Trent Dilfer on Offensive Lineman coming out of college

On Mike and Mike this morning they played a sound bite of Trent Dilfer talking about the quality of offensive lineman coming out of college is not that good and he said it is because in college lineman aren't being taught to move forward anymore, they are taught to back up and move side to side because of the spread offensive schemes. I think he's 100 percent right on that point, our line always looks like they're set up before the snap back on their heels. To me it's almost like it sets a tone of passive play up front instead of letting those guys go and try to knock somebody on their ass. The problem it creates is the lineman have to be able to hold their blocks and if they can't the defense is already at the line of scrimmage or even in the backfield and you get a bunch of no gain runs or losses. It seems the job of the offensive line is no longer move the line of scrimmage forward, but spread the defense out. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting point how it's leading to lineman not being prepared for the NFL style of play. They played another sound bite from Bill Parcels basically saying the same thing regarding the quarterbacks coming out of college.

I can see that point. But on the flip side, NFL is more and more becoming a passing game so the college lineman coming into the league Atleast be more polished pass blocking and might not have as big of an effect the more the pass/run ratio increases. But yeah, having polished run blocking skills is always a plus.

DeacsOrDie said:

I can see that point. But on the flip side, NFL is more and more becoming a passing game so the college lineman coming into the league Atleast be more polished pass blocking and might not have as big of an effect the more the pass/run ratio increases. But yeah, having polished run blocking skills is always a plus.

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Well Parcels was basically saying that NFL teams are being forced to adopt a lot of what college teams are doing because that's what the quarterbacks are able to do well coming out of college. He was talking about how the NFL obviously doesn't have farms team like in baseball and they have to take the type of players that college is producing.

As far as the blocking I think that style really exposes a weak offensive line like ours because it leads to so many runs being losses or no gains. I think it also shows in how even when our line creates a pocket, it is a quickly collapsing pocket and basically our shorter QB's get shallowed up. Seems like the aggression is being taken out of the o-line these days.

Not sure I agree with Bill here. I think (in terms of QB) The player had to adapt to the NFL. All the elite QBs are traditional drop back QBs (Brady, Peyton, Rodgers). Fast, Spread type QBs success (Cams, Mariottas, Wilsons) depends on if they can adapt to being more pocket passers. Do we see some elements from the college game in the NFL? Sure. Cam might run 5 read option plays a game, however, the base of every offense in the NFL is pro style.

But to add to your point, pro style offenses do require good pushes by the offensive line and I think you're right that it is taking away from what we think of as a "mean m, tough offensive line man." But at the end of the day would you rather have an Oh-Loneman be a better pass blocker or run blocker? Give me a pass blocker cause that's what you will do 60% of the time college and pro.

DeacsOrDie said:

Not sure I agree with Bill here. I think (in terms of QB) The player had to adapt to the NFL. All the elite QBs are traditional drop back QBs (Brady, Peyton, Rodgers). Fast, Spread type QBs success (Cams, Mariottas, Wilsons) depends on if they can adapt to being more pocket passers. Do we see some elements from the college game in the NFL? Sure. Cam might run 5 read option plays a game, however, the base of every offense in the NFL is pro style.

But to add to your point, pro style offenses do require good pushes by the offensive line and I think you're right that it is taking away from what we think of as a "mean m, tough offensive line man." But at the end of the day would you rather have an Oh-Loneman be a better pass blocker or run blocker? Give me a pass blocker cause that's what you will do 60% of the time college and pro.

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Well they backed it up with some stats that the NFL game is changing. The number of snaps NFL QB's take from the shotgun this year is on pace to be 4 to 5 times more than just 5 years ago. Also, they said the number of "read-option" plays run by NFL teams is on pace to be somewhere around 1500 to 2000 this season, in 2009 there was none. So, I think it is changing, but you're right the base is still the pro style offense. I think the point Parcels was making was that the NFL teams have no imput in how the players are groomed coming up and have to adapt to an extent, as opposed to a baseball player going to the minor league and the tone for style of play and coaching being set by the major league team.

Right now I'd just take our O-line just being better period.

So our offensive line doesn't do sled drills anymore?

macktheknife said:

So our offensive line doesn't do sled drills anymore?

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That's actually a good question for those that attend practices. What kind of drills are college O-line's doing these days with the spread and zone blocking schemes?

macktheknife said:

So our offensive line doesn't do sled drills anymore?

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They do, but they're riding on the sled and the coaches are pushing THEM backwards.

BiffTannen said:

They do, but they're riding on the sled and the coaches are pushing THEM backwards.

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Or they just stand in front of the sleds in a 2 point stance and stare at them. I mean we look really good in that stance until the ball is snapped.