Quote:
Originally Posted by SNR
"Albert sucks?"
"Linkenbach is Schwartz?"
Those sound like emotional claims to me, when Branden Albert was our best and most consistent offensive lineman all season and Jeff Linkenbach doesn't have near the resume or the productive play that Schwartz enjoyed before he signed with the Chiefs.
Sac's a brilliant judge of talent, dude, but he's prone to these kind of radical claims regarding Chiefs players. He does it all the time, usually as a rationalization for the turn of events.
I'm with him that we shouldn't be alarmed or that with one or two legit free agent additions, this offensive line can't be better than it was last year. But I'm not going to agree with crap that even suggests that Linkenbach can do what Schwartz did this past year for us, or that Albert "sucks" and won't be missed if we just stick with Fisher and Stephenson as the two tackles opening day.
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Well played sir.
I generalized a bit.
Schwartz, when inserted to the lineup during the 2013 season played well. And his PFF grades prove that. However, he's also a guy that's been replaced at two other stops (Carolina and Minnesota) that really actually needed good guard play. He's a guy that didn't beat out an average Jon Asamoah until the later was injured.
Linkenbach has almost the same amount of starts over the past four years as Schwartz does, same size, same body type, same athleticism. Basically, they are NFL guards. And Linkenbach was signed to do the exact same thing as Schwartz was the year before - swing line player between the RT and guard spots. Nobody is expecting him to be anything more than what he is, or at least I hope nobody is.
And you know my opinion on Albert. He's had one good season (2013), but was injured for a portion of that and only played in 12 games. Prior to that he was marginal at best. He lacks the technical capabilities (most noticeably footwork, kickstep and hand punch) of both Fisher and Stephenson. I think that it was good and important that they started Fisher last season and were willing to go along with the growing pains of going from a small college to the NFL. I think it also behooved the team to have Stephenson step up into the LT position when Albert went out due to injuries. Stephenson has absolutely all the tools and played very well.
They've got their tackles. Young tackles with a lot of talent. Tackles who now have NFL starting experience, a year in the Reid offensive system and a year with their QB. I think that they'll be just fine. And an upgrade to what we saw last year.
And between Eric Kush, Rishaw Johnson, Rokevious Watkins and Jeff Linkenbach, we've got our RG.
I'm not really worried about the offensive line whatsoever.
The big question is/was finding additional rush presence from the defensive line/front seven. They may have addressed that with the signing of Walker.
The bigger question was finding better production from the ILB spot next to Derrick Johnson. I don't think that was accomplished by the signing of Joe Mays. And I wasn't impressed with Jordan. They've got to do better at that spot.
The biggest question was getting even remotely competent play from the free safety position. They drafted Commings for that specifically. I hope that they guy spend time during his rehab studying the playbook and watching tape because they will need him to play well right off the bat in 2014. They got a bonus in the performance of Abdullah and resigned him. I don't think he's starter material, but he's very good in nickel/dime type subs. They'll still need to address the position.
I'm not too overly concerned with the WR position, especially if they address it in the draft early where there is a wealth of potential talent to be found.
That's my brief summary of the off-season/free agency so far.