I did some quick research because I dug into some offensive line tape (again) and tried to find some solutions to stop myself from worrying about that position group. Looked into plays, play-calling, execution, assignments... up until I thought about checking out some weight differences. Because the offensive lines apparently are getting heavier and heavier from season to season on average. And what better way to demonstrate this by comparing them to the standard called Alabama. Since they had three offensive lineman selected in the draft (Leatherwood going in the 1st, ****erson going in the 2nd and Brown going in the 6th, obviously, these guys must have done something right.
Here is our offensive line from 2020:
LT Nelson - 314 lbs
LG Clark - 320 lbs
C Gaynor - 300 lbs
RG Scaife - 314 lbs
RT Williams - 308 lbs
And here is Bamas offensive line from 2020:
LT Leatherwood - 312 lbs
LG Brown - 350 lbs
C ****erson - 325 lbs
RG Ekiyor Jr. - 324 lbs
RT Neal - 360 lbs
I can actually spare you with the math, you dont need a calculator to figure out that Bama offensive line is heavier. Much heavier. About 130 pounds heavier. And the problem are not the tackle positions when it comes to weight, theres no problem being at that weight playing offensive tackle. But the interior offensive line... no. The biggest issue they had is blocking NT from a three man front (or Tite front), especially Gaynor since that is his main responsibility. Usually, nose tackles arent the tallest human beings on the football field, but they are heavy. About 320 upwards. Wilfork played at 350. You cant have 300-310 lbs interior offensive lineman blocking NTs that are either as heavy or even heavier compared to you. And seeing that Gaynor and Scaife were the worst two players on that group, it is not that surprising to me. Try to block inside zone while being undersized... have fun. And we will see more and more Tite fronts in the future, since this is how college football teams have started to adjust against Air Raid and zone blocking. We faced those fronts against UAB, FSU, Virginia, North Carolina and Virginia Tech (off of memory). And while FSU sucked, the unit certainly had its ups and downs versus the other listed teams.
Now, the current group is about 60 pounds heavier compared to last season, and thats largely (no pun intended) because of Donaldson and Rivers entering the lineup and them being on the bigger side (according to the latest release regarding weight changes). While thats a much bigger improvement, it still listed Gaynor at 308 lbs, which is still far too light. My take on the O-Line is that they will play better, its their second season in this system, and the interior line play will be better because of the gained size. Teams will still attack Gaynor with NTs though, because he, as the center, is the lightest player in the whole group. And thats not good. We can only hope that Gaynor actually finds some pounds till September, but this is a thing that needs to be looked at in the future.