[DJ's left nut]

One thing we really haven't spoken much about is the type of rusher we're likely to face going forward.

Chargers -- Mack and Bosa; Tart and Ford from the interior
Buffalo -- Rousseau, Miller; Oliver and Jones from the inside
Houston -- Hunter and Anderson; nothing much from the interior
Baltimore -- Van Noy and Oweh; Madubuike and Jones from the interior

As I look at those guys, don't most of them win with power more than speed? Miller is almost pure speed, Mack and Bosa are more power than speed at this point in their careers. Hunter is a bit of both, Anderson mostly speed. Van Noy and Oweh, by nature of their rush scheme, are mostly power. Rousseau is a poor man's Hunter in that he's a bit of both.

But I don't see anyone on that list like Bonitto, for instance -- a real speed merchant. Or Garrett (though Hunter is close).

Then look at how they line up. Bosa is essentially a pure left side guy at this point so I'd probably write him off. Von Miller has been left side only so I'd likely write him off. Van Noy is VERY heavy to the left side; not worth making a lineup decision around.

So when I'm looking at the challenges my LT is going to face it really starts to narrow down:

Mack, Rousseau, Oweh and then Anderson/Hunter are almost completely interchangeable.

Shouldn't that really end up making the decision in large part? Especially when most of those teams also have pretty dangerous power rushers that can get at our interior (i.e. Caliendo) with Tart, Oliver, Madibuike and Jones?

My biggest worry would be Houston in that regard in that Anderson could just give Humphries fits if he's struggling with speed. But against the rest of them, power is likely to be their biggest asset. Oweh is pretty explosive but w/ the 3-4 alignment, I don't think Thuney's any more likely to be able to kick out on him and catch him than Humphries is. You're going to need some help to his side either way so having a stronger interior to shut down Jones/Madibuike would be pretty big.

With Humphries looking better against power rushers (again, that's traits based, but Humphries looks to have a REALLY stout base), 3 of the 4 teams were likely to face seem to suggest that getting Humphries out to LT with Thuney in at LG would be a better overall protection scheme.

And against Houston...well like I said, I barely even give a shit. We'll roll those guys either way. Houston seems like the one team where I'd pretty strongly prefer Thuney's aggression at LT, especially since I don't really have any worries about them getting to us from the interior. But if we play Houston and Thuney is your guy at LT, that's it - that's where he stays. Even in the AFCCG and SB. So I might still be willing to roll the dice believing that I don't NEED to have things perfect to smoke them and hoping that it provides another data point for the AFCCG decision.