Only five teams played all 16 games last season with the same five starters on their offensive line. The Bears play two of those lines the next two weeks against the Packers and Vikings.
The others were the Chiefs, Rams and Titans. Notice there are no bad teams among them. Only the Vikings failed to reach the playoffs. The Bears’ offensive line of left tackle Qasim Mitchell, left guard Ruben Brown, center Olin Kreutz, right guard Mike Gandy and right tackle John Tait played its first game together last week. Not only was it the first as a group, none of the individuals ever had played next to each other before this summer.
By contrast, the Packers’ line of left tackle Chad Clifton, left guard Mike Wahle, center Mike Flanagan, right guard Marco Rivera and right tackle Mark Tauscher seldom have been apart since 2001.
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Flanagan said the Packers blockers know each other so well they hardly have to yell out adjustment calls in protection, as every group must do at the line of scrimmage.
“A lot of times, we just say, `Got it?’ And the answer is, `Yeah,'” Flanagan said. “Probably 75 percent of the time we’re not making calls.”
In addition to their mental ESP, the Packers blockers know each other’s physical traits as if they were extensions of their own bodies.
“If you put a new guy in, all of a sudden, his steps may be different,” Flanagan said. “They may be the right steps, but he does it a little differently. He may come off something a little quicker or a little slower, little nuances you pick up on.”
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The result is well-rehearsed choreography.
“I know without a doubt what these two guys next to me are going to be doing on every single play in every situation and I will bet my life on it,” Flanagan said. “That’s how confident I am in what they’re going to do. And they know what I’m going to do.”
Said Wahle: “We can finish each other’s sentences when it comes to football. You can have someone come in who is just as capable as the guy he’s replacing, but there is going to be a little bit of a dropoff just because of that familiarity.”
Obviously, such cohesiveness isn’t the only key to success. The New England Patriots won the Super Bowl with a rookie center, Dan Koppen; a left guard, Russ Hochstein, who had started only one game during the regular season; and a right tackle, Tom Ashworth, who had replaced injured Adrian Klemm after three games and had never started.
“We’re going to face adversity,” Flanagan said. “[Coach] Mike Sherman makes a big deal of it every year. He says you’re going to face adversity; it’s how you respond to it. [The Patriots] obviously responded well to it.”
Two years ago Flanagan wound up subbing for the injured Clifton at the difficult left tackle spot.
When the Bears settled on former free agent Mitchell at that crucial spot, general manager Jerry Angelo cited the 2002 Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who won with a journeyman left tackle, Roman Oben, just picked up from Cleveland.
The other NFC North teams all took a different approach. Detroit’s Jeff Backus, Green Bay’s Clifton and Minnesota’s Bryant McKinnie all are first-round draft choices. Angelo tried that route with Marc Colombo, now injured.
The Carolina Panthers won the NFC last year with an offensive line that stayed intact for all but one game that center Jeff Mitchell missed. The Panthers then let left tackle Todd Steussie and left guard Jeno James go and right guard Kevin Donnalley retired. They switched right tackle Jordan Gross to left tackle and filled in with journeymen. They had problems handling the Packers blitzes Monday night.
Carolina coach John Fox absolved the line of blame, then announced two more lineup changes.
In Oakland new coach Norv Turner caught flak for playing Robert Gallery, drafted as a left tackle, at left guard and right tackle.
“I really think we have to get set with five people on the line, get all on the same page and get better,” left guard Frank Middleton said. “It’s hard for the guys switching in and out–and for the guys playing next to them.”
Gallery was named the starting right tackle Wednesday.
The Packers and Vikings are the only teams left with the same starters from last season still intact. The Chiefs had to replace Tait. The Rams lost right tackle Kyle Turley to injury and let center Dave Wohlabough go. The Titans just lost left guard Zach Piller to injury.
So while offensive line continuity is desirable, it’s also nearly impossible. When Jim Finks became the Bears’ general manager, he spent his 1976 and 1977 first-round draft choices on tackles Dennis Lick and Ted Albrecht. When Lick and Albrecht were prematurely injured, Finks had to start over by using his top 1981 and 1983 picks for tackles Keith Van Horne and Jim Covert.
When Covert and Van Horne teamed up with guards Mark Bortz and Tom Thayer and center Jay Hilgenberg, the Bears were good for as long as they lasted.