Offensive linemen have one of the more unheralded jobs on the football field, but the left tackle gets twice the publicity of the other four linemen combined. Left tackles are valued higher in the draft and get paid more.

The NFL clearly values the blind side pass protector more than any other position on the offensive line. Conventional wisdom says you hang on to good left tackles and you pay them the premium that they demand.

This conventional wisdom says the Denver Broncos should hang on to free agent left tackle Ryan Clady by either giving him a long-term contract or using the franchise tag. That’s probably what will happen, but considering the cost it makes sense to ask if he's worth it. The truth is, Clady is extremely valuable to the Broncos.

The value of any player is driven by a variety of factors, but it all comes back to supply and demand. Supply and demand are going to drive market rates for left tackles as much as it does coffee beans, and the key to being successful in the NFL is maximizing the impact of every dollar.

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The Kansas City Chiefs have the first pick in April’s draft and that means there is a lot of talk about who the team will select. The Chiefs have been linked mostly to Geno Smith and Luke Joeckel, and for good reason. Considering the Chiefs have big issues at quarterback and left tackle Branden Albert will be a free agent—both players make sense.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to anticipate what the Chiefs are going to do with their first pick, but the reality is that a lot can change in free agency. If the Chiefs sign Jake Long and Alex Smith, you wouldn’t see a lot of mock drafts with the Chiefs taking Geno Smith or Joeckel.

Things will change before April’s draft and team needs will shift as the Chiefs try to balance their roster and draft board. It’s possible that the Chiefs will be looking hard at defensive linemen in April, which is Andy Reid’s favorite position to draft with his top pick.

Star Lotulelei and Sheldon Richardson are among the favorites to land No. 1 overall.  It’s just as likely that the Chiefs could want to pair cornerback Dee Milliner with Brandon Flowers. Kansas City could also move down a few spots to land a few extra picks and draft a wide receiver to replace Dwayne Bowe.  

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Sporting News has handed their NFL Executive of the Year award to Ryan Grigson of the Indianapolis Colts. Grigson narrowly defeated John Elway for the award in a 9-8 vote of NFL coaches and general managers.

Did Elway deserve to win the award over Grigson? What separated the two men and would the results be different with a bigger pool of voters? Elway certainly seemed just as deserving for the job he did turning the Broncos into a powerhouse in 2012.

Elway convinced Peyton Manning to sign in Denver and traded Tebow with a seventh-round pick for a fourth- and sixth-round pick. The Broncos also won 13 games and were the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Manning had his choice of destinations that were probably willing to give him more money, and Tebow did almost nothing for the Jets in 2012.

Grigson took a 2-14 team to 11-5 and a playoff berth in his first season on the job. Grigson was lucky enough to draft Andrew Luck, but he also added several starters at other positions with his first draft class. Vick Ballard, T.Y. Hilton and Dwayne Allen all contributed heavily in their rookie years.

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The San Francisco 49ers have a chance to win their sixth Super Bowl on Sunday and a big part of their run has been Colin Kaepernick. Jim Harbaugh made the decision to go with Kaepernick as his starter midseason, and now he looks like a genius.

Kaepernick was drafted two years ago with the fourth pick of the second round (36th overall) when the 49ers traded up with the Denver Broncos. If the Raiders also wanted to draft Kaepernick (and it seems like they did), they would have needed to trade ahead of the 49ers to draft him.

Hindsight is 20-20 and you can play the what-if game all day, but not moving up to get Kaepernick might have been the most franchise-altering moment since the Raiders drafted JaMarcus Russell. The Raiders' failure to move up and draft Kaepernick likely set the franchise back five years.

The 49ers and the Raiders were reportedly in talks with the New England Patriots about the 33rd overall pick, but the 49ers thought the price was too high according to Peter King of Sports Illustrated. The Raiders must also have thought the price was too high, and the rest is history.

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The San Diego Chargers need help on the offensive line. Jared Gaither is great when he is healthy and motivated, but when that will be no one knows. Jeromey Clary hasn’t had a good year in the last few years. Nick Hardwick is now a below-average center and continues to look good only in comparison to the rest of the offensive line.

Remaking the offensive line is not something that can be done overnight. The Chargers will likely start by finding a franchise left tackle while creating competition at some of the other positions. The salary cap also comes into play when it comes to what players will be on the team in 2013.

The Chargers will draft 11th overall in the first round, which means that they will likely be drafting too low to nab the top left tackle in the draft, Luke Joeckel. They might not even have the opportunity to grab Eric Fisher with the way his draft stock is soaring.

As a former quarterback and tight end, some have compared Johnson to San Francisco 49ers left tackle Joe Staley. ProFootballFocus graded Staley as the top tackle in the NFL in 2012. Since Fisher is now pushing Joeckel to be the top offensive tackle, Johnson could be San Diego’s best option.

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The Denver Broncos were a good football team because of their stars, but also because of the play of several less heralded players. There were several players who had great seasons for the Broncos in 2012 that are not named Peyton Manning.

It’s blatantly obvious that Manning and Von Miller had a huge impact on the Broncos, but it’s not always as clear how much non-stars impact a team. There are also non-stars that are overly hyped by the team or the media every year. Wesley Woodyard would fall into that category.

There are stars that get a lot of hype, non-stars that get a lot of hype and then there are non-stars that don’t get much hype at all. It’s these non-stars that don’t get talked about even when they have great seasons.

Every year and on every team there are players that are underrated. The Broncos have several players who are underrated and were overshadowed by the stars. 

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After throwing for 4,018 yards and 22 touchdowns in 15 games, Carson Palmer is no longer the unquestioned starter in Oakland. It doesn’t matter that the Oakland Raiders are still underwater on their investment in Palmer, that he’s a team leader or that he has a $13 million base salary in 2013.

General manager Reggie McKenzie went on SiriusXM radio and told Alex Marvez of FoxSports that Pryor is going to get his chance to start and head coach Dennis Allen reiterated that plan in his appearance on NFL Network. If it seems odd to create a competition between a player with one career start and a veteran like Palmer, that’s because it is odd.

There were a lot more reasons that the Raiders didn’t win in 2012 and Palmer got blamed for a lot of things that simply weren’t his fault. Palmer isn’t an elite quarterback, but he is a solid starter that about a dozen other teams probably wished they had last season.

Salary Cap Implications

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The Kansas City Chiefs need a quarterback and everyone knows it. There is no doubt that a team with only three wins has major issues, but the Chiefs are unique in that they also have six players in the Pro Bowl. With a good quarterback and few other tweaks to the roster, the Chiefs could be a playoff team in 2013.

Since the Chiefs have the No.1 overall pick in the 2013 NFL draft and the No. 34 overall pick in the second round, they are going to get a chance to draft a quarterback. The Chiefs simply need to find the guy they like and make sure they get him.

The quarterback crop lacks an elite player, but there aren’t going to be many years that produce three or more franchise signal callers. The year after Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson all produce at an elite level as rookies is obviously going to be a letdown. It would be unwise to discount the quarterbacks that are available because they aren’t of the same caliber as the ones who came out in 2012.

Geno Smith

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