DX hurts his knee(Confirmed Lost For Season)

[oneinchpunch]

I've read how PFF grades and I've read how other sites grade. Doesn't mean they know how to grade.

Some of the most quoted sites have no idea how to grade certain positions.

But I know you love your PFF as the whole truth and nothing but the truth

[Beerman]

I've read how PFF grades and I've read how other sites grade. Doesn't mean they know how to grade.

Some of the most quoted sites have no idea how to grade certain positions.

But I know you love your PFF as the whole truth and nothing but the truth

Again, just ignore my posts or me for that matter. I could care less. Like I mentioned, multiple NFL people use the stats and analysis from that site and have quoted them on multiple occasions. They may not be perfect, but they are surely better than most. I'm not pouring over hours of film just to see a player, nor would I know what to look for. I'm happy using their work (as well as other sites like footballoutsiders).

[oneinchpunch]

The whole truth and nothing but...

[Beerman]

The whole truth and nothing but...

Feel free to provide opposing evidence from your extensive film review.

[TTK]

He played his role well here but it was time to move on from McMichael. Let's see what Phillips can do.

[oneinchpunch]

Feel free to provide opposing evidence from your extensive film review.

Feel free to provide opposing BS to the BS I posted. Even though no site would ever think to oppose such ridiculous BS. Because its ridiculous

[Beerman]

Feel free to provide opposing BS to the BS I posted. Even though no site would ever think to oppose such ridiculous BS. Because its ridiculous

[thelightningwill]

He played his role well here but it was time to move on from McMichael. Let's see what Phillips can do.

I don't know that it was time to move on from anybody with pass blocking skills. Our offensive line, even with what I think is a possible improvement, is still not good enough to protect Philip Rivers on its own.

[Boltdog]

The fact that actual NFL guys quote them is good enough for me. Feel free to ignore my posts if you don't value their input. I'm sure other posters are a bit more open minded to new analysis of this great game.

I agree with you on this one, Beerman. Besides, what REALLY matters is not what any online source thinks, but what Tom Telesco believes about Phillips and Dunlap and Derek Cox. He's the one the Chargers are paying to do the tough personnel research and decisions.

From tonight onward, we'll see exactly how TT matches up against all the clever online "experts" and other NFL personnel types. I believe Telesco and his staff will be more right than wrong every time. That's good for all Chargers fans....

[SDFan]

I don't know that it was time to move on from anybody with pass blocking skills. Our offensive line, even with what I think is a possible improvement, is still not good enough to protect Philip Rivers on its own.

on paper and in a vacuum- that may be true. If you add in better OL coaching and blocking schemes and different offensive philosphy that gets the ball out quicker and commits to a real running game for balance, we won't NEED to expect the OL to be all star to be effective for this offense.

[Steve]

The thing that their grading doesn't account for is the interaction of players and playcalling.

For example, you look at the PFF grades for DB in pass defenses, you don't get an objective look at how they perform, you get a look at who plays in what defense. The top players all play in conservative zone schemes, where they have a lot of help around them. Most of the lowest players play in man schemes or zone blitz scheme, where they are isolated in space with little help. OL are similar, in that many good OL get low grades because of their blocking assignments. A pulling OG in a power scheme may be forced to do a lot of uphill blocking, which is very difficult, yet the other OL on the same team get good grades because they have the simpler downhill (down) blocks, that are easy to make because of the natural leverage and position the most of the OL have. I also am not convinced that they grade those very well. I always had the impression that they only give positive grades to a pulling OL if he hits someone, while most successful pulling plays the OL doesn't hit anyone.

For this statistical approach to really grow legs, people have to remove the natural biases in the game. In baseball, the defensive stats used by teams, this is done by simply removing the impact of the fielders altogether, and grading people by whether they are better or worse then the norm vs these idealized balls in play. But in football, where all 11 players work together, and everyone reacts DURING the play to what the D is doing, I am not sure how you would do that, certainly it is almost impossible unless you knew what the play call is/was.

I still think the most objective way to view players is to watch them play. Watch their technique and see who is the best. It certainly has it's limitations, but it is more objective, because it allows you to see the biases where the statistical approach conceals them.

[thelightningwill]

on paper and in a vacuum- that may be true. If you add in better OL coaching and blocking schemes and different offensive philosphy that gets the ball out quicker and commits to a real running game for balance, we won't NEED to expect the OL to be all star to be effective for this offense.

I still think we need the extra blocking even if the coaches are geniuses and the playcalling cuts down the time we need to pass block. Sorry. Clary sucks. Dunlap sucks. Starks is average at best, and, from what I've been reading, may not even start. Hardwick is old, and I worry he won't be playing in every game. Everybody else either sucks or is an unknown. I believe we are better than last year at the O-line, but we still suck. We have some decent blocking backs in Brown and, from what I've been told on this site by posters who have yet to claim they are wrong about anything, Woodhead. We need as many blockers as we can get. McMichael wasn't that great of a blocker, but, of all the tight ends we had last year, he was the best at it. We need as many of these types of players on the field as often as possible. To Rivers, these blockers are more important than receivers. (Before somebody says it, I realize we need some receivers since this is no longer the 1930s. But, as much as possible, let's play the better blockers over the better receivers. Let's do that at least until we get a decent offensive line.)