Examining Pressure: Are Left Tackles Overvalued?

[dead_poet]

Worth a read.

There’s a lot to digest here, but it can be summed up rather quickly. The right tackle should no longer be viewed as the athletic inferior to the left tackle and teams should change their team-building strategy to make this happen. Today’s passing NFL makes it a necessity to have two competent pass protectors on the edge and when scouting players, if a tackle is deemed to not be good enough to play left tackle, well you’re better off just putting him at guard rather than exploiting him at right tackle. There’s no hiding — defensive coordinators will find him.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2 ... rvalued/2/

[Mothman]

Worth a read.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2 ... rvalued/2/

Thanks for the link but that one seems like a bit of a mess to me and perhaps I'm misinterpreting it but it also seems to proceed from a fundamental misunderstanding. Maybe I'm the one who is misunderstanding things but PFF analyst Steve Palazzolo wrote: "Prevailing theory is that pressure that comes from the left tackle should have a crippling effect on the offense while pressure from right tackle should be easier to overcome" Is that really the prevailing theory? I'm under the impression that left tackle is given priority over right tackle for two simple reasons:

1.) Most QBs are right-handed and teams want to protect the QB's blind side
2.) The best pass rushers on a defense usually rush from that side so it makes sense to have your best outside blocker facing them.

It's not that the effect of pressure from one side is more detrimental than pressure from another, it's more a question of matchups and giving the QB the opportunity to see and react to pressure rather than being surprised by it from behind.

I'm not sure stats paint a very complete picture in this case and I can't figure out why the number of dropbacks they list varies from one side to the other. Shouldn't it be the same?

I agree with the conclusion that it's a necessity to have two competent pass protectors on the edge but I don't think they have to be athletically equal or paid equally. Teams shouldn't treat right tackle as unimportant and most don't but the positions are treated differently with good reason and there are on and off field reasons why LTs will likely continue to command more money than RTs.

[glg]

2.) The best pass rushers on a defense usually rush from that side so it makes sense to have your best outside blocker facing them.

I think his big point is that this is no longer necessarily the case. Defenses are getting craftier at sending pressure from all angles, so if your RT is significantly weaker than your LT, a good defense is going to exploit that.

[Mothman]

I think his big point is that this is no longer necessarily the case. Defenses are getting craftier at sending pressure from all angles, so if your RT is significantly weaker than your LT, a good defense is going to exploit that.

It's not always the case but it remains true more often than not. Sure, a good defense can exploit a weakness at right tackle but a good offense can compensate for that.