Time for our every couple of weeks check in on the offensive line rankings, and with it being this late in the year, now there's more of a sense of finality. What I mean is that you more frequently have players being shut down for the year at this point with ankle injuries that maybe they'd tape up and play within a week or two earlier in the year, or if their team is in contention.
Some of the biggest developments since the last update:
The Texans had been getting by with Chris Clark at left tackle, enabling them to trade away Duane Brown, but Clark is now out for the year and Kendall Lamm is very much a lesser option.
The Bucs last week placed center Ali Marpet and right tackle Demar Doston on IR. Nobody was building a fantasy champion around the Bucs running game, certainly, but those are significant blows to what can be expected from Tampa Bay's offense the rest of the way; Marpet is particular is one of the league's better centers. It's been a year for them.
Washington lost center Spencer Long and guard Shawn Lauvao for the season a couple of weeks back. So if you were wondering why their line was totally overrun on numerous occasions against Dallas (even before losing Morgan Moses, whose status is up in the air going forward), there you go.
Steelers right tackle Marcus Gilbert is serving a four-game suspension that will keep him out until Week 16.
The Giants have placed several starting linemen on IR. Doesn't really affect their ranking, which was last even when healthy, but it's just another reason to expect the switch from Eli Manning to Geno Smith to have very little affect on their offense. Smith has been a little more sack- and turnover-prone in his career, so an upgrade for opposing defenses.
Packers placed Bryan Bulaga on IR, leaving them with Justin McCray. It's a damaged Green Bay line that Aaron Rodgers may or may not return to play behind this season.
Cardinals placed D.J. Humphries on IR. Debatable whether they're not better off with Jared Veldheer anyway.
Dolphins placed JuWuan James on IR. Major downgrade to Sam Young, with James one of the league's better right tackles.
A couple of lines have -- like their offenses -- turned out better than expected. None more so than the Rams, who have fronted one of the league's best offenses to this point. Jaguars and Ravens are also a little better than expected, with several players grading out favorably who were presumed liabilities.
In the table, the first column shows how we ranked the lines way back at the start of the season. Second column, and team order, shows how they look right now. Colorful table on our Facebook page shows the starters for each team.
| OFFENSIVE LINE RANKINGS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep | Dec | Team | |
| 1 | 1 | Dallas | |
| 6 | 2 | Philadelphia | |
| 3 | 3 | Tennessee | |
| 8 | 4 | New England | |
| 11 | 5 | New Orleans | |
| 5 | 6 | Atlanta | |
| 2 | 7 | Pittsburgh | |
| 4 | 8 | Oakland | |
| 12 | 9 | Buffalo | |
| 27 | 10 | LA Rams | |
| 19 | 11 | Detroit | |
| 26 | 12 | Jacksonville | |
| 15 | 13 | Kansas City | |
| 14 | 14 | Carolina | |
| 17 | 15 | Chicago | |
| 9 | 16 | Green Bay | |
| 10 | 17 | Washington | |
| 7 | 18 | Cleveland | |
| 22 | 19 | LA Chargers | |
| 23 | 20 | Baltimore | |
| 31 | 21 | Seattle | |
| 24 | 22 | Minnesota | |
| 16 | 23 | Arizona | |
| 20 | 24 | Denver | |
| 21 | 25 | San Francisco | |
| 28 | 26 | NY Jets | |
| 13 | 27 | Miami | |
| 32 | 28 | Indianapolis | |
| 25 | 29 | Cincinnati | |
| 29 | 30 | Houston | |
| 18 | 31 | Tampa Bay | |
| 30 | 32 | NY Giants | |