Why Do Teams Draft Offensive Linemen in the Top 10?

(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Practically every year, I see the frenzy over these "can't miss tackles"—even if more than a few of them like Robert Gallery, Leonard Davis, Mike Williams (the former Texas Longhorn offensive lineman), Levi Jones etc. do in fact miss, even if only by having to move to guard or just being pedestrian—with the media talking about how important these "cornerstones" are, and sure enough teams line up to draft them very high in the first round, with the huge signing bonuses that go with it.

This year in particular, some exceedingly awful teams at the top of the draft, especially Detroit, Saint Louis and Oakland, are rumored to be strongly considering taking a left tackle.

I don't see the logic behind it. I am going to make the most obvious statement of the year: In football, the team that scores the most points win. Offensive linemen do not put points on the board. QBs (however indirectly), RBs, WRs, and TEs do. Offensive linemen do not even stop other teams from putting points on the board.

Defensive players, especially DLs and LBs, do. So if you are drafting in the top 10, it is almost never because your line is horrible. It is because your group of QBs, RBs, and WRs stinks, because you are severely deficient in your defensive front seven, or both.

Now I didn't say that a bad offensive line can't keep a decent team out of the playoffs. Instead, I am only saying that if Joey Harrington, Mike Williams (the former USC WR) and Reggie Bush are your QB/WR/RB on offense and/or if you have the Denver Broncos' defensive front seven, adding a Pro Bowl left tackle MAY get you from two wins to four.

So if you have a top 10 pick, use it to get a ball handler or someone who tackles him. If you have good ball handlers and front seven players, you generally will not draft in the top 10, because you will score points and stop the other guy from doing so.

This is, of course, not to say that a team drafting in the top 10 shouldn't try to improve their offensive lines. But that is what the other rounds of the draft are for. You can get a very good OT in the top half of the second round, and a guard or center good enough to start as a rookie in the top half of the third round.

Maybe you won't find that "franchise tackle" later in the draft. (Then again, maybe you will, as recent Pro Bowl OTs Flozell Adams, Matt Light, Tarik Glenn, Chad Clifton, Marcus McNeill and Michael Roos were second rounders, and Jason Peters was undrafted.)

But if you have five good players on the offensive line, then you don't need that "franchise tackle." If you have five guys that can run block and pass protect, you don't need the next Anthony Munoz. Sure, he'd be nice to have, but you don't NEED him. 

Examples: the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Indianapolis Colts, only the most successful NFL teams this decade. When was the last one to draft an offensive lineman in the top 10?

Granted, they are rarely in the top half of the draft, but when they are, they draft a Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Marvin Harrison, Edgerrin James, Jerod Mayo, etc.

As a matter of fact, when the Steelers missed the playoffs this decade, they drafted Roethlisberger, WR Plaxico Burress, NT Casey Hampton, safety Troy Polamalu, and OLB Lawrence Timmons.

Yet the Steelers consistently have one of the better offensive lines in the NFL, including OTs that regularly make the Pro Bowl.

One of the reasons for this is that the Steelers are one of the rare NFL teams that prioritizes having five quality guys at each position. That makes everyone, including the LT, better. Meanwhile, most teams only care about having superior players at three of the OL spots, and place throw-ins elsewhere.

The truth is, however, that they don't have a choice. Because of the salary cap, teams can only invest so much in one position, and OL is the position that requires the most players (five).

So if you have a top-five pick at LT, his contract is going to preclude your spending very much at the other positions. The money that is going to be spent on Eugene Monroe (pictured above) or Jason Smith alone would buy the three above-average players needed for a very good interior offensive line.

This is why Donovan McNabb

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