As we head into the home stretch of the fantasy (and NFL season), a check in with the offensive lines around the league. While it's not always the case, a lot of the stronger teams have stronger lines, and those teams are best situated to go on playoff runs. (Though last year's Bengals team was a notable exception.)
It's a war of attrition, with some lines that initially looked good suffering injuries that make them look bad. (Denver is one example.) And it's also a measure of how well teams drafted in April, with a pair of teams (Seattle especially, Chicago to a lesser extent) moving up well over where they were earlier due to hitting on some draft picks.
A couple of the most significant injuries since the last update:
The Jets lost Breece Hall, and that was a big deal, but so was losing Alijah Vera-Tucker (triceps). Not at all making excuses for struggling and now benched Zach Wilson, but the offense looked a lot better when the line was healthier.
The Saints lost center Erik McCoy (calf, IR) and that's definitely affected their ground game. They've been going with backup Josh Andrews. They should get tackle James Hurst back from injury this week, at leat, which will help the offense.
Maybe the start of the Rams' downfall was losing tackle Joseph Noteboom to an Achilles injury last month. But still, he's just one guy. At this point there might be only one position on the line that could be considered a strength. The team has work to do in the offseason (too bad they don't have any draft picks).
A number of other players are banged-up, missing a game or two here or there, in and out of lineups. In general, I leave those players in their spots in the table, but downgrade their grade slightly. (The rankings are built by assigning a numerical grade to each player and seeing how the overall numbers shake out.)
On our Facebook page, you can see a colorful table with the current estimations of each starter on each line.
Best lines right now: Eagles, Kansas City, Lions, Bills. The Jets, Broncos and Rams look weakest.
| OFFENSIVE LINES | |
|---|---|
| Rk | Team |
| 1 | Philadelphia |
| 2 | Kansas City |
| 3 | Detroit |
| 4 | Buffalo |
| 5 | San Francisco |
| 6 | Cleveland |
| 7 | New England |
| 8 | Baltimore |
| 9 | Miami |
| 10 | Tampa Bay |
| 11 | Green Bay |
| 12 | LA Chargers |
| 13 | Seattle |
| 14 | Indianapolis |
| 15 | Dallas |
| 16 | Minnesota |
| 17 | Jacksonville |
| 18 | Chicago |
| 19 | NY Giants |
| 20 | New Orleans |
| 21 | Tennessee |
| 22 | Cincinnati |
| 23 | Houston |
| 24 | Pittsburgh |
| 25 | Carolina |
| 26 | Washington |
| 27 | Las Vegas |
| 28 | Atlanta |
| 29 | Arizona |
| 30 | NY Jets |
| 31 | Denver |
| 32 | LA Rams |
--Andy Richardson