It was one of the league’s biggest storylines in week one – teams simply couldn’t protect their quarterbacks.
Nine teams (out of 30 who played over weekend) gave up four or more sacks in week one. Seattle and the New York Giants each surrendered three sacks, but their offensive lines were as horrific as anyone in the league.
The Raiders, thanks to general manager Reggie McKenzie, are in no such position.
From the day he arrived in Oakland, McKenzie has focused on building the trenches – particularly along the offensive line. The Raiders currently have the highest-paid offensive line in football which accounts for nearly 27% of the team’s total cap spending – and that number could rise if Donald Penn is given a pay raise.
McKenzie doesn’t like to spend, but when he does, it’s usually along the offensive line. His address-the-line-first approach was key in the development of Derek Carr is now the centerpiece (along with Carr) of what has become a championship-caliber team.
Meanwhile in Houston, the Texans continue to strong-arm their All Pro left tackle Duane Brown who is holding out for more money. As the Texans dominate their standoff with Brown, they stubbornly conceded 10 sacks on Sunday – to the Jaguars, no less.
Coincidentally, the Texans allot less than 11% of their cap spending to their offensive line.
Good line play is a commodity Derek Carr has yet to play without in his pro career. In fact, the ‘knock’ on Carr seems to be that his offensive line is too good to know how good he really is.
Not a bad mystery to remain unsolved.
Twitter: @raidersbeat
A good-great OL can only do so much for an offense, and while that does include giving the ground game a better chance to succeed and longer pass protection, it doesn’t include reading the defense, ANTICIPAy?f#Dr CT Rd Rd rd!ďthrows, and QB’ing in general. Look at Dallas in ’15. Romo goes down, and suddenly the QB play is terrible despite having the best OL in the NFL. Also when Carr went down, how good did McGloin and Cook look behind the same exact OL that protects Carr every week? Not good at all. So there’s much more to Carr being a good QB.
A good-great OL can only do so much for an offense, and while that does include giving the ground game a better chance to succeed and longer pass protection, it doesn’t include reading the defense, anticipated throws, and QB’ing in general. Look at Dallas in ’15. Romo goes down, and suddenly the QB play is terrible despite having the best OL in the NFL. Also when Carr went down, how good did McGloin and Cook look behind the same exact OL that protects Carr every week? Not good at all. So there’s much more to Carr being a good QB.