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Falcons have NFL's 8th oldest offensive line -- for now

Bye Dawk from Bleeding Green Nation has crunched the numbers like they were cinnamon toast and ranked all 32 NFL teams in order of offensive line decrepitness. (BD's favorite finding, of course, was that Philly's rival Cowboys have the most ancient line.) As currently constituted -- Todd McClure, Harvey Dahl, Tyson Clabo, Sam Baker, and Justin Blalock -- Atlanta has the 8th oldest offensive line. This is yet another reason why it's so tremendous that we drafted two versatile OL this year and one last year. If we replace McClure and Blalock with Joe Hawley and Mike Johnson -- the former will likely happen next year, and the latter could happen at some point this or next year, but let's just say we do it right now -- Atlanta's offensive line is suddenly the third youngest in the league. And all this is assuming Garrett Reynolds doesn't challenge Tyson Clabo, which could certainly happen. This isn't some sort of "Never trust anyone over 30 (to block for Matt Ryan)" young > old thing, as there's a lot more to a good line than lack of age (duh), but rather another look at how teams like the Falcons have done a good job of investing in the future, arguably better than teams like the Cowboys have. In their past 28 picks, Dallas has picked as many kickers as it has offensive linemen. They have a ton of explosive offensive weapons, but will that count for much if their earthmover of an offensive line suddenly turns into a '72 Skylark on blocks in the side yard with a grindy transmission and a window that won't roll up anymore? Isn't that the question we all want answered in life?

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