Oline article - good stuff about Houck

[The_Phinatic]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=pasquarelli_len&id=2505116

[TonyB0D]

POST THE WHOLE ARTICLE!!! lazy

[MaineDolFan]

CREDIT:  ESPN.com / Len Pasquarelli


 

O-line turnover puts pressure on coaches

Criticized by some in the league for the fat contract that he used to pry coveted offensive line coach Hudson Houck away from the San Diego Chargers a year ago, Dolphins coach Nick Saban sat in a golf cart after a recent minicamp practice and, with a full year's perspective on which to rely, concluded that he and the Dolphins' organization got the better end of the deal.


"It's the position on your staff where a good, detailed [assistant coach] can make the biggest difference," Saban said. "By definition, any offensive line coach is working with the poorest athletes on your football team. But by creating camaraderie, working on technique, motivating, he can make guys better collectively than they probably are as individuals. That's why the good (offensive line coaches) are at such a premium."

Essentially, that summed up the job Houck did in 2005, taking a relatively motley and undistinguished group of blockers and cobbling them into a unit good enough to succeed. That the Dolphins achieved a No. 14 statistical ranking in total offense was, in large part, due to his efforts.

His reward: Now Houck, who has carved out an impressive coaching career by remaking offensive lines wherever he has worked, gets to do it all over again.

As usual, in a league where offensive lines are annually in flux, he is hardly alone.

The Dolphins have a new left tackle, L.J. Shelton, signed as an unrestricted free agent after resurrecting his flagging career with the Cleveland Browns in 2005. Guard Rex Hadnot has moved to center and longtime starting center Seth McKinney has switched to right guard. Another free agent addition, Bennie Anderson, a five-year starter at Baltimore and Buffalo, might challenge McKinney for the No. 1 right guard spot.

It's all part of the maddening game of musical chairs that seems to play out annually on offensive lines throughout the league. Once the bedrock of stability, a unit for which the five starters might play together as a group for seven or eight seasons, the offensive line arguably has come to symbolize the worst aspects of free agency and its corrosive effect on the continuity of the game.



Projecting the starting offensive line units of all 32 teams for the 2006 season shows, at least unofficially, that there will be 49 new starters or linemen who will start at new positions this year. That's an average of 1.53 new starters per franchise. And if you think that's a lot, consider this: In the first 10 years of the free agency system, which began in 1993, the leaguewide average was 2.2 new offensive line starters per team. Yet even with less overall turnover, there are still eight teams, one-quarter of the league's franchises, that likely will have three or more new starters in 2006.

Add to that the fact that 13 teams will have new offensive line bosses -- including two former recent head coaches, Mike Sherman in Houston and Mike Tice in Jacksonville, who both hold the title of assistant head coach but are charged with line responsibilities -- and the makeover picture gets even more complicated. All this illustrates why the offensive line coach for any team in the league is one of the most important assistants on a staff.

"It's critical," Saban said. "Especially with all the turnover that free agency brings you. It's not like the days when you could take a team picture and the same five [offensive line starters] would all be standing together for about five or six years in a row. Uh-uh. You'd better have a great offensive line coach if you're going to win in this league. You have to get results from your line coach. It's a high-pressure job. It really is a coaching-intensive deal."

[MaineDolFan]

Very good read.

[DolFan619]

     I don't know if anybody else caught this in the article, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

• Tony Wise (New York Jets): Having to get one rookie ready to start immediately is a formidable task. But a broken ankle suffered by projected starting center Trey Teague two weeks ago means Wise probably will have to get two first-year players prepared to be in the lineup on opening day. Fortunately for Wise, the two players, left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson and center Nick Mangold, the Jets' two selections in the first round this year, were the premier prospects at their respective positions. At least that provides the veteran Wise with a solid platform from which to start.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

CREDIT:  ESPN.com / Len Pastabelly


 

O-line turnover puts pressure on coaches

Criticized by some in the league for the fat contract that he used to pry coveted offensive line coach Hudson Houck away from the San Diego Chargers a year ago, Dolphins coach Nick Saban sat in a golf cart after a recent minicamp practice and, with a full year's perspective on which to rely, concluded that he and the Dolphins' organization got the better end of the deal.


"It's the position on your staff where a good, detailed [assistant coach] can make the biggest difference," Saban said. "By definition, any offensive line coach is working with the poorest athletes on your football team. But by creating camaraderie, working on technique, motivating, he can make guys better collectively than they probably are as individuals. That's why the good (offensive line coaches) are at such a premium."

Essentially, that summed up the job Houck did in 2005, taking a relatively motley and undistinguished group of blockers and cobbling them into a unit good enough to succeed. That the Dolphins achieved a No. 14 statistical ranking in total offense was, in large part, due to his efforts.

His reward: Now Houck, who has carved out an impressive coaching career by remaking offensive lines wherever he has worked, gets to do it all over again.

As usual, in a league where offensive lines are annually in flux, he is hardly alone.

The Dolphins have a new left tackle, L.J. Shelton, signed as an unrestricted free agent after resurrecting his flagging career with the Cleveland Browns in 2005. Guard Rex Hadnot has moved to center and longtime starting center Seth McKinney has switched to right guard. Another free agent addition, Bennie Anderson, a five-year starter at Baltimore and Buffalo, might challenge McKinney for the No. 1 right guard spot.

It's all part of the maddening game of musical chairs that seems to play out annually on offensive lines throughout the league. Once the bedrock of stability, a unit for which the five starters might play together as a group for seven or eight seasons, the offensive line arguably has come to symbolize the worst aspects of free agency and its corrosive effect on the continuity of the game.



Projecting the starting offensive line units of all 32 teams for the 2006 season shows, at least unofficially, that there will be 49 new starters or linemen who will start at new positions this year. That's an average of 1.53 new starters per franchise. And if you think that's a lot, consider this: In the first 10 years of the free agency system, which began in 1993, the leaguewide average was 2.2 new offensive line starters per team. Yet even with less overall turnover, there are still eight teams, one-quarter of the league's franchises, that likely will have three or more new starters in 2006.

Add to that the fact that 13 teams will have new offensive line bosses -- including two former recent head coaches, Mike Sherman in Houston and Mike Tice in Jacksonville, who both hold the title of assistant head coach but are charged with line responsibilities -- and the makeover picture gets even more complicated. All this illustrates why the offensive line coach for any team in the league is one of the most important assistants on a staff.

"It's critical," Saban said. "Especially with all the turnover that free agency brings you. It's not like the days when you could take a team picture and the same five [offensive line starters] would all be standing together for about five or six years in a row. Uh-uh. You'd better have a great offensive line coach if you're going to win in this league. You have to get results from your line coach. It's a high-pressure job. It really is a coaching-intensive deal."

[YoFuggedaboutit]

     I don't know if anybody else caught this in the article, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

• Tony Wise (New York Jets): Having to get one rookie ready to start immediately is a formidable task. But a broken ankle suffered by projected starting center Trey Teague two weeks ago means Wise probably will have to get two first-year players prepared to be in the lineup on opening day. Fortunately for Wise, the two players, left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson and center Nick Mangold, the Jets' two selections in the first round this year, were the premier prospects at their respective positions. At least that provides the veteran Wise with a solid platform from which to start.

Watch D'Brick end up being another draft bust.

[The_Phinatic]

Posting entire articles is copyright infringement and unfair to the publisher.  Lazy is not being able to click a link to an article!

[MaineDolFan]

Lazy is not being able to click a link to an article!

Not really.  Maybe some people on this board have limited time during their work day to access web pages?  Or jumping from site to site would alarm their corporate big brother watch dog?  So - a working joe is less important than a giant like ESPN?  Personally - sign me up as having the back of the working joe.  We aren't talking about illegal downloading of songs here.

I personally read cnnsi.com / espn.com / sportingnewsradio.com / baseballamerica.com, etc each day.  I have access to each site's "for pay" only sections.  I would never re-post an insider article on a site.  However an article that is on the free portion?  My conscience is clear.

Not tryng to pick a bone with you what so ever, don't take it as such.  But we aren't talking about Sporting News Radio (a for profit web page) stealing an article from ESPN and calling it their own.  We're talking about a cut and paste, with proper credit to both writer and publisher - with link - on a site is not for profit.  Huge differences.

[The_Phinatic]

Why don't you ask the newspapers if it's a big deal or not?  They don't even want you pasting a blurb from their articles according to their copyright information (posted on their sites).  They allow links and that's it.