Giants right guard Geoff Schwartz recently told me he believes the up-tempo offenses have hurt offensive line play.
"When I was at Oregon, we took such wide splits and got the ball out so quickly that you really barely even had to block people," said the seventh-year pro whose final college season was Chip Kelly's first at the helm in Oregon. "As a result, you didn't really get the work on your hands and footwork technique that you have to use to have success in the NFL."
In fact, Schwartz's point about the up-tempo spread offenses is one reason why so many high school and college teams are going to them in the first place: They give you a chance to compete and move the football even if you aren't blessed with very good big people up front. I had a college coach tell me his team finally switched to the spread after he got tired of seeing so many big gains without any of the opposition's linemen actually blocking people.