review of the new CBA rules guiding off-season activities, + OLs & the new CBA

Offseason rules in full force

Mike Florio

February 11, 2016

Offseason rules in full force

Now that all 32 teams have completed the 2015 season, it makes sense to review the things that can and can’t be done until the offseason programs open in April.

The rules appear in Article 21, Section 2 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Before the launch of the offseason program, players can’t participate in Club-supervised workouts, practices, group, or individual meetings with coaches, group or individual film study with coaches, or group or individual playbook study with coaches. This provision is the origin of periodic comments from coaches regarding their inability to communicate with players in the offseason.

Still, there’s no prohibition on phone calls or discussions that don’t amount to meetings, film study, or playbook study. If, for example, 49ers coach Chip Kelly simply wants to get to know quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Kelly can call Kaepernick and talk to him. But with Kelly taking the ridiculously extreme position that he can’t even talk about Kaepernick publicly, it seems that Kelly either doesn’t understand the rules or is being deliberately obtuse, possibly to enhance trade potential for Kaepernick by not taking a clear position on whether the 49ers want him during the window when interested teams might call.

Players nevertheless are allowed to work out in the team facility, with strength and conditioning coaches prevented from supervising workouts but permitted into supervise the weight room to prevent injury and correct misuse of the equipment. And plenty of players prefer to stay in shape that way, given the fact that it’s both familiar and free.

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How the CBA may affect the NFL Draft moving forward

link: http://www.todayspigskin.com/nfl-draft/how-the-cba-may-affect-the-nfl-draft-moving-forward/

To the general managers that are paying attention to the stats, analytics and film, the current NFL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that was signed in 2011 may begin impacting how they draft offensive linemen (and perhaps other key positions as well) sooner rather than later — and it’s a little surprising that it hasn’t already.

THE CBA AND THE OFFENSIVE LINE

In 2010, the year before the current CBA went into effect, five offensive lineman were drafted in the first round. Over the last two seasons four went in each draft in the first round, respectively. In total, 46 offensive lineman were drafted both in 2014 and 2015 with La’el Collins going undrafted but grading out higher (6.2 to 6.1) than the ninth overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft Ereck Flowers. This is compared to 47 offensive lineman in 2010.

While the draft patterns have remained consistent for the most part, the quality of play of offensive lines as a whole — and especially young lineman — has dipped dramatically. The reasoning for this is actually quite simple: offensive lineman need to practice hitting in order to work in harmony together, and they’re being robbed of that chance given the new landscape in the NFL via the CBA.

As some still do not know, until the offseason program begins later this month, players and coaches were not allowed to: talk football, hold meetings, look at a playbook, watch film or do any other football-related activity together for what amounts to 16 weeks, or four months, of non-communication all-told.

In addition, players now enjoy non-existent hitting in OTAs, minicamps and training camps. Further, they’re only allowed to practice in pads 14 times during the 17-week regular season. More specifically, and as Mike Florio concisely spelled out soon after the current CBA was announced, “teams can have 11 padded practices during the first 11 weeks of the season, with two padded practices allowed in a given week only once during the regular season. Then, for the final six weeks of the season, a total of three padded practices may be conducted.” What we’ve witnessed since is a league where you might be able to stretch it by saying that five offensive lines are legitimately good in the entire league.

The rest stink.

This is because, more than any other player or unit on the field, the offensive lineman are more dependent on one another in order to perform the essential duties of their jobs well. When you take away the ability to hit, communicate and work in said unison enough during the formative months of the season, they lack the ability to gain harmony on the line. Ultimately this leaves teams with poor line play overall and a more elongated development curve for most highly drafted offensive lineman than we’ve ever seen.

THE STATS

In 2010 — again, one year before the new CBA went into effect — the average Adjusted Line Yards (ALY) per play was four yards. In pass-protection the average team gave up 35 sacks during the season, while the average running back gained roughly 4.2 yards per play.

ALY is a very helpful Footballoutsiders.com (FO) statistic which is “based on regression analysis, [where] the ALY formula takes all running back carries and assigns responsibility to the offensive line. These numbers are then adjusted based on down, distance, situation, opponent, and the difference in rushing average between shotgun compared to standard formations. Finally, [FO] normalize the numbers so that the league average for ALY per carry is the same as the league average for RB yards per carry.”

In 2015, the average ALY dipped all the way to 3.7 yards per play and the average team gave up two more sacks on the year(37). Not surprisingly, the average rush barely cleared four yards while the league saw more QB pressures than ever before as well.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Given the obvious regression of offensive line play in the NFL, should GM’s still go after an offensive lineman early in the draft knowing that rookies may now take two-to-three years to develop?

This is not a simple question to answer, and the truth is, the offensive line isn’t the only unit that has been negatively affected by the current CBA.

Defensive positions (such as safety, linebacker and defensive back) where open field tackling form and efficiency are most imperative, have never been as poor as they are now. This is partially due to the lack of full-contact drills, but there are other factors such as: how players are coached coming up, new rules that make targeting for a tackle much more difficult and more players looking to make a highlight so they can dance on TV than ever before.

That doesn’t mean teams won’t draft imperative defensive positions extremely high when they see a unique talent at DB or MLB; nor does it mean that many teams won’t likely still jump at the best offensive lineman on the board as quickly as they can — but the smartest front offices may begin to steer clear in the first round knowing they can just as easily develop a perceived second-tier offensive lineman in the same amount of time as most perceived first-tier lineman.

As the game of football continues to shift away from as much perceived ‘unnecessary’ hitting as possible in camps, practices and games in order to combat the pronounced string of long-term issues we’ve seen caused by concussions, draft strategy should ultimately change accordingly.

How soon that happens is up to how forward-thinking general managers around the league are. But don’t be surprised to see a shift sooner rather than later as young offensive lineman are now harder to develop than ever regardless of talent level.