This past NFL Draft saw nine offensive linemen taken in the first round, which is the most taken in the first round since 1968. Joe Alt, JC Latham, and Olu Fashanu look to be cornerstone pieces for many years to come for their respective franchises.
The reality is that many offensive line units experience a lot of change over the course of the season due to injury, different personnel packages, and consistency of play. In fact, according to offensive line data gathered from FTN, only 7 teams on average per season have an offensive line unit that plays over 50% of the team’s total snaps together. Not every team has the luxury of the 2023 Bills and Bengals, which saw their offensive line play together for over 97% of its offensive snaps.
Given the weak-link nature of football, when a newcomer is added, the entire unit’s performance could suffer. However, identifying an offensive lineman to immediately slot in to back fill on the OL can add some creativity in roster construction.
One trend we are starting to see counteract this is the need for an OL who can play multiple positions. Some teams had a roster designation for “swing” tackles or guards that could move to either side of the line. Not many players succeed in switching to the other side of the line as it can be a lot like learning how to write left-handed if you have always been right-handed. Even Penei Sewell struggled switching to the right side initially in his rookie year; although he has seen great success at the position since then (primarily played LT in college). We can see below that collegiate OL are starting to have experience in play at different OL assignments.
There is evidence to show that a fair amount of high-quality offensive lineman played multiple spots on the line in college. Trent Williams played 25% of his collegiate snaps at Left Tackle, Andrew Thomas was nearly 60/40 at LT/RT in college. Looking purely at snaps within the LT/RT has a fair amount of selection bias tied to it, as the means to which a player is slotted to a different OL role is likely more due to availability than ability. In this article, we hope to identify some key traits that may identify an OL that can play at multiple spots on the line.
Types of Pass Rushes Faced
Given that there is some selection bias in looking at pure alignment to determine if an injury has occurred, we should observe the types of pass rushing faced to see if the OL was used to move his body in different directions.
- Those left on an island as offensive tackles are likely to face more outside pass rush.
- Those who are asked to do more and are more athletic may be asked to assist in many different types of pass rushes.
Using PFF charted pass rush moves such as: inside, outside and bull rush moves, we can use the coefficient of variation formula to calculate those who “got the job done” (i.e. non-negative PFF grade; we will call this GJD Rate) consistently in handling different types of pass rush moves.
A lower coefficient of variation would indicate consistent performance across different pass rush moves. This is key because we want to see a player struggle with full rotation of the body to counteract inside, outside or straight up pass rush moves. By taking correlation between consistency in performance with different pass rush moves to pass block performance in the secondary role, we can see that the experience with different pass rush moves makes it easier to move someone to back fill an interior offensive line position (RG, C, and LG) than an offensive tackle. Offensive Tackles are left on an island more in general so they will likely see more outside pass rush moves.
Some of the top players that had success with inside pass rush moves at multiple positions were:
- Marshal Yanda (18% of snaps at secondary position RT, primary RG)
- Ali Marpet (23% of snaps at secondary position RG, primary LG)
- Tristan Wirfs (25% of snaps at secondary position LT, primary RT)
- Kevin Dotson (35% of snaps at secondary position RG, primary LG)
- Stefen Wisniewski (40% of snaps at secondary position LG, primary C)
Additionally, here are some of the best players who had consistency in performance across different pass rush types at multiple positions:
- Lucas Patrick (36% of snaps at secondary position RG, primary C)
- Ali Marpet (also had 10% career snaps C)
- Justin Pugh (28% of snaps at RT, primary LG)
- Cody Whitehair (48% of snaps at LG, primary C)
- Ereck Flowers (45% of snaps at LG, primary LT)
Performance Against Stunts & Blitz
Another way of identifying players that could make the adjustment to a new OL position is to view performance in blitz and stunt scenarios. Given stunts and blitzes cause players to adjust extra blockers in a given gap, performance in this could identify players who can move directions to adjust for different pass rush schemes.
By taking the Pearson Correlation of this with high GJD rate in stunt or blitz pass rush scenarios to the pass block GJD rate at a player’s secondary position (filtered for those with at least 10% of career snaps at a secondary position), we can see those who perform well in stunts are more likely to perform well in interior offensive line positions, whereas perform well against the blitz is more important for those needed to fill on the left side of the line.
Here are some of the players that performed well against stunts with a high degree of success in multiple positions:
- Marshal Yanda
- Brandon Linder (20% of career snaps at RG, primary C)
- Richie Incognito (18% of career snaps at LG, primary RG)
- B.J. Finney (32% of career snaps at RG, primary C)
- Kelechi Osemele (13% of career snaps at RT, primary LG)
Here are some additional players that performed well against the blitz with a high degree of success in multiple positions:
- Ramon Foster (21% of career snaps at RG, primary LG)
- Tyron Smith (13% of career snaps at RT, primary LT)
- Nate Solder (16% at RT, primary LT)
- Daryl Williams (18% at RG, primary RT)
- Gabe Jackson (23% at LG, primary RG)
Performance in Different Run Blocking Schemes
We’ve spoken a lot about pass blocking indicators for filling depth given the priority of passing in the league. When trying to understand how that will affect the run game, we can look at how varying run concepts effects performance by viewing primary zone vs. man run concepts (as charted by PFF).
- Zone consists of outside and inside zone runs.
- Man consists of any run play where blockers are blocking a primarily who is across from them in their gaps (not accounting for any pulling line concepts).
Overall, the difference between zone and man run blocking schemes seems to be consistent for both. Except those who perform well in zone run schemes, as they tend to be better slotted as fill-ins for guards. We suspect this, given the nature of guards to be on the move in both zone, man, power, counter type of run concepts.
Some of the most effective OL in zone blocking schemes that played at multiple positions were the following:
- Teven Jenkins (29% at LG, primary RG)
- Orlando Brown Jr (31% at RT, primary LT)
- Frank Ragnow (21% at LG, primary C)
- Zack Tom (17% at LT, primary RT but has played at positions on OL)
- Ben Powers (17% at RG, primary LG)
Application: Finding Future Swing OL
Using these identifiers, we can start looking at players in the 2024 & 2025 class that could add potential as fill ins as needed. Based on the coefficient of variation from the Inside, Outside, Bull Rush Pass Rush GJD Rate, those with high degrees of success were:
- Patrick Paul (2024)
- Roger Rosengarten (2024)
- Cooper Beebe (2024)
- Anthony Belton (2025)
- Garrett Dellinger (2025)
- Jonah Savaiinaea (2025)
As we wait to see how Patrick Paul (MIA), Roger Rosengarten (BAL), and Cooper Bebe (DAL) will be slotted in with their new teams, the 2025 prospects could be good early candidates for OL that could fit many different roles along the offensive line.
While there are other ways to identify players who can succeed at multiple OL positions, looking at opposing pass rush types, pressure responsiveness (blitz/stunt packages), and different run blocking schemes is a start in finding those players agile enough to try out for a new position while adding additional depth to the roster.
