A Possible Reason for not Addressing the OLine. (The Offensive Redshirt Strategy)

Originally posted by English:

Originally posted by Paul_Hofer:

Originally posted by English:
Banks is a winner so two down. There are a number of youngsters around from the last couple of years. The team must surely know by now which of them have the potential. I am hoping for a couple of mid round picks spent on the OL to upgrade.

Interesting fact: for the last 5 years the Niners have drafted an OT in every draft.

The interesting conclusion to draw from the bolded sentence above is that the staff is probably not good at assessing OL college talent. In this case, they should first look for free agent OL players with NFL experience and positive performance.

Not entirely sure I agree with your conclusion. If it was that simple and the fault of our staff, other teams would not have the problem of busted early picks. But, they do. And many of the picks I mentioned were quite low.

Yeah I don't think it's an issue with assessing talent since we mainly have drafted OL in the later rounds where let's be honest, they are usually raw prospects or are missing "ideal" traits, but I like their strategy. Keep drafting a couple OL every draft in the mid - late rounds and hope guys can become a good starter. Even if you do take one in the late 1st round they still have a pretty high bust probability. We usually carry around 9 OL on the roster so even finding backups who can fill in for a couple games due to injury is very important for our roster. That and position versatility. Very few teams have more than 1-2 really stud level OL on them. It's just hard to find those players unless your picking in the top 10

Originally posted by Luckycharms:

Originally posted by English:

Originally posted by Paul_Hofer:

Originally posted by English:
Banks is a winner so two down. There are a number of youngsters around from the last couple of years. The team must surely know by now which of them have the potential. I am hoping for a couple of mid round picks spent on the OL to upgrade.

Interesting fact: for the last 5 years the Niners have drafted an OT in every draft.

The interesting conclusion to draw from the bolded sentence above is that the staff is probably not good at assessing OL college talent. In this case, they should first look for free agent OL players with NFL experience and positive performance.

Not entirely sure I agree with your conclusion. If it was that simple and the fault of our staff, other teams would not have the problem of busted early picks. But, they do. And many of the picks I mentioned were quite low.

Yeah I don't think it's an issue with assessing talent since we mainly have drafted OL in the later rounds where let's be honest, they are usually raw prospects or are missing "ideal" traits, but I like their strategy. Keep drafting a couple OL every draft in the mid - late rounds and hope guys can become a good starter. Even if you do take one in the late 1st round they still have a pretty high bust probability. We usually carry around 9 OL on the roster so even finding backups who can fill in for a couple games due to injury is very important for our roster. That and position versatility. Very few teams have more than 1-2 really stud level OL on them. It's just hard to find those players unless your picking in the top 10

keep in mind also that we just got Burford, Poe, Jakelj, so they will be in yr 2 this season and it is common for college OLs to need 2-3 yrs to mature into NFL caliber OLs. Also we got Banks and Moore headed into yr 3 and Banks is now established and Moore played well in yr 1 before injuries last yr. Then we got Brun (up for FA) and Brendel (also FA?), with Buford now a starter and Moore likely to return as potential starter. Depending on who we keep in FA, plus any other FAs out there who are reasonably priced AND starter caliber, we have a really good start on O line with Big Trent stabilizing it.

I still see us picking up 3, maybe 4 rd 6 ,7 or UDFA players in hopes 1 or 2 could beat out who we have. The way JL/KS have continually added to OL with late rd picks has seemed.to work, but we just need to remember that late rd guys are not likely to start in yr 1, maybe yr 2. Looking at it like that, i think F.O has done a good job. Having a great OL coach, however, can have a huge effect on when these late rounders can start.