Thomas Emerick examines how the Bills dominated with almost no draft capital spend, and reveals which teams could have an advantage on the offensive line, thanks to returning three or more starters — a threshold that consistently helps teams rank among the league’s top offenses. There is not a single first-rounder on the Bills’ offensive line, yet they allowed the fewest sacks in the NFL…...

Thomas Emerick files a final update on offensive line continuity before the season starts. Which teams will be best able to protect their quarterbacks and make room for their running backs, and which teams might struggle in the early-going? Just three teams have emerged in September with their entire starting offensive line from last year intact. If you’re Bijan Robinson and Kirk Cousins, Jonathan Taylor and Anthony Richardson,…...

Jim Harbaugh is trying to outflank me on the importance of offensive line play — he must’ve known my pre-draft OL continuity update for all 32 teams was about to drop. We actually now kick off Year 10 of this series on the importance of incumbency in the trenches and its relation to offensive production. Granted, Harbaugh was running it back each year with a…...

We’ve had to white-knuckle through the end of training camp with injuries to skill position players, so it can be easy to take our eyes off the trenches. Though as I lay out in my annual summer series for RotoViz, there is a correlation worth exploring between starting offensive line continuity entering the season and the offensive production that ensues. My most recent piece put…...

Offensive line continuity is one slice of the giant onion in projecting the NFL. A quarterback can overcome a lot and it’s more important to fill gaping holes up front than it is to have continuity just for continuity’s sake. But all things equal, there’s an edge in having the dance line get in sync. This does especially come in handy with a weak-link system…....

Earlier this offseason, I wrote about how the Chiefs’ and Chargers’ massive offensive line overhauls were quite extraordinary, both in how quickly they yielded success and how uniquely equipped they were to do so. Still, the top offenses tend to return more than three offensive line incumbents on average, while the bottom 10 mostly don’t. The Bengals hope to see immediate results from their offensive…...

Thomas Emerick takes a final look at offensive line continuity before the start of the regular season. Which teams can expect strong offensive line play in the early going? The top offenses and best run-blocking lines tend to return most of their offensive line starters. Those finishing near the bottom replace more starters on average from the previous year. Great scheme and personnel still remain…...

After painting the current offensive line continuity landscape earlier, this piece will reveal how stability year-over-year in the trenches relates to rushing, run blocking, and total offense. A year with condensed training camp will see more offensive lines lose continuity than gain it. The 2020 season also sets a high-water mark over the past five years in the number of rookie linemen projected to start…...

Offensive line continuity can often prove a hidden element in offenses veering from projections once the regular season gets underway. The 49ers offense clicked into gear under Kyle Shanahan while carrying max offensive-line continuity into their NFC title run, while the Rams’ setback under Sean McVay coincided with turning over multiple starters for the first time in years. Over the years I’ve written about the…...

The Texans desperately tried to finagle a starting-caliber offensive lineman from a Jadeveon Clowney deal on the eve of the season. After Bill O’Brien angled for starting center Justin Britt and right tackle Germaine Ifedi in talks with Seattle, Houston settled for a couple linebackers and a Seahawks third rounder for Clowney. The Seahawks opted for continuity. https://twitter.com/GermainX1/status/1167686163144085504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw The Dolphins eventually pulled a couple first-round…...

Teams are trending toward offensive line continuity in a copycat league where the two squads in the Super Bowl happened to value it as much as anyone. The Patriots and Rams made it six straight conference title winners to avoid multi-position turnover on the starting offensive line.((I count “turnover” as a Week 1 starter who did not enter the previous season as a starter for that…...