At the end of 2016 season, our front office and coaches identified guards' play as THE area desperately needed improvement. Cable wanted Joeckel as he was the best guard in 2016; John also tried to sign T. J. Lang
We signed Joeckel for $8mil and he was a disappointment, Lang chose to sign with Lions.
We got lucky this offseason, Fluker same cheap; then Sweezy became available, cheap too. But all of a sudden, we had two veteran guards! One of them Fluker, was a run block specialist.
Let's compare PFF 2018 ratings:
T. J. Lang : Good - 72.1 - #13 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... -lang/5032)
J. R. Sweezy: Average - 54.7 - #54 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... weezy/7209)
D. J. Fluker: Above Average - 60.4 - #43 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... luker/7792)
Ok our guards are not Lang good, but both at least average. Then we have:
Britt: Average - 57.5 - #24 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... britt/8699)
Ifedi: Average - 47.1 - #72 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... fedi/10665)
Brown: Good - 70.9 - #18 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... brown/4340)
Pocic: above average - 60.9 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... ocic/11813)
Fant: above average - 67.5 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... fant/11282)
Hunt: average - 55.2 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... hunt/10849)
Our weakest, Ifedi, is league average at this point, the rest range from average to Good. A far cry from last year. This line helped, but also helped by our tackles breaking RB corp:
Carson: Good - 75 - #9 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... rson/12004)
Davis: Good - 76.2 - #6 (
https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/pl ... rson/12004)
aint it cool that league's #6 and #9 backs both run for us?