has broken through 800 TPE. But the big difference maker is former cornerback Matt Krause. After switching, he has immediately become one of the top linemen in the league. If they have one weakness, it’s at center, with Cooper regressing to just above 500 TPE. Throw in a single Tier 4 bot to plug the gap at guard, and Berlin rank #1 in both pass and run blocking.
CHICAGO BUTCHERS
Pass Blocking Grade: A-
Run Blocking Grade: A
Human Love Grade: A-
Pancake Prospects:
Chicago could easily be ahead of Berlin in all ratings. They are the only other team to have at least 2 OL above 800 TPE (in fact, the have THREE above 962 TPE!). However, their last two OL to plug the gaps are league legend Givussafare Rubbe who is now deep into regression at just 249 TPE, and IA James Gath at 388 TPE.
As such, Chicago are likely to be pretty invincible at the edges but vulnerable through the middle, so it’ll be a tasty matchup for DTs. The three superstars, Jones, Riposte and Magic, are likely to be towards the top of the pancake charts in their respective positions. Butchers fans will just need to hope that Gath and Rubbe stay out of trouble.
COLORADO YETI
Pass Blocking Grade: C
Run Blocking Grade: B
Human Love Grade: A-
Pancake Prospects:
Yeti’s offensive line might be the most decimated overall year on year. While they’ve made the admirable jump from 3 human players to 5, the line is made up of a group of semi-IA players + Scorp and Duke. This past offseason, they lost 1000+ TPE Pro Bowler Greedy Sly and replaced their two 750 TPE bots with 414 TPE Button and 507 TPE and rising Project.
It remains to be seen how exactly these 5 will be used across the line, but Caliban might want to get his running shoes out, especially on those passing plays that he is so fond of.
HONOLULU HAHALUA
Pass Blocking Grade: C-
Run Blocking Grade: C-
Human Love Grade: C+
Pancake Prospects:
This might be the toughest line to write about this season. 2 of the 3 ISFL OL in the 200-299 TPE bracket are being given starting roles on the Honolulu line this season, Miglasķēms and Francis. And their 3rd human lineman is the famous Richard Littlewood, whose 45 Intelligence cost the Hahalua 11 penalties last season.
Making up for the TPE of their humans are 2 x 750 TPE bots. Encouragingly, the tier of ‘supporting’ attributes, Agility, Intelligence, Speed and Hands are all really strong. If anything, there’s a slight bias to pass blocking, so maybe Honolulu might lean a little heavier on the pass. It will be interesting to see whether these bots line up at tackle or whether they put one of the lower TPE humans there.
NEW ORLEANS SECOND LINE
Pass Blocking Grade: B-
Run Blocking Grade: B-
Human Love Grade: C+
Pancake Prospects:
New Orleans are only running with 2 humans this season, up from 1 last year, but what humans they are! Pro Bowler Adam Mellott is an absolute stud, and dude_man looks to also be a star of the future, already at 530 TPE before taking an ISFL snap.
While other teams make up for their IA humans with tier 4 bots, NOLA’s humans might be carrying their bot counterparts, who each have 550 TPE this season. They’ve all had their TPE allocated fairly evenly, so no clues as to which way NOLA might be leaning in terms of run/pass ratio this season. But with solid investments in the pancake attributes (Strength, Pass/Run Blocking and Hands), NOLA as a team should be fairly decent in the overall rankings.
NEW YORK SILVERBACKS
Pass Blocking Grade: B+
Run Blocking Grade: A
Human Love Grade: B
Pancake Prospects:
Switching Harley Fank to OL gives the Silverbacks three pretty good human linemen. Marlon Alexander leads the group with 853 TPE and a massive investment in Tenacious Blocker ready to be unleashed. Though at 35 Speed, he along with OCO’s Ne Mo, is the slowest offensive lineman in the entire ISFL and DSFL combined, which is to be expected as he is a fridge.
Hamel continues to earn, with he and Fank sitting at around 600-650 TPE. And to plug the two gaps, NY has enlisted the help of Tier 4 bots who excel in the pancake relevant stats. Look for these bots to be up there with the best of the pancakers by the end of the season. NY’s line is most definitely above average.
ORANGE COUNTY OTTERS
Pass Blocking Grade: B-
Run Blocking Grade: C
Human Love Grade: B-
Pancake Prospects:
While OCO do boast an offensive line of 4 human users, the same as last season, only Beaver is regularly active. The other three haven’t really earned any TPE in the last 6 months and heading towards the end of their careers. Beaver’s player Rico-Shea slots into the offensive line this season, replacing Lord Beerus at a slightly higher level of TPE.
Supporting the line will be a 750 TPE bot, which has very balanced stats across the board. Expect this bot to be a decent pancaker. The three inactives will likely weigh down the team totals though. Overall, OCO’s line should perform around the same as last season.
PHILADELPHIA LIBERTY
Pass Blocking Grade: B
Run Blocking Grade: B+
Human Love Grade: C+
Pancake Prospects:
The Liberty are rolling with 3 human users this season, an unchanged lineup from S28. However, Franklin has overtaken the regressing Tremblay as the lead lineman. Both players are heavily active which is a strong positive. The 319 TPE Macaroni Elephant is of questionable value for anything other than a cap saver, with no attributes above 80.
One big positive for Philly’s line this season is an upgrade from T3 to T4 bots. While Franklin is favouring Pass Blocking in his build, the bots and his fellow humans are more evenly built. Overall, this line should be a little better than last year and should be churning out pancakes pretty successfully.
SARASOTA SAILFISH
Pass Blocking Grade: B
Run Blocking Grade: B-
Human Love Grade: A
Pancake Prospects:
This is definitely one of the most interesting lines of the season. I believe Sarasota are the only team in the league to have too many OL, with 6 human users, and will need to bench one. Pennington Jr and Big Stumpy Jones have continued to earn well and return from last year’s cast. Running Back (now renamed Offensive Lineman) and Clay Stallworth return though are both IA. The Sailfish also made two shrewd pickups, switching both Lebron James III and Bob Bob to OL.
Now they boast a cast of 6 that range from 779 to 333 TPE, so not the highest in terms of TPE, but they’ll enjoy that sweet position skill boost from no longer having to field bots. Stallworth looks set to miss out, but you never know. If he comes back and starts earning, he’ll quickly pass Offensive Lineman for a starting spot.
Don’t expect much from this team in terms of pancakes this season. Bob Bob and Stumpy Jones will likely lead the way for them (depending on where they line up of course).
SAN JOSE SABERCATS
Pass Blocking Grade: B+
Run Blocking Grade: B+
Human Love Grade: C-
Pancake Prospects:
Jaja Ding-Dong faces his second straight season of leading the charge as the lone human OL. Backing him up again are 4 bots, though 2 have been upgraded this season to T4s. Ding-Dong is close to 800 TPE and has bumped up most stats fairly evenly, peaking with 95 Strength.
The bots themselves have been built with a fairly even spread of attributes, but have definitely prioritised the right ones for optimal pancaking. In terms of team totals, expect SJS to be up there in the pancake charts.
YELLOWKNIFE WRAITHS
Pass Blocking Grade: A
Run Blocking Grade: B+
Human Love Grade: C-
Pancake Prospects:
The Wraiths lost retiring Douglas Quail from last season and replaced him with a 550 TPE bot to go with their other 3. But leading the line once again is stud tackle Bruce Buckley. He’s been through a bout of regression but he’ll still be one of the best blockers in the league this season.
Interestingly, the attribute distribution of both Buckley and the bots point to a heavy pass game, so let’s see how much Yellowknife opts to run the ball this season. The line itself should perform around the same as last year
Here’s some way too early shortlists for some real and some imaginary awards this season.
OL of the Year
Bruce Buckley
Matt Krause
Julio Jones
Mo “Mamba” Magic
All Pro 1st Team
T - Bruce Buckley
G - Ananda Adyan
C - Icebox Riposte
G - Marlon Alexander
T - Matt Krause
All Pro 2nd Team
T - Julio Jones
G - Felix Archstone
C - Bob Bob
G - Rigby Raccoon
T - Mo “Mamba” Magic
OL Rookie of the Year
Maiteers Rico-Shea
Cade Williams
Manhattan Project
OL Breakout Player of the Year
Marlon Alexander
Stumpy Jones
Alexander Franklin
Brent Silva
Hope you enjoyed reading!