Is Drafting an Offensive Lineman in the First Round Overrated?

It is a popular idea that the offensive line is the key to having a good football team. In many cases, a good offensive line means a good offense, and a bad offensive line means a bad offense.

With other positions, it is possible to hide certain positional weaknesses and still have success. This is evident in recent Super Bowl teams with bad quarterbacking (Bears—Rex Grossman), lack of a running game or majority of offense is passing (Patriots), and lack of an air attack or majority of offense is running (Steelers).

But, without an offensive line, you aren’t going to hide anything. You can’t run the ball, and you certainly can’t pass the ball.

However, on draft day, when teams draft an offensive lineman in the first round, fans around the NFL release a sigh—usually some sort of disappointment.

Why? Because it’s not the flashy pick. It’s not the flashy WR that scores touchdowns and demands the ball and it’s not the RB that jukes defenders out of their jock straps. Unfortunately, these are also the feelings of some GM’s around the NFL, who want to snatch that skill player and wait to grab a boring offensive lineman later on in the draft.

Sure, there are quality linemen available in the later rounds, and you might even get lucky with an undrafted free agent, but drafting an offensive lineman in the first round seems to have great results.

Here are all of the offensive linemen drafted in the first round from the years 2000-2007. I’ve left the recent 2008 lineman out of the mix, as they haven’t touched the field in the NFL yet.

2007: Joe Thomas, Levi Brown, Joe Staley, and Ben Grubbs.

2006: D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Davin Joseph, and Nick Mangold.

2005: Jamaal Brown, Alex Barron, Logan Mankins, and Chris Spencer.

2004: Robert Gallery, Shawn Andrews, and Vernon Carey.

2003: Jordan Gross, George Foster, Kwame Harris, and Jeff Faine.

2002: Mike Williams, Bryant McKinnie, Levi Jones, Marc Colombo, and Kendall Simmons.

2001: Leonard Davis, Kenyatta Walker, Jeff Backus, and Steve Hutchinson.

2000: Chris Samuels, Stockar McDougal, and Chris McIntosh.

The players in bold/italic are the players who have not started or made a significant impact on their teams. Out of the 30 lineman drafted in the first round over the last eight years, only seven of them haven’t started or made an impact with their squad. That’s it—seven.

Many of those guys above are Pro Bowlers. From that list, I’d suggest that if you’re a team that needs to improve their offensive line, you draft one in the first round because that’s a 77 percent success rate, which I believe is higher than any other position.

Also, out of the last six teams to make the Super Bowl, seven out of the 12 lineman on the left side of their offensive line (often considered the strong or most important side) were first round picks, and nine of the 12 were first day picks. I think that says something toward the importance of drafting linemen.

I’m not saying that offensive linemen that are picked later on in the draft aren’t going to be good; there are certainly plenty of linemen that become excellent. Hell, the last two Super Bowl winners sported two undrafted free agents on their offensive lines each (Rich Seubert and Shaun O’Hara with the Giants and Ryan Lilja and Jeff Saturday with the Colts).

But, what I am saying is that if you desperately need to upgrade your offensive line, don’t pass over the talented but boring lineman just for the flashy skill player or rely on grabbing a lineman later on. You can’t beat a 77 percent success rate.

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