OT - guard value vs tackle value?
Could one of the resident MGoFootballExperts please explain why it is that tackles are so much more highly valued than guards? I understand why they'd be a bit more valued, but why is a great OT worth so much more than a great OG, and why are tackles so much harder to replace?
I ask because my NFL team, the Washington NFL franchise, drafted a guard this year and the DC press has surprisingly mixed feelings. This despite the fact that he is, by all accounts I've seen, a skilled beast and the best offensive lineman in the draft. And Washington needs help in the middle! Scherff could start right away! But people are saying that it's just not worth taking a guard with the fifth overall pick. Why not?
Falling asleep on the job.
The previous comments in this thread have pretty much nailed it. It's the same reason that 7-footers can get college scholarships or drafted into the NBA even if they're not all that skilled. The further you are away from the norm, the more you're going to be valued. There are lots of 6'2" guys who can pack on weight. There are slightly fewer guys who are 6'3" and can pack on the necessary weight. There are slightly fewer 6'4" guys. So on an so forth.
By the time you get to 6'6" or 6'7", you're looking at a very small sampling of guys who can both carry the weight and maintain the athleticism to both be effective in the run game and move their feet quickly enough to stay in front of 6'3", 240 lb. outside linebackers blitzing off the edge.
Basically tackles are bigger, and the bigger you are the harder it is to still be wicked fast and athletic. So great ones are rarer. Makes sense. Thanks y'all.
I'm still happy about Scherff, but maybe more because I'm happy we had a first-round pick at all. It's been a few years.
It's worth taking a guard at #5 if he ends up being really good. The trick with the draft is consistently finding good players, not swinging and missing. I think the Patriots usually make pretty boring draft picks, but they consistently find guys who can fill roles for them.
+1 insightful!
Sent from My Spaceship for you buddy
Nice to meet you, Mr. Millen.
But pretty much everything said here is true. I think with teams now putting some of their most athletic players in the DE spot, the tackle position has become much more important especially the blind side tackle (usually LT).
I would point to the Seahawks Super Bowl win over Denver. Everyone got on Manning for playing poorly (he did) but his tackles got schooled play after play by the Seattle DE's.
guards are underappreciated....look no further than us in 2013 and you'll see what an o-line with two NFL tackles looks like with horrible guard play.
With the general belief that there are more people capable of being an effective guard than a tackle (especially a blind-side tackle). That said, I great guard (Hutchinson) can be hugely valuable.
Sorry to stretch the topic, but another position undervalued until recently is safety. For years there were few safeties taken early in the draft, because it was felt a lock-down corner was more valuable and harder to find. Lately, with the emergence of Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas with Seattle and the Chiefs' Eric Berry (among others), it seems the pendulum is swinging back. A ball-hawking safety that can blitz and take on ballcarriers in space is once again considered hugely valuable.
I never really understood how safeties became an afterthought, since a great safety can be the most disruptive player on a defense. Any of the Woodsons (our favorite played both positions of course), Ed Reed, Polamalu, Lott, Sean Taylor, Kenny Easley - were devastating forces.
It's easier to be a good Guard. Fewer have the size and athleticism necessary to be a good tackle.
I'm not sure, I know Tackles used to be called Ends back in the day. I do know, however, why they're called Guards, Forwards, and Centers in basketball, even though those names have no bearing on their postitional roles anymore. My grandma used to be a guard in the 30's when basketballl was still in transition, and told me about what playing was like in basketballs formative years.
But they can't necessarily play it well. Alex Mitchell was plenty fat. It didn't mean he was good at football.
it's all Sandra Bullock's fault.
Just because her space shuttle crashed? That's harsh.