If you’ve followed the Fantasy Alarm NFL Draft Guide for the last two years, you’ll know I’ve written about NFL Offensive Lines going on three years now. And when asked “Do offensive lines matter?” it should come as absolutely no surprise that year in and year out I will answer with an emphatic “YES!” And for a multitude of reason, which I’ll dive into shortly. The unfortunate aspect with offensive linemen is they don’t accumulate fantasy points. There are IDP leagues where defensive players get points, there are quirky leagues where you draft head coaches and if their team wins the game, you get a few extra points. Imagine being in a tight matchup during Monday Night Football and you lose simply because one team beat another. It’s insane! Even in the most standard of fantasy football leagues kickers earn fantasy points and they don’t play nearly as much as offensive linemen do. I’m surprised that in 2019 we haven’t developed a fantasy football format where you can draft a group of offensive linemen from a team and you get bonus points based on how many sacks are allowed, or not committing a false start (this one’s a bit of a reach), or if an offensive linemen gets a classic fat guy touchdown; the BEST kind of touchdown. But I digress. Just because offensive lines don’t yield fantasy points doesn’t mean they should be overlooked!

The Running Game

If you take a peek at the top ten teams from 2018 in Run Blocking Efficiency according to Pro Football Focus, you’ll be able to distinguish some of the best teams in terms of rushing attacks:

  1. Los Angeles Rams (76.7)
  2. New England Patriots (72.1)
  3. Indianapolis Colts (71.6)
  4. San Francisco 49ers (71.1)
  5. Atlanta Falcons (69.6)
  6. Philadelphia Eagles (69.5)
  7. Denver Broncos (69.4)
  8. Kansas City Chiefs (66.7)
  9. Tennessee Titans (65.8)
  10. Baltimore Ravens (62.1)

You can look at most of the teams in the list above and recognize a pretty strong run game from a year ago. But mind you, these are just the offensive line grades in terms of run blocking. Some of these teams may not have run as much as others hence why the rushing yards and rushing attempts per game may not be as high. Take the Philadelphia Eagles for example. They had a Top 10 offensive line in terms of run blocking but failed to generate a 600-yard rusher last season. A lot of that was due to various injuries and the team relying heavily on the pass. They just couldn’t get the run game going between five different running backs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the blocking was the problem and I’m sure Jason Kelce would agree.

Similarly, the New England Patriots have long been a fantasy football nightmare because of their backfield. In PPR formats it’s no secret that James White is usually a mid-to-late round steal because of his ability to catch passes out of the backfield. But for a while it was a revolving door of “who will lead the team in carries this week?” Well at least there was some consistency with Sony Michel earning 209 carries over 13 games for 931 yards. James White also got in on the party carrying the ball 94 times in addition to his 87 receptions. Now it certainly helps that New England has one of the best interior linemen in the game with Shaq Mason and in addition to Mason they’ll be getting 2018 first-round pick Isaiah Wynn at full health after he missed his rookie season with a torn achilles, but there are rumblings he may slide over to Tackle to protect Tom Brady ’s blindside. Couple Wynn and Mason with David Andrews, Joe Thuney , and Marcus Cannon and you’ve got one of the best offensive lines in the game with the best offensive line coach of all time, Dante Scarnecchia.

Now to somewhat debunk the argument that offensive lines matter, one might argue in favor of the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle had a pretty poor interior line last year and they graded as a below-average run blocking team according to PFF (55.6). Seattle led the league with over 150 rushing yards per game last year, but keep in mind running the ball is part of their identity. When they’re running it 30-35 times per game, they’ll generally just rack up more yards even if Russell Wilson is scrambling for his life. As most fantasy football players know, sometimes volume alone will yield results even if the efficiency for a certain player isn’t great.

Also worth considering is that with the growing trends of zone blocking (lateral/East-to-West blocking) over power block (more of a man-to-man/North-South style) teams are able to mask certain deficiencies in run blocking if an offensive lineman is mobile enough and can simply pick up the first defensive player that crosses his plain.

Pass Blocking

Putting it simply, just protect the quarterback. Pass blocking is largely an artform for outside tackles. It requires swift footwork and keeping defensive ends and blitzing linebackers to the outside so the quarterback has two-to-four seconds to get rid of the ball. Even four seconds is a little generous because at that point the pocket is most likely collapsing, but pass blocking is simply meant to give the quarterback ample time to get rid of the ball. And if you can do this without letting the defense by or without being called for holding, then you can make a ton of money.

2018 was a great example of offensive lines aiding the running and passing games. And before anyone thinks I’m giving all the credit in the world to offensive lines I’ll say this: I know the best offenses in football don’t operate merely because of the offensive line. There are elite coaches, explosive position players, and the quarterback, arguably the most important position in all of sports. However, when looking at some of the best rushing or passing attacks from a year ago, you can’t help but notice the presence of a strong offensive line.

A lot of folks may look at the Pittsburgh Steelers run game and not be too impressed by it. With Le’Veon Bell voluntarily sitting out an entire season, the Steelers turned to James Conner and handed him a workload he had never seen the likes of as a professional player. He still averaged 4.5 yards per carry and finished with 973 rushing yards in 13 games. Pittsburgh as a team only averaged 90.3 rushing yards per game, which was the second-fewest in the league. But again, they attempted the second-fewest rush attempts per game as well. So where do the great offensive numbers come from? Well since they hardly ran the ball last year Pittsburgh’s aerial numbers were among the best in the league. The Steelers attempted the most pass attempts per game and ultimately graded out with the highest pass blocking efficiency score by Pro Football Focus. Per PFF, the Steelers still finished with the 12th-best run blocking efficiency score. Even in fewer rushing attempts the Steelers still came close to having a 1,000-yard rusher. Their pass blocking efficiency was otherworldly. Last year they graded as one of the best in pass blocking (87.6) and gave up just 24 sacks even after averaging over 43 pass attempts per game. As hobbled as Big Ben has been with injuries later on in his career, the offensive line played a role in keeping him upright so he could set career highs in completions (452), attempts (675), passing yards (5,129), and passing touchdowns (34).

Take a look at the top ten pass blocking offensive lines from a year ago:

  1. Green Bay Packers (88.6)
  2. Pittsburgh Steelers (87.6)
  3. Cleveland Browns (85.9)
  4. Chicago Bears (83.9)
  5. Los Angeles Rams (82.4)
  6. Kansas City Chiefs (81.8)
  7. Detroit Lions (80.7)
  8. New England Patriots (80.5)
  9. Indianapolis Colts (80.1)
  10. Tennessee Titans (79.1)

One team I like seeing on this list (aside from the Pats) is Indianapolis. And the reason is that for the longest time the Colts surrounded Andrew Luck with talented position players, but they did little to actually protect their star quarterback. In 2017, Andrew Luck didn’t play a single snap. But I’m going to use this season to still make my point at the massive stride the O-line made in short time. In 2017 the Colts surrendered the most sacks in the league with 56. That number was up from 44 (fifth-most in the league) in 2017 where Luck played and incurred his shoulder injury. Fast forward to 2018 and take a look at the improvements the Colts made. In the 2018 draft they used two of their first three picks to address the offensive line. They took Quenton Nelson sixth overall and Braden Smith 37th overall. Coming out of college everybody knew Nelson was something special. He had future hall of famer written all over him and his highlight reel was offensive line porn and as it turns out, in his rookie year he finished 2nd-team All Pro. Smith was a big surprise because he played mostly guard in college, but transitioned nicely to playing right tackle in the NFL. Add in the fact Ryan Kelly developed nicely at center and the Colts found themselves with a very formidable offensive line. So much so that after surrendering the most sacks in the league in 2017, they only allowed 18 sacks all of last year with Luck under center again. He didn’t set career highs, but for a guy who hasn’t played a snap in almost two years it was nice to see him finish with 4,500+ passing yards and 39 touchdowns. Add in the fact he wasn’t being taken to the ground as much and Luck was probably a happy camper.

The Colts are the shining example of how important an offensive line is. They went from rags to riches in a quick span and the offense looked its best since the 2014 season when they went to the AFC Championship Game. If you don’t believe that offensive lines matter, then go ask Deshaun Watson . For the third straight year the Texans allowed over 200 quarterback pressures and allowed a league high 62 sacks. Perhaps in 2019 they could see improvements similar to the 2018 Colts. Like Indianapolis, Houston went out and used two of its first three picks to address the offensive line in Tytus Howard and Max Scharping. The franchise quarterback certainly has to like those moves because, if we’re being honest, the Texans offensive line has nowhere to go but up.

The offensive line will rarely appear on the stat sheet (please refer to the aforementioned fat guy touchdown from above), but sometimes they recover a fumble and you’ll find them in the box score. But they’re still an integral part of an offensive game plan and they hold some weight in fantasy. If a team has addressed offensive line as a need in the draft or through free agency you may want to view them a little differently because they could perform better in 2019. Don’t expect similar results to the Colts, they hit the jackpot and rarely does a team go from one of the worst offensive lines in football to one of the premiere O-lines. But be on the lookout later on this draft prep season for a full breakdown of each team’s offensive line outlook heading training camp!

Statistical Credits:

ProFootballFocus.com

Ourlads.com

FootballOutsiders.com

TeamRankings.com/nfl

NFL.com