Florida State Football: What an Improved O-Line Would Mean for the 'Noles

What would an improved offensive line mean for the Florida State football team? It would mean a better Jameis Winston.

The reigning Heisman Trophy winner has been very good in 2014 but hasn’t been consistently spectacular like he was during a memorable redshirt freshman campaign that saw him capture a handful of national awards and guide the Seminoles to the national championship.

After leading the nation in 2013 with a passer rating of 184.85, Winston’s current rating of 153.19 ranks 26th in the country. A top-30 passer rating is certainly nothing to scoff at, but Winston simply hasn’t been as sharp in his second year guiding the FSU offense.

However, this is no sophomore slump.

Instead, Winston’s dip in efficiency has everything to do with a wide receiver corps in transition.

After throwing the football to Kelvin Benjamin, Kenny Shaw and Rashad Greene all season en route to a title, Winston has had to continue to evolve with an aerial attack featuring a host of youngsters alongside the veteran playmaker Greene.

As Jared Shanker and ESPN Stats & Info reveals, Winston has proven his ability to play under pressure. But without a veteran pass-catching corps to trust like he did last year, Winston’s success rate when the play breaks down has dwindled dramatically:

While young wide receivers like Jesus Wilson, Travis Rudolph and Ermon Lane have emerged in recent weeks, it will still take some time for them to earn the same level of trust that Winston had in last year’s pass-catchers.

Having the security blanket of Benjamin’s 6’5” frame and Shaw's fearlessness going across the middle of the field to accompany Greene's premier route running can’t be overlooked when discussing Winston’s successful debut season.

So until that trust level reaches a similar level with every wide receiver not named Greene, the pressure is on FSU’s offensive line to step up and protect Winston even better with the hopes of keeping him out of those under-pressure situations.

It will also be important for the line to keep improving so that the Seminoles’ ground game can generate some consistency.

But that may prove to be easier said than done.

FSU lost starting center Austin Barron to injury in last week’s win over Wake Forest and is now expected to start redshirt freshman Ryan Hoefeld Saturday at Syracuse. Hoefeld will benefit from a should-be tune-up game against the Orange before potential undefeated teams FSU and Notre Dame clash Oct. 18.

It probably won’t matter against Syracuse, but Florida State’s offensive line needs to be better so that Winston can be better—especially with a likely Top Five matchup looming in the near future.

Brandon Mellor is a Florida State writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics courtesy of Seminoles.com and cfbstats.com. All recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.

Follow @BrandonMellor on Twitter.