The big fellas that spend most of the game in the trenches bruising it out against other 300+ pound linemen often don’t get the credit they deserve. Only 9 offensive linemen were ranked in the NFL Network’s Top 100 Players heading into 2017 and only 7 cracked the top 90 since Kelechi Osemele and David DeCastro ranked toward the bottom of the list. These guys don’t get the glory, the spotlight, or the flashy touchdown dances. If they give their QB plenty of protection where he’s rarely sacked, they’re usually rewarded with a steak dinner.
These guys don’t get drafted in fantasy football, but kickers do. Hell, there are even leagues where you can draft head coaches and if they win you get a 2-point bonus for your fantasy team. You can draft defensive players in IDP leagues and get points based on sacks, tackles, interceptions, etc. But the O-linemen do not get you points. You’ll spend your Sundays cursing them out if your WR1’s big touchdown is called back on a hold, or if the left tackle is getting worked over and your QB is facing pressure all day. But O-linemen are people too believe it or not and their performance can impact your team if you look deep enough.
Time is of the Essence
Speed and quickness are important features as a professional athlete. Whether it’s bat speed or pitch delivery in baseball, shooting release in basketball, or a QB’s throwing motion in football; speed is essential. The quicker the release, the less likely the offense surrenders a sack or turnover. However, time in the pocket doesn’t necessarily hurt either and a good O-Line can really help the offense out.
Michael Fabiano from NFL.com published an article highlighting the best offensive lines in terms of pass protection. If you look at the average amount of time teams gave their QB to throw the ball, only 0.5 seconds separated the best offensive line and the worst offensive line. And that half-second makes a huge difference. The Bills, Colts, Redskins, and Cowboys were the top 4 teams in terms of giving the QB time and each of those QB’s finished as a Top 8 QB in fantasy. The bottom 4 teams (the Rams, Raiders, Bengals, and Chiefs) that gave the least amount of time to throw featured QB’s that finished 30th, 10th, 12th, and 22nd respectively. Now there are certainly some statistical outliers here. Drew Brees and Matthew Stafford are two QB’s that finished in the top 10, but were in the bottom 10 in terms of time allotted to throw the ball. But at the same time the effectiveness of an O-Line is the reason why a player like Tyrod Taylor and a rookie like Dak Prescott were able to finish as Top 10 fantasy QB’s.
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If you take anything any from Any Given Sunday it should be that football (and life) is a game of inches. The margin of error is so small that a step too early or too late could mean disaster. If Yards After Contact (YAC) is a strong indicator for how elusive and talented a running back is then Yards Before Contact (YBC) is a good reference for how well the offensive line is blocking for the runner.
Jeff Ratcliffe of Pro Football Focus follows YBC pretty closely and notes that the Bills O-Line blocked well enough where Buffalo RB’s averaged 2.88 YBC. The next closest? The Tennessee Titans running backs with 2.37 YBC. A whole half-yard less! The Falcons, Browns, and Cowboys rounded out the Top 5 in terms of YBC. All 5 teams featuring good offensive lines as well as talented running backs. The bottom 5 offensive lines were the Rams (1.11), Bucs (1.03), Vikings (0.98), Lions (0.94), and Packers (0.93). All teams that struggled to run the ball in 2016.
YBC is a stat worth monitoring throughout the year as a great measure for finding value on waivers. Some RB’s will go down with injury and their backup/handcuff could be on waivers and they’ll be picked up based on the opportunity alone. But YBC should be monitored as well. Even the most average of running backs can benefit from a good offensive line. Just ask Darren McFadden from 2015.
More Than Just Time and Space
As always injuries will always play a role with your fantasy team. Rarely does an owner experience an injury-free season and it’s something you just plan for and adapt on the fly. But owners should also monitor the injuries surrounding offensive lines in the NFL because that could directly impact the value of the QB that line protects, and the RB they block for.
Take the New Orleans Saints for example. The Saints struggled with pass protection averaging only 2.37 second for Drew Brees to throw the ball, which ranked 25th in the NFL. The loss of Terron Armstead early in 2016 contributed to that outcome. Heading into 2017 with New Orleans it’s difficult to find optimism for the O-Line. Armstead suffered yet another injury, a torn labrum during minicamp and the absolute earliest he could return is October. To make matters worse, Max Unger suffered a foot injury that required surgery. Luckily his recovery has gone well and he might be ready by the start of the season. After the Saints went out and signed Adrian Peterson and drafted Alvin Kamara to add depth in the backfield, the quality of the running game is up for debate with significant injuries to the O-line.
To say that offensive lines don’t matter for fantasy just doesn’t make sense. Russell Wilson finished as a Top-10 fantasy QB last year (9th in most formats). That’s really nothing to complain about. Top 10 is startable in any format and most owners would be pleased with that. But his offensive line directly impacted his fantasy value. In the fantasy relevant weeks (1-16) there were 8 games where he scored 13 or fewer points. That’s not including the subpar 15 points he scored in Week 13 or the 14 points he accumulated in the ill-forgotten Week 17. He had only 6 games last year where he scored more than 15 points and it was largely due to the poor offensive line play. Wilson was constantly scrambling and running for his life. He played hurt because the line couldn’t protect him. Seattle hasn’t invested much money into the offensive line and they’re realizing what fantasy owners should… The big guys up front most definitely matter.
The 2017 Offensive Line Rankings are now available and will be updated throughout training camp!