You'll have to forgive the harangue by posters (myself included), but as for the our playoff losses, don't forget that the two superbowl teams last year had O-lines that were by no means the best (Packers and Steelers). The teams' strengths were in other areas of their game that compensated for the lack of a stout O-line. The point is that when it comes playoff time, things seemingly magickly come together for the superbowl teams. The problem is that it's sudden death in the playoffs so there's no margin for error, which includes teams coached by the almighty BB. By the end of the season, this team will look different than it does now and will be winning games differently than it did at the start of the season. There's only so much planning that can be done before week 1. A poor showing by an O-line after week 17 misses the fact that it played well for 14 out of 16 regular season games. We don't know how Solder will look at the end of the season especially considering the truncated offseason.
And going back to the point that if Big Ben or Vick had this O-line, that they would have more sacks/hits/hurries...their O-lines are definitely not as good as the Pats. I don't see how a case can be made for this.
As for Solder being bad, he hasn't looked bad to most of our laymens' eyes. I'm not sure how he's compared to other current year first round tackles, but I can't imagine that he's not among the top performers, if not the best.
And as for the point that only Vollmer, Mankins, and Waters could make the O-line of another NFL team, you're singling out Mankins and Vollmer who are considered all-pro caliber players. Obviously you're correct that all-pros would make another team. But didn't we throw Levoir to the curb who was called by a quarter of the league for his services??? And who ended up signing with the Ravens who most consider to have a solid line year-to-year and are one of the primary AFC contenders?
Let's just ask this: Which O-lines in the NFL are significantly better than the Pats? And let's limit the discussion to legitimate playoff contenders. I think the fact that we don't understand the status of each other teams' O-lines distorts our view of our own O-line when comparing ours to the leagues'. For example, I assumed the Ravens would have a solid line, but with their recent signings, that assumption seems incorrect.
Just because we disagree with your assessment doesn't mean we think our O-line is fantastic but it is certainly not bad as you suggest.
:rocker:
