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Offensive Line

The Redskins offensive line, if no changes are made, will look like this on the first week next year :

RT Jon Jansen (age 33)

RG Randy Thomas (age 33)

C Casey Rabach (turns 32 two weeks later)

LG Pete Kendell (age 36)

LT Chris Samuels (age 32)

Average age = 32.3

To put this in perspective, here are the average starting ages for some of the league's top offensive lines.

Tennessee Titans 28.4 (1 player over 30, and that is 37 year old C Kevin Mawae.  Replace him with 24 year old backup C Leroy Harris and the average drops to 25.8.)

Carolina Panthers 26 (1 player over 30)

New York Giants 28.6 (1 player over 30)

Minnesota Vikings 29 (2 players over 30)

New England Patriots 28.4 (1 player over 30)

New York Jets 28 (2 players over 30)

Dallas Cowboys 30.6 (Note : 4/5 OL starters for the Cowboys are 30.  Flozell Adams is 33.)

Indianapolis Colts 26.8 (1 player over 30)

     This is unacceptable and needs to be fixed this offseason by free agency and/or the draft, preferably both.  I believe Jon Jansen needs to be replaced as a starter and moved to backup.  It would cost more to release him that it would to keep him, and he's under 2 mil to keep, which is acceptable for a backup though not ideal.   Currently Stephen Heyer (age 24) is the backup and has shown flashes, but backing up the weakest point of the OL does not make me confident in his abilities.

We can get a couple more years out of Chris Samuels, so his position is not an immediate concern, although it would be good to have more youth behind him.

Our guards also need to be on the way out the door.  33 and 36 year old starting guards don't scare anyone.  Chad Rhinehart, the 23 year old rookie out of Northern Iowa, is listed as second string behind Kendell and should definitely get a look as a starter next year.  Backup guard Jason Fabini, age 34, and backup center Justin Geisenger, 26, offer little.

So what do we do to fix it?  For one, we could turn to free agency.  The top unrestricted free agents for 2009 are :

C Matt Birk, UFA, Minnesota Vikings - The problem with Birk is that he'll fit right in with our offensive line.  He's actually older than Casey Rabach, so no thanks.

 LG Mike Goff, UFA, San Diego Chargers - The problem with Goff is that he'll fit right in with our offensive line.  He's actually older than Randy Thomas (by 13 days), so no thanks.

RG Jordan Gross, UFA, Carolina Panthers - Gross will be 29 during the season next year.  I don't really see the point of trying to bandage up our OL for a couple years with a player like him.  He might be able to go for 5 more years, but we've seen how bad it can look when your OL starts breaking down, and linemen break down fast. 

RT Mark Tauscher, UFA, Green Bay Packers - Yet another 30+ guy.  Tauscher will be 32 at the beginning of next season.  Replacing old players with old players has gotten us where we are right now, so I'm gonna say no to him as well. 

We need guys that can play for years and develop and get better.  These guys will, at best, play at the same level for a couple years until they start to deteriorate.  Also, knowing the curse of free agency around the Skins, I'd just say no.  Too much to lose.

So that leaves the draft.  Fortunately, the draft is stacked at offensive tackles, and there are some decent guards that should be going in the later rounds.  Center is also a position of strength.  We could draft tackle in the first, center in the second, and guard in the third.  But wait, we don't have our second.  That hurts this year, because we are looking at :

1) A run on tackles in the first round.  We should be able to pick up one of the top 5 tackles with our first pick.

2) A small run on centers in the second round.  We would've been able to pick up a top 2 or 3 center if we still had our second (traded to Miami for Jason Taylor).

3) Some solid guards still hanging around in the third round.  We could pick up a top 10 or top 15 guard with our third rounder.

Basically, it looks like the draft is the way to go.  We'll have to rely on the front office to realize this.  The offensive line is the foundation of the offense, and this year we witnessed it break down more and more with every game.  Our backups aren't that good, despite the love they get from our fans.  Heyer is the only one that has shown he can play.  Rhinehart is still a question mark.

That is a quick rundown of where we're at right now.  I will be doing some mock drafts and small scouting reports of players I want\hope we select.

As I told a friend yesterday, the only thing more painful than a Redskins regular season is a Redskins offseason.