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zn
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dzrams
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zn
Something I posted the other day. A study from 2010 shows that in the era of the cap and free agency teams on avg. change 3.5 OL starters every 2 years. That means that the era of OL year to year continuity is effectively dead.
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Whoa! That's a lot of change. Any theories on why so much? I don't think DL's change that much.
I'm wondering if the reasoning is in alignment with my rationale for wanting to move on from average players in general but especially on the OL. Maybe there is a sense that average OL players can be replaced easier relative to other positions. Therefore, it makes sense to churn the position and continually get cheaper labor.
Combination of injuries, free agency, and the cap. Injuries are related to the other 2 because teams can't retain years of solid depth behind the starters. Rams had Bill Bain, for example, for 7 years. He started 2 seasons (83 and 84) after mostly sitting for 4 years .And he had 3 years in the league before that. No one has that luxury anymore.
Here's the article
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Revolving door up front
Once the model of stability, offensive lines no longer stand test of time
May 21, 2010
By Len Pasquarelli | ESPN.com
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sports.espn.go.com]
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Mostly it's free agency. Every 4th year a player you drafted either walks or you have to pay him. If you sign an outside free agent that's costly and you can't invest too much in the unit. So you can only spend so much while guys are walking every year. You don't build the kind of depth where someone can just inherit a spot from within after being depth for a couple of years.
The Rams situation is unusual because it is dictated almost entirely by 2 things: injuries, and regime change.
Here are the Rams week one OLs from 2014-2017 .
2014: Long Saffold Wells Joseph Barksdale
2015: Robinson Brown Barnes Saffold Hav (4 changes)
2016: Robinson Saffold Barnes Wichman Hav (1 change)
2017: Whitworth Saffold Sullivan Brown Hav (3 changes)
That's 12 different starters in 4 seasons.
Who is gone: Long (injury), Wells (surgery & retirement), Joseph (retirement), Barksdale (free agency), Robinson (trade), Barnes (cut), Wichman (cut).
Who is still here: Saffold, Brown Hav
Who was added: Whitworth, Sullivan
If you take 2014 as the starting baseline (so to speak) then within 2 years they have changed 5 week 1 starters and within 3 years it is 8 (though that includes Brown re-emerging as a starter in 2017).
1.75 a year times 3 is 5.25 on average in 3 years.
So the Rams have exceeded the average. But then the average in 4 years is 7, and even if the Rams don't change a thing about the 2018 OL, by the time it's over yes the same 5 starters (barring injury) will have been together for 2 years, but still at that point they will already have had 8 changes in 4 years--which more or less equals the average (off by one).
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2018 05:56PM by zn.
