Offensive linemen blast PFF grades, NFL coaching
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Sporting News
Ron Clements
http://www.msn.com
[IMG]© (Getty Images) Chance WarmackFour NFL offensive linemen spoke with CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco and unloaded on the state of coaching in the NFL.
The four linemen — Chicago Bears tackle Bobby Massie, Bears guard Kyle Long, Tennessee Titans guard Chance Warmack and New York Giants center Weston Richburg — also slammed the grades handed out by Pro Football Focus.
Massie, Long, Warmack and Richburg were four of about 30 linemen working out at the O-Line Performance Center, owned and operated by former NFL lineman LeCharles Bentley.
The linemen said the grades given by PFF, cited often as a gauge to judge how well a player is performing, are given by people who don’t know the nuances of the game.
“It’s for people who never played a down in the league and don’t understand what an offensive lineman does, so how can they grade it?” Massie told Prisco as part of a lengthy round-table discussion. “You can snap back at people, but it’s frowned upon.”
Warmack said the grades are “annoying,” but Long took it a step further, saying the people giving the grades “don’t know how to buckle up a helmet.”
PFF, which is co-owned by former Cincinnati Bengals receiver and NBC Sports NFL analyst Cris Collinsworth, wasn’t the only target of criticism from the four linemen. The players also blasted the state of coaching in the NFL.
Long, Massie, Warmack and Richburg said offensive line play in the NFL has declined for a variety of reasons — less practice time, limited contact in practice, free agency affecting cohesion, and the implementation of spread offenses. But the main reason listed was a lack of fundamental teaching by coaches.
“What is good technique? Even if you have coaches who want to implement the techniques, it’s not the right way,” Warmack said. “You do the same thing 1,000 times and it’s wrong. Then you get in the game and they want me to block an All-Pro three-technique and you’ve been doing the same thing that’s wrong since April. And it’s October, and you get torn out the frame (on film). It’s your fault. Not his fault. It’s our fault.”
To get the coaching they can’t get from their respective coaching staffs, the linemen traveled to Arizona to learn from Bentley — a two-time Pro Bowler during his seven-year NFL career with the New Orleans Saints and Cleveland Browns.
“Show me your All-Pro jersey, coach, and I will do what you do. LeCharles Bentley has one of those,” Long told Prisco. “At some point, you have to say I am doing what you tell me to do. But at the same time, you spend eight weeks here with LeCharles and eight weeks with elite guys like Weston, Chance and Bobby. You take things from each other. Why be here if you’re not going to take what you learn here? Everybody has a tool belt. We load that sucker up here. That’s what we take pride in doing.”
Warmack, a first-round pick of the Titans in 2013, said a former Titans offensive line coach isn’t qualified to be an NFL offensive line coach.
“I had one dude (coach) who played D-III football at linebacker,” the former Alabama lineman said of Bob Bostad, who played football at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. “And he’s teaching me how to play offensive line? If there’s nothing wrong with that, you tell me.
“I play offensive line. I don’t play linebacker. I definitely didn’t play D-III football. Not knocking D-III schools out there. We’re talking about the highest level of football in the world. And you have a guy who has never put his hand in the dirt teaching me how to block. You don’t think there’s anything wrong with that? I appreciate a coach who is open-minded to questions and comments. They don’t want to hear a question that questions their philosophy. When they are closed-minded, it stunts the growth of the offensive lineman.”
Bostad, currently the tight ends and fullbacks coach at Northern Illinois University, was the Titans offensive line coach from 2014-2015 after holding the same position with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012-13. Prior to joining the Bucs, Bostad had been an offensive line and/or tight ends coach at UW-Stevens Point, Cal State Northridge, San Jose State, New Mexico and Wisconsin.
“In practice you have to do what the coaches want to make them happy,” Massie added. “Make them feel like they have the big d— in the room. On game day, you have to do your own stuff. The coaches, they’re not out there blocking. They’re in a big, comfortable chair with the clicker. The O-line and D-line are the best athletes on the field. It’s not the quarterback, the receivers or the corners. We’re going against the biggest, strongest, fastest in the world.”
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Agamemnon
