Is the Washington Football Team offensive line the best in the NFC East?
By Jonathan Eig
You may want to sit down for this.
Who has the best offensive line in the NFC East? If you are a fan of Pro Football Focus and their rating system, you could make a very good case that it is the Washington Football Team.
Now, there are qualifications that need to be made all up and down that opinion, and we’ll get to those shortly. But just think about this for a minute…
Before the season, Brandon Thorn of Establish the Run ranked all 32 offensive lines in the NFL. For my money, Thorn is the most knowledgeable analyst when it comes to offensive line play. He had the Dallas Cowboys ranked No. 2 in all of football, trailing only the New Orleans Saints. Philadelphia was No. 11, while the New York Giants sat at No. 21. That left the Washington Football team in last place in the division. Thorn had them at No. 30, and if you passed third grade math, you probably know there are only 32 teams in the entire league.
Thorn’s analysis was that Washington had the weakest left side of the line in the league, and that the right side would have to play exceptionally well to save the season from disaster.
So how is it that after seven weeks, Washington Football Team linemen have the highest PFF composite score in the division? It isn’t even close. PFF evaluates each player after each game and assigns scores across multiple facets of game play. You can go pretty deep into this stuff if you care to. I’m going to stick to the broadest rankings.
The right side of the line has indeed played well. Right tackle Morgan Moses currently ranks 16th (out of 73 eligible tackles in the league) and right guard Brandon Scherff is 20th (out of 77 rated guards). In the middle, Chase Roullier has been steadily climbing the rankings and now sits at No. 12 (out of 36). That means that the right side of the line, including the center, all rank in the top third of the league at their positions.
The left side is indeed weaker, with guard Wes Schweitzer clocking in at No. 40, and tackle Geron Christian Sr. sitting at No. 51. However, that also means that no Washington starter ranks in the bottom 30% at his position. Washington is the only team in the division that can say that.
Therefore, at least according to PFF, the weakest link on the Washington Football Team line is better than the weakest link in any other NFC East teams’ lines. Given how much the NFL exploits weak links, that is a crucial factor in offensive line success.
When you look at the composite score of each line – that is, adding up each of the five starters’ individual rankings – the comparison is even more stunning. Based on this admittedly inexact science, Washington has the best group of starting linemen in the division. And it isn’t even close.
Washington’s composite score is 139. Dallas’ score, even counting All-Pro guard Zack Martin, who has missed more than a quarter of the Cowboys’ plays due to various injuries, adds up to 189. If you consider Martin’s primary replacement Connor McGovern, that number balloons to 220.
Philadelphia, even with outstanding right tackle Lane Johnson, scores a 205. But Johnson has played even less than the Cowboys’ Martin this season. Without him in the lineup (as in the Week 1 matchup with Washington), the Eagles line adds up to 220. And that includes a top ten figure from center Jason Kelce. With Johnson out, none of Philadelphia’s guards or tackles rank in the top half at their positions.
And the Giants? Well, the less said, the better. Their composite score is 261. Not a single offensive lineman ranks in the top half at his position, and most rank in the bottom quartile.