Lions' O Line for 2014 - Montreal shows how to build an OL

[SammyGreene]

OMG ... Looking at Montreal's All National O Line, makes me shake my head in amazement. Tremendous drafting. Tremendous development of talent.

LT Bourke ... Rd 3

LG Matte ... Rd 1

C Brodeur-J ... Rd 6

RG Bomben ... Rd 4

RT Perrett ... Rd 3

And what it does for the ratio ...

For our part, we had to use three Internationals to get a semblance of productivity from our O Line. And we have drafted high for the O Line, year after year.

Do we actually develop our Internationals? No, they come ready to play, skills intact, out of the box, with NFL experience. But Nationals? They usually take some time to develop. And that takes coaching.

I guess Montreal just got lucky. Time and time again. Yeah, right!

I like our guys. Norman. Fabien. Steward. Thorn. T-Dre. I like Valli too. But in about three years, will this group be able to start 5 Nationals, and play at the level of the Montreal group? What are the odds of that happening? We are a few years behind the 8-ball here in developing our talent. And of course, we see backsliding and stagnation.

It is amazing Joe. It's almost like Popp makes it clear to his coaching staff the Als are always going to play an all-national offensive line so you better develop the Canadians we have. No excuses.

When Dorazio arrived the Lions were playing 4 Canadians with Mantyka at tackle. He ran into injury problems and the constant pounding of our QBs led to import tackles with Jiminez and Murphy. That had been a fixture up until this season when Ramsey got hurt and Steward started and looked very good even though the Lions were trying to convert him to a GUARD because god knows a Canadian can't play tackle.

More oline struggles led to Dorazio getting his way and astonishing starting 3 internationals. It's got to the point where his inability to develop young Canadians is crippling the team elsewhere, whether that's sitting a Tim Brown or not being able to dress another import receiver.

Enough is enough. He simply has to go.

[Childress]

Our of one draft, the Stampeders managed to get three starters on their offensive line. In 2013, they picked Brander Craighead with their first pick, who would have been our outstanding rookie nomination had he stayed healthy this year. In the second round, the Stamps picked Brett Jones, 2013 rookie of the year and potentially the league's top o-lineman in 2014. In the 6th round, they selected Shane Bergman, who needed a year of development, but now is in our starting five when everyone is healthy.

Our 2013 draft allowed us to trade all star Jon Gott to Ottawa for the #1 overall pick to land Lavertu who has a promising future ahead of him.

An offensive line can be turned around quickly with smart drafting and development.

[notahomer]

.....An offensive line can be turned around quickly with smart drafting and development.

This is one of those every year topics that bubbles up at times here on Lionbackers. I think we've got the drafting part down. The development part? Not so sure, sounds like Bates is doing his part. Angus Reid has certainly made some comments that lead me to think some changes maybe needed. Sometimes Reids points are clear "we needed to simplfy" and sometimes you gotta read between the lines (no pun intended )..........

[MexicoLionFan]

There is nothing wrong with the Lions OLine talent...I love the guys we have and believe strongly in both Olafoye and Hardrick...we just need a system where they are able to use their strengths...Hunter Steward was a phenom...in his first game at LT he was left on an island for most of the 2nd half and shut down his guy...outstanding foot work, great posture for his size so he was really able to use leverage to his advantage...huge futures ahead for a lot of these guys in they can stay healthy and get some better coaching...

[DanoT]

.....An offensive line can be turned around quickly with smart drafting and development.

This is one of those every year topics that bubbles up at times here on Lionbackers. I think we've got the drafting part down. The development part? Not so sure, sounds like Bates is doing his part. Angus Reid has certainly made some comments that lead me to think some changes maybe needed. Sometimes Reids points are clear "we needed to simplfy" and sometimes you gotta read between the lines (no pun intended )..........

I fully agree with you NAH. Bates has done such a good job since becoming the Lions Draft Coordinator (Norman, Player, Westerman, Steward) that he should be promoted to O line coach.

One of his best moves was drafting Hunter Steward as a junior in 2013 which was the last year of the junior players being drafted. Ottawa was only allowed to pick juniors and the Lions picked Stewart a few spots ahead of Ottawa.

The real genius of the pick came about 6 months later during the Ottawa expansion draft in December 2013 when a limited number of Canadians could be protected. One of the players that the Lions lost in that draft was 2013 pick Albright, but Steward as a junior player was still in school and not on the Lions roster and so not eligible to be picked by Ottawa, yet he was still a Lions protected player.