Oakland Raiders: Ranking all 32 OLs by Best Run Blocking

The Oakland Raiders brought in Trent Brown to help bolster their offensive line in 2019, and here is where all 32 teams ranked in terms of run blocking in 2018.

The Oakland Raiders went into the 2018 season with one of the better interior offensive lines, as they started Gabe Jackson and Kelechi Osemele at guard, and Pro Bowler Rodney Hudson at center. When we rank the top offensive lines in the NFL, we often rank them based on several different factors.

For example, If we want to see which offensive lines are the best at pass blocking, we typically look at the total sacks given as a unit. Now I totally agree, total sacks given up are super important.

However, coaches and scouts know to look at other advanced metrics other than total sacks. One such metric is the number of quarterback hits. Quarterback hits absolutely matter, and are a real stat. A few others include quarterback pressures and offensive line penalties such as holdings and false starts.

All of these stats should be considered when considering which line is the best at pass blocking. But what if we want to see which line is the best at run blocking? Most would say let’s look at which team has the most rushing yards or the highest yards per carry.

Although these two stats are okay, I think there are two key aspects to total rushing yards that heavily skew the numbers and make an offensive line look much better than it really is.

Let me give you an example:

Last year Cordarrelle Patterson ran the ball for almost 250 yards. Out of those 250 yards, 143 came between the tackles, while 107 yards came from end-around plays, a play in which the offensive linemen do almost nothing to impact the play.

End-around plays pump up total rushing yards, in Patterson‘s example, his 8.6 YPC on end-around runs are included in total rushing yards. So if total rushing yards is the only number you look at to compare which offensive line is the best, it’s already skewed.

Last year alone, teams ran an end-around 309 times for a total of 1,883 yards.

The second aspect that skews the total rushing yards stat is the total yards a quarterback rushes for. For example, 95% of quarterback rushing yards come from plays where the pocket breaks down, and the quarterback takes off running.

So if you include rushing yards from a quarterback, these numbers are not really something an offensive line helps generate. In Lamar Jackson‘s case, last year he ran for nearly 700 yards. The Baltimore Ravens ranked as the second best in the NFL in rushing yards.

In my opinion, if you want to get a true ranking of offensive lines, you’d have to consider both of these things. I believe the best way to calculate how effective an offensive line really is would be to take out all wide receiver and quarterback rushing yards, so we only look at halfbacks and fullbacks rushing numbers.

Looking at halfbacks and fullbacks total rushing yards would be a much better metric to represent who the best offensive line is at run blocking. However, I think there might be one more thing to do to get an accurate ranking statistically.

See an offensive line should be ranked based on which line creates the biggest gaps and which lines generate the biggest push. Once a back is contacted by the defense, the offensive line shouldn’t get any credit with any extra yards a running back gains.

So to do this, we’d remove the impact of a team having a skilled running back vs. a not so skilled running back. Now you might ask how we would do this, or what this even means? Well, let me give you an example of this.

If I asked you who the best running back in the NFL was in 2018, most would say the following 5 backs: Todd Gurley, Ezekiel Elliot, Nick Chubb, Saquoan Barkley, and Christian McCaffrey.

If an offensive line had any 1 of these 5 backs, they’d be much better off, due to the fact when you look at total yards after contact, these 5 backs are at the top of the list.

Total yards after contact, or YAC, is super important to consider because having a skilled back will get you more YAC, then an average back. So let me break this down further by giving you guys a real-life example of how this works.

Last year, Nick Chubb averaged 5.4 yards per carry. However, 4.5 of those yards were after making contact with a defender. These extra yards should be removed when trying to figure out which offensive line is the best in the NFL because the line should only get credit up to the point that a running back is contacted by the defense.

If you think about this, a bad back might get tackled at the point a defender makes first contact with the running back. However, an excellent running back like Nick Chubb will get you 4.47 extra yards after making contact with the defender.

Think about this stat for a second. The Browns ranked as the 14th best team in terms of total rushing yards last year, but if you take out quarterback and receiver rushing yards, and any extra yards a running back picked up after making contact with the defender, you’d see that the Browns actually ranked 31st in the NFL, as far as YPC prior to first contact with the defender:

By looking at these numbers above, you’d see a few things. First, the Seahawks offensive line isn’t really that good. They ranked 1st in total rushing yards, but their offensive line only got the running back 1.42 yards before he was touched by the defense. This ranks there offensive line unit as the 19th best, which is much worse then there total rushing yard ranking.

The most surprising on this list was the Denver Broncos. They ranked 12th in the NFL in total rushing yards, but their offensive line ranked number 1, as far as YPC prior to first contact by the defense.

My last point to make about the calculated stat above, and to prove to you that it actually works, is by using Denver as an example. Their offensive line ranked as the best line at run blocking according to my stats.

But, If you look at another stat that was mentioned among the top 5 backs, which is total yards after contact, the Denver Broncos back Phillip Lindsey was actually one of the worst backs at this. Among 39 running backs who ran the ball at least 120 times, Lindsey ranked as 3rd worst in Average Yards After Contact at 2.3.

Although Phillip Lindsey averaged 5.4 YPC, which ranked #2 among those same 39 backs with 120 attempts, I think it’s safe to say that he is a product of his system and offensive linemen.