Some additional thoughts on the OL

Okay, I've finally calmed down a bit from the loss.  I'm trying to objectively think through the state of the OL now.  Reassessing my initial reaction to the game last Sunday. 

I read a post by butkus3595 yesterday that said he thought Nate Davis was not AS bad as people were saying.  My first thought was that he was dead wrong.  But I thought I'd spend some (significant) time watching the plays - all focused on the OL play and nothing else.  What I found was interesting, to me anyway.  Here is what I found when I had calmed down and watched the plays.

There was plenty of poor play by the unit, that spanned from tackle-to-tackle.  I think we all realized that, at least I hope so.  Nobody did well.  Nate Davis - if you swallow your pride and watch the tape (every single play he made or missed) you will see that the guy HAS talent.  He had a number of good plays - even baling out the rookie on his right side (Wright) multiple times.  He had some real bad plays too.  But it sure looks to me like his bad plays are not due to him being a bad player (he's not) but rather him knocking off rust AND ALSO this is a new OL unit with new players at these positions.  

It's too early for us to go full-blown "Chicken Little" with this year's OL.  No, it is not good.  Yes it is bad.  But I think it's too early to say the sky is falling on the whole season regarding our OL.  The only guy that just seems a total fail is Lucas Patrick.  He just looks bad.  Period.  So the C position is screwed if he plays and that pulls down the entire OL.

The other 4 players can be good enough to get us through the season with average line play once they get game reps together.  Both tackles had some bad plays but both tackles clearly - clearly - have talent that you can see, even in the loss.  Braxton Jones needs to clean up the penalties.  Other than that he had a couple of bad plays.  A couple.  

Wright had some good plays that showcased what he is capable of - and clearly he is capable of playing mighty good.  But he is a rookie, and yes, he will flat miss on some plays.  That's what rookie OL do.  If a team can't deal with that then don't start rookies (being sarcastic there, obviously).  

You know, I think Davis can be one of our most solid OL guys this season once he knocks the rust off.  There is decent talent there.  You can't deny it if you watch him play.  butkus3595 I wanted to prove you wrong and was itching to reply to your post by saying Davis was trash - but I'm glad I held off and re-watched his play close-up, snap by snap.  You were right.  Is Davis some kind of head case?  I don't know.  But I do know by watching his play that he is a decently talented player.  We will be fine with him at RG this year.

Whitehair is Whitehair.  He had a bad game like the other four guys.  He seems to be a guy who can deliver "average" blocking.  Not great, and not horrible either.  But he's not as bad as some would have you think.  Here's the problem.  The OL sucked overall because every single player - all five - took their turns blowing plays.  The cumulative effect of all of that, as you add it all up, is that for the overall game itself, that unit sucked bigtime.  It seemed like they were all taking turns crapping the bad.  Yeah, it is not as simple as pointing at any one guy (any of the 5) and say it was his fault.  It was the entire unit's fault.  Playing time will help the unit.  The starters, before that first game, had minimal playing time together as a unit.  And for an offensive line in football that is the kiss of death.

We will continue to see blown plays all season long by the 5 players, but hopefully, beginning in Tampa we will see more good plays and fewer bad ones.  We can rant and rave like lunatics about Poles needing to upgrade the personnel on the unit (and he of all people knows this) but we're beating the dead horse.  This is our OL unit for 2023.  It won't be "Green Bay Bad" for the 16 remaining games.  It won't be pretty but it should get better - a lot better I think - as the season progresses.  JMO.

Yes he does and yes the C position remains a problem for the 3rd straight season.

It's too late of course but yeah if you could turn back the clock, you'd have not made the Claypool desperation trade last season and instead used that pick to draft Joe Tippman.  I wanted him for us soooooo bad in this draft and was sick when he went in the early-2nd before we had a shot at him.

Yeah, we can't change what has happened to this point - especially the injuries that the OL has experienced.  I'm just trying to look at the situation realistically to understand where we are at right now - and try to envision what the remaining healthy players can do for the team this year.  Obviously, it's a bad situation.  But we can't redo the draft or FA.  It's over.  This is our team for 2023.

I can see that Davis has rust to knock off, but at the same time I can see a player there who had decent but not great talent.  If we had 5 like him on the OL we'd be in pretty good shape this year - once the rust is knocked off.  Of the 3 interior offensive linemen playing right now, Davis is clearly the better of the three.  And it's not even close if you watch them work.  Whitehair is done.  Good guy but I don't see much left there.  Patrick?  LOL.  Dude isn't even backup material.  Davis?  If you actually watch his play - every single snap he played in that game - you will see obvious rust issues that can be cleaned up.  He CAN clean them up due to the fact the guy has obvious talent.  He moves well.  Hhe is powerful.  He is (at least) competent/average.  But again, he (like Brax... I include him in this "rust" category) needs to knock some rust off and settle in.  Forget the "how we got here" thing.  We are here.  This is our team.  We can't change that.  Next year Poles needs to do a permanent fix of the offensive line.  He of all people understands that now.