that he never starts at LT again. I know he has improved a little, but there are still too many lapses when he starts at LT. Keep him at guard or start him at RT, but not LT.

This appears to be the line of the next few years:

LT-Ugoh
LG-Lilja (Richard if Lilja is done)
C-Saturday
RG-Pollak
RT-Johnson

With Justice waiting and learning under Saturday to someday replace him.

Shake,
Nifty trick with the hidden text—you have a future in writing contracts for credit card companies someday….

I don’t know if I’d use sack rates or total sacks to measure the pass pro this year (perhaps any year). My eyes told Manning was under constant pressure, moreso than I remember, really, with the possible exception of the injury-decimated 2007. (Think of Brady’s “time to knit a sweater” in 2007. Except for the SB, that was excellent pass pro.)

I know FO did a report on QB hits and hurries from both an offensive and defensive perspective and Manning was a “leader” in being roughed up but near the bottom on sacks. This was around week 12 or so, IIRC. To me that says a lot about the protection (and maybe the refs—you’d think they’d go overboard to protect one of the public faces of the league. Could you imagine how much more he’d be smashed around if he was a nobody?) It also says a ton about Manning—in the split-second between getting slammed and getting taken down, he unloads. And did it well enough to get an MVP, though the results were below the standards we’ve come to expect.

Just because our QB has a good mental clock, fast release, and is knowledgable enough to find holes in the secondary or throw the ball away, don’t go calling the pass pro “excellent.” Clearly it was adequate, but I think if it was actually “good,” we’d have had a lot more passing success. Part of the problem was Manning was forced to throw a sliver of a second too early and missed, uncharacteristically, on many deep routes this season.

They did okay, but the highest praise I’d heap on the pass pro is “good.” far short of “excellent.” As someone pointed out yesterday, part of that could have been Mudd’s surgery—with the OL’s commander-in-chief out for a few weeks, and coaching from a chair for a few more, plus the injuries and Ugoh’s funk and many rookie starts, well, they may have done the best they were capable of. But still not excellent in my book. There is a lot of upside to be seen with better health and seasoning of the rookies. Let’s revisit this next year—I think they have nowhere to go but up, significantly for the run game and also a pretty good amount in the passing game. And we all know that for Manning to garner an unprecedented 4th MVP he’ll have to have an absolutely monster year, which starts with the OL improving both the run blocking and the pass pro.