The one thing I never hear mentioned when assessing Gandy’s performance last year is how unbalanced our attack was. LT is a hard enough position to play, and when the offense you run is geared towards the pass the majority of the time it doesn’t do a thing to keep the defense off-balance, so the opposition can just pin their ears back without even having to factor in the run game. When we balanced out the offense against Atlanta and Carolina suddenly Gandy looked very effective against guys like Abraham and Peppers.

The other thing that is highly unlikely to happen is for all five starters to stay healthy all year long, so I expect some line shuffling this year. I think the one starter who should be looking over his shoulder a bit is Lutui. If Brandon Keith has a good training camp I could see him in at RG, otherwise to start the season I see us going with the status quo. At some point I think Levi Brown could get moved to LT (depending on who is at QB) because you generally don’t pay a guy the kind of money he’ll get to play guard or the weakside tackle position.

One thing for sure, Grimm has enough able bodies around to create the kind of competition he likes. Should be an interesting camp this year.

FUK IT TRY SUMTHIN NEW….

During most off-seasons (given our typically rotten W & L record) I’m crying for Cardinal Management to make wholesale changes to upgrade key roster holes. Draft this one. Cut that one. Pick up a bunch of high-profile free agents.

This off-season is different. We have empiracle evidence that – with the current guys we’ve got on our offensive line – we can come within a couple of minutes of winning the Super Bowl.

This has converted me into a flaming Reactionary. Don’t make any radical changes! Don’t do anything dumb! Just take what we have and tweak the roster to make us even better than we were a year ago.

Chemistry on the offensive line can be pretty fragile – while physical talent and experience are vital components, playing together as a unit may be even more important to the success of most O-lines. Make one change, and you threaten to upset the chemistry. Make 2, 3, 4 or more changes and you’re likely to have a zoo up front.

But if you want to play musical chairs on the O-line, consider the following: I agree that (1) Deuce makes too many mental mistakes, (2) Levi Brown needs to become more consistent, (3) Gandy might be overmatched at times as our LT, (4) Wells leaves something to be desired as a run blocker and (5) Sendlein lacks sufficient “sand in the proverbial pants.”

There may be some advantages to moving some of these guys to new positions. For example, Wells may have the most nimble feet of any starter and might be better suited to play outside at LT. Or, if not Reggie, maybe the time is ripe to move Levi over from RT to LT.

The expected development of Brandon Keith (said to have neat feet) could put him in a position to push Gandy as well.

Should rookie Herman Johnson (who certainly has the size and pure athleticism to become dominant) knock everybody’s socks off in the OTA’s and Camp, he might be a logical replacement for Levi at RT (should Levi be switched).

Both Lutui and L Brown are young. They and their coaching staff will have to face up to the question of whether (a) their mental errors and/or inconsistent play are functions of “youth” (and therefore can be coached out of them) or (b) part of their DNA (giving us the two choices of “living with it” or replacing them). Should it be the latter, having Brandon Keith, Elton Brown and the rookies Johnson and Canfield may give Russ G & Co. additional flexibility.

At center, Sendlein may not be prototypical in some physical respects, but right now he’s better than anyone else we’ve got. It’s said that Reggie Wells is our emergency backup center and Canfield has indicated a willingness to learn the position, but both those options (plus our backups like Raeola, Peters or Claxton) present an iffy depth situation at the position that will need to be cleared up during the offseason.

Keep one thing in mind, however: If you shift one guy to a different position, you are actually changing two positions/not just one.

Be careful what you wish for.

After a grueling 2 weeks of moving and remodeling I am back to a normal life & here on ROtB. I think that I would keep the line the same FOR NOW. I definitely want to see a lot of playing time from Keith, Vallejo, and Johnson in pre-season though to see what can happen. Also in games we are blowing someone out I want the second string in there to see what they look like in real game time.