Matt Ryan And The Maligned O-Line

Nobody's quicker to wring their hands in despair about the offensive line than me, which is perhaps why I was surprised to see that not everyone is filled with the soul-drenching darkness that I am.

Specifically, we're talking about NFL Network's Adam Schefter, who wrote an article about quarterback battles and manages to talk about our lowly regarded offensive line. Schefter says those of us who be hatin' may be misguided. He points out that the line was a rolling wave of chaos under Bobby Petrino, and a steady starting lineup could do more to help us than replacing one or two spots entirely.

The point of the article, of course, is that the team obviously must have some confidence in the line if they're going to put Matt Ryan back there. There have been many, many instances where coaches have gone horribly wrong by putting rookies behind bad lines and ruining them for the rest of their careers (see Carr, David), but Schefter asks if there's a chance--just a chance!--that the line will be good enough to protect Matty Ice over a 16 game season.

I'm not sure I agree with that cautious prognosis, and I agree that Matt Ryan could lose the starting job with a really bad game this weekend. My favored move is still to have Redman at least start the first few weeks of the season and then hand the keys over if he struggles or the line looks to be in great shape.

I'd just rather not break the franchise's new hope before he becomes a legend.