Do you know how hard it is to find a decent picture of an offensive line? It's damn impossible. Most of them are just pictures of big fat guys rumbling downfield or hunched over looking for someone to block. Eff that. Eff that right in the A. Besides, I really wanted to use my Big Daddy picture again. Denver's offensive line has been slowly going downhill ever since Alex Gibbs took his skull cap down to Atlanta, and now we've reached a turning point. George Foster and Adam Meadows took turns watching their assigned pass rushers run by them, which ultimately led to Jay Cutler wobbling around like I Am Sam in the season finale. Further, the interior of the line struggled to open holes all year, a problem which was exacerbated by Tatum Bell's amazing ability to fall down if someone so much looked at him in an aggressive manner.
Now Matt Lepsis is coming off injury, Erik Pears is penciled in at right tackle, and someone (Kuper? Myers? Eslinger?) has to step in to replace whatever the hell that thing was that used to start at right guard. This might very well end up as no problem at all. I really like Greg Eslinger, the coaches are apparently high on Myers and Kuper, and Pears was pretty decent filling in for Lepsis last year. That said, here are some potential fits in the upcoming draft. All of them are the more athletic types that Denver likes.
- Joe Staley OT 6'6 304 Central Michigan
- Doug Free OT 6'6 324 Northern Illinois
- James Marten OT 6'8 315 Boston College
- Ryan Harris OT 6'5 292 Notre Dame
Those are all tackles, because Denver has a pile of guards, but interior players worth mentioning include Josh Beekman from Boston College, Kasey Studdard from Texas (and Highlands Ranch), and Dan Mozes from West Virginia in the later rounds. And, of course, I'm going to be partial to center Mark Fenton and guard Brian Daniels (Evergreen, MULLEN MUSTANGS) from Colorado. I think it's pretty important to add a tackle with one of the third rounders as an eventual replacement for Lepsis (Denver likes to apprentice their linemen), so I'd really like to see James Marten or Ryan Harris. Harris was on an MTV True Life: Something Something Body documentary coming out of high school. You might remember him as the guy who had to eat a bunch to get bigger. I personally remember the "beauty" pageant contestant who was pretty fucking ugly. Marten has a downside as well, since he's really going to have to work to get as scary looking as Nalen. there's potential though:
2 comments:
I hate to mention it, but I was watching an NFL Europa (Europa? Seriously?) game last weekend and Eslinger was having some problems w/ the Hamburg SeaDevils or whatever. Not a good sign.
ugh. That sucks, because he was dominant in last year's preseason. Oh well- if Denver can't find a starting guard between the 3 of them... um.. I don't really know where I was going with that. The point is that thy should be able to, and Carlisle wasn't exactly Dan Neil.
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