Author: nfltalk

Interior linemen don’t receive enough praise around the NFL, unless it’s the lowlight where they give up a sack or don’t make a block. The guard and center positions are hard to judge already, especially since most blocking situations are between the A- and B-gap and not necessarily limited to 1-on-1 situations. 

Thanks to advanced statistics, the league has better ways to evaluate how good interior offensive linemen are — along with how valuable they are for the offensive system they’re in. Of course, other factors are in play. 

Like how tackles are graded, does run-blocking matter more than pressure rate? Are great interior offensive linemen the ones who protect the quarterback? Can they make their teammates they line up next to every week better? 

The qualification for these interior linemen rankings is how good the player was in 2022. We’ll use success over the past few seasons to help weigh the ranking, but 2022 performance is the key equation in the formula. This is a ranking of the best interior offensive linemen right now, not entirely based on past or future success. 

Before the 2023 interior offensive linemen rankings are dropped, these were the rankings from last year:

Zack Martin (Dallas Cowboys)Quenton Nelson (Indianapolis Colts)Jason Kelce (Philadelphia Eagles)Joel Bitonio (Cleveland Browns)Corey Linsley (Los Angeles Chargers)Shaq Mason (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)Creed Humphrey (Kansas City Chiefs)Wyatt Teller (Cleveland Browns)Joe Thuney (Kansas City Chiefs)Brandon Scherff (Jacksonville Jaguars)

Without further adieu, the top 10 interior offensive linemen in the NFL (guards and centers are lumped together). To see our top 10 offensive tackles for 2023, click here. 

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The 49ers throughout training camp will have a handful of tough roster decisions to make on the offensive side of the ball. Chief among them will be how they handle the quarterback situation. Beyond that there aren’t many question marks for the club as far as starters go on offense.

Most of the hard choices for the coaching staff will come down the depth chart. They’ll have to piece together a roster in a way that’s going to force them to cut some players who will probably land jobs on other NFL rosters.

The good news is the starting lineup should for the most part be set.

We went through and made a prediction for what the 49ers’ starting lineup will look like on offense, and it looks largely the same as it did last season. In fact, we were hard-pressed to find any starting spots on offense that are legitimately up for grabs.

Since the 49ers run a lot of 21 personnel with two running backs and one tight end, we went with that formation for our predicted starters:

Quarterback

Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Brock Purdy

All indications from the 49ers say that Purdy will get the first crack at the starting job based on his terrific showing to end last season. Assuming he remains on track to start the season opener, he’ll be under center Week 1 in Pittsburgh.

Running back

(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Christian McCaffrey

There’ll be some form of a committee this year thanks to McCaffrey’s versatility, but he’s the starter.

Fullback

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Juszczyk

Last year wasn’t Juszczyk’s best with the 49ers, but he’s still the best. fullback in the NFL and a key to San Francisco’s offense.

Wide receiver

(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Deebo Samuel
Brandon Aiyuk

There’s no real mystery here. Barring injury they’ll be the team’s top two wide receivers with Jauan Jennings in line as the third option.

Tight end

Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

George Kittle

Figuring out the starter here is easy. It’s the backups that come…

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If you’ve ever wondered what the worst position would be to play in the NFL, it looks like we now have our answer. 

During an interview this week with Jim Rome on CBS Sports Radio, Melvin Gordon said the worst position to play is definitely running back. 

“It’s just so tough for running backs right now, man,” Gordon said. “You have a lot of running backs that’s out there and we just don’t get no love. It’s literally the worst position to play in the NFL right now. It literally sucks.”

You don’t usually hear an NFL player complain about how much their position “sucks,” so Gordon clearly feels strongly about this point and it’s easy to see why. Over the past decade, running backs have lost value in the eyes of NFL teams. Unless your name is Christian McCaffrey or Derrick Henry, it’s almost impossible to get a big contract. 

NFL teams have found that they can get almost the same production from a young, cheap running back as they can from an established name. If a team has to choose between a running back making $3 million per year or $11 million per year, they’re almost always going to pick the cheaper option, because the production will likely be similar between the two despite the $8 million difference in price tag. 

If you want an idea of how ugly things have been for running backs, just consider this. Back in 2013, the franchise tag number for the position was $8.08 million. This year, that number has only gone up to $10.09 million, which is an increase of 25%. 

That might sound like a nice bump until you realize that almost every other position has seen its tag number double over that span. Quarterbacks have led the way, going from $14.64 million in 2013 to $32.42 million (an increase of 121 percent). Linebackers have also seen their total increase by more than 100 percent ($9.46 million to $20.93 million) as have defensive tackles ($8.31 million to $18.94 million). 

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Bill Belichick had success early, winning a Super Bowl in his second year as the New England Patriots’ head coach. However, when speaking with The 33rd Team, he revealed that he didn’t have a team that was built to his liking until his fourth year.

The 2001 Patriots team had many weapons, including a veteran quarterback in Drew Bledsoe, who was eventually replaced by Tom Brady due to injury. New England defeated the heavy juggernaut that was the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl and had a little bit of luck along the way.

That team had an improbable playoff run.

First, they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then they endured the infamous “tuck rule” game that saw them defeat the Oakland Raiders. Finally, they pulled out the Super Bowl victory over “The Greatest Show on Turf” Rams  to kick-start the beginning stages of the dynasty.

But even with all of that success, Belichick admitted he wasn’t completely satisfied with the roster, as transcribed by Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith.

“When the opportunity came in 2000, even though this team was nowhere near the team that we left in ’96, it had declined quite a bit, there were still a few pillars here that we could build with,” said Belichick. “And I’d say by ’03 — even though we won in ’01 — by ’03 this was a pretty good football team in all three phases of the game. It kind of took the same basic four-year window that it took in Cleveland. Again, we were fortunate to win in ’01, but I’d say by ’03, ’04, we had one of the better teams in the league.”

It is certainly interesting hearing about which team the coach was most comfortable with.

For what it’s worth, the 2003 team went 14-2 and defeated the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVII. A stellar offense and a suffocating defense were hallmarks for that team. It makes sense why that was one of Belichick’s favorites.

More Patriots News!

Kirk Herbstreit is ‘1000 percent’ behind future ‘Pro Bowl’ QB Mac Jones

Report:…

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