We've discussed Adjusted Line Yards before, but all the discussion about our impending loss of anywhere from one to three O-Line starters got me thinking. As a unit, they've been [knocks on wood] surprisingly resilient in recent years. Our own orang3b reminded us how injury-proof our trenchmonsters have been as-of-late:
[O]ur Offensive Line as a group has only missed 15 games total over the last 3 seasons (5 OL x 16 Games x 3 Seasons = 240 possible starts). Baker missed 8 games as a Rookie and 2 in 2009 [and] Dahl missed 5 games in 2009.
If you're not familiar with ALY, it's an advanced stat that measures O-Line performance. It has nothing to do with pass blocking. It's helpful because it separates what the O-Line is doing from what the RB is doing.
Here's how it's calculated:
Based on regression analysis, the Adjusted Line Yards formula takes all running back carries and assigns responsibility to the offensive line based on the following percentages:
- Losses: 120% value
- 0-4 Yards: 100% value
- 5-10 Yards: 50% value
- 11+ Yards: 0% value
Here's our ALYs since TD took over:
2010 - 4.19 or 8th in the league (league-leader was 4.82)
2009 - 4.26 or 10th in the league (league-leader was 4.50)
2008 - 4.22 or 9th in the league (league-leader 4.78)
Not too shabby. Smitty stressed the importance of a quality running game from day one. To that effect, I don't see this team abandoning the run-first mentality any time soon. As such, we need to continue the top-ten ALYs, otherwise our win total will drop. It's not that we can't replace Dahl, Blaylock, or Clabo, but the uncertainty underlying integration of new personnel is enough to have this blogger worried.
Of course, I do tend to overreact when it comes to FA shenanigans, so I'm curious what y'all think. Enlighten me!