This week, I’m going to take a look at how various aspects of Seattle and New England were built and compare it to the Washington Redskins. Today: the offensive lines.
Seattle
Starting lineup breakdown: first-round (left tackle Russell Okung, left guard James Carpenter), second round (right tackle Justin Britt, center Max Unger), seventh round (right guard J.R. Sweezy, a converted defensive lineman), undrafted free agent (center Lemuel Jeanpierre). All got their start with Seattle.
Offensive line draft picks past five years: Seven out of 48 total picks, with three selected in the first two rounds.
Combined Pro Bowls: Three -- Okung with one; Unger with two. Unger also was an All-Pro.
Salary-cap space allotted to the entire line in 2014: $23,333,034 or 20.89 percent of their cap -- it’s 13.61 percent above the league average.
Note: Unger missed 10 games during the regular season. He was replaced by former undrafted free agent Jeanpierre. Also, Seattle averaged 5.26 yards per carry this season (and 4.67 thus far in the postseason). Running back Marshawn Lynch had the third fewest yards before contact (2.14) among 1,000-yard backs. And quarterback Russell Wilson averaged 7.2 yards on 118 runs. Wilson was sacked 42 times out of 544 dropbacks during the regular season (seven in the postseason out of 62 dropbacks).
New England
Starting lineup breakdown: First round (tackle Nate Solder), second round (right tackle Sebastian Vollmer), fourth round (center Bryan Stork), undrafted free agent (left guard Dan Connolly, right guard Ryan Wendell). Four got their start with New England; Connolly was initially signed by Jacksonville.
Offensive line draft picks past five years: Seven of 44, including one in the first two rounds, and four in rounds 5-7.
Combined Pro Bowls: Zero. Vollmer was a second-team All-Pro in 2010.
Salary-cap space allotted to the entire line in 2014: $16,280,326 or 14.19 percent of their cap -- that’s 21.60 percent below the league average.
Note: The Patriots averaged 3.94 yards per carry in the regular season (3.60 in the postseason) and quarterback Tom Brady was sacked 21 times on 612 dropbacks in the regular season (three times out of 91 dropbacks in the postseason).
Washington
Starting lineup breakdown: First round (left tackle Trent Williams), second round (guard Chris Chester), third round (guard Shawn Lauvao), fourth round (center Kory Lichtensteiger), sixth round (tackle Tom Compton). Two got their start with Washington; Lauvao, Lichtensteiger and Chester got their starts elsewhere.
Offensive line draft picks past five years: Nine out of 41 overall picks, including one in the first two rounds, and five in rounds 5-7.
Combined Pro Bowls: Three, all by Williams.
Salary-cap space allotted to the entire line in 2014: $26,695,200 or 23.24 percent of the entire cap -- 30.67 percent higher than the average team.
Note: The Redskins averaged 4.2 yards per carry, and running back Alfred Morris had the lowest amount of average yards before contact (2.05) of any 1,000-yard back. The quarterbacks were sacked a combined 58 times (Robert Griffin III was sacked 33 times in 265 dropbacks; Colt McCoy 17 times in 150, and Kirk Cousins eight times in 213).