quote:
There are busts at every position but I think OL is one of the easier ones to predict. Size, athleticism, experience, character traits is all you need to look at. They’re large bodies who’s job is to get in the way the defense. It’s not rocket science.

Sorry, friend, but I have to disagree with you here.

Have you truly watched what the best OL's in the NFL have to do to make an offense elite? OL is probably one of the most technically demanding positions in modern football. You have to know the intimate details of every play, plus have an awareness of what your QB is doing (usually out of your sight), and deal with whatever a defense throws at you to disrupt the play.

The days of OL's simply being in "Hulk SMASH" mode have been gone for a long, long time. Now they're part of a well-choreographed action that involves multiple people as big as they are.

Think of it as being a ballet performed by Sumo wrestlers during a game of dodge-ball.

Again, IMO that's why OT's are the hardest position to reliably predict pre-draft, and why it's preferrable to go out and poach a good, proven LT from another team rather than try to draft one (there are exceptions, but they're few and far between).

That's not to say that the game isn't complex for TE's, though. It is, but for the most part it's the TE vs. the defense in most situations, whereas it's the entire OL functioning as a unit during 10 seconds of mayhem while blind to the actual movement of the man with the ball behind them.

Given those needs, you have a better chance of making a good evaluation of a TE coming out of college than you do on an OT.

At least, that's what I think. But what do I know about football? I'm just a nerd that's been pounding away mercilessly on a keyboard all day for 30+ years, so it's JMHO.