Worrisome things: Offensive Line

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by SNR

I mean, I was absolutely exaggerating. The image of Mike DeVito playing in Sutton's press man scheme as a CB is hilarious to me.

Kush did very little to impress me in the San Diego game. Most of the successful push that you saw on the interior line that game was due to Rishaw Johnson. Kush could move and get in position for upfield blocks just fine, but always at the expense of slowing down the line enough to let the running play develop. And in pass coverage he was inadequate, and that's putting it gently.

You couple that with moving Hudson to LG, a position he hasn't tried to play since his rookie year in training camp, and I see some disastrous results. That's far worse than just replacing one guy with another and minimizing the depletion that one injury can have.

It's why Stephenson was so valuable last year. Our OL didn't miss a beat when he was in there partly because he could fill in so admirably on BOTH sides. We weren't shifting guys down and replacing this guy for that guy. We were just taking one injured player out and replacing him with Stephenson.

We don't have that this year. If Fisher goes down, Stephenson is going to have to bump back to LT, and a new RT will be the replacement. That means you're putting out a replacement at both OT spots. If Allen goes out, if Rok Watkins isn't on the team, you're gonna need Rishaw Johnson to learn both guard spots. Or Fulton. Or Linkenbach. Or SOMEbody.

I think what was pleasantly surprising about Kush was that he wasn't a disaster. Keep in mind he came from a very small school and that the new CBA makes it extremely difficult for rookies to learn the game in their rookie season. If that's Kush's floor, I'm looking forward to seeing him compete for the starting job this season with a lot more seasoning. It won't take much to be just as good as Hudson.