I was really curious how much draft capital the top offensive lines had invested. I took the Pass Blocking and Run Blocking rankings from Football Outsiders and averaged them. This is certainly imperfect, but it gives us a rough, objective idea who the best offensive lines are. The only alternative is Pro Football Focus, but theirr ratings haven't been updated since Oct. 8th and they only have a "Pass Blocking Efficiency" stat. In order:NE, NO, BAL, DEN, IND, DAL, MIA, CHI, CIN, ATL.The first thing that jumps out is that clearly, 100% QB play trumps OL play. Good QBs open up the run game with their passing and are better able to avoid sacks. This may seem self-evident, but it's worth remembering that you're OL play will unequivocally improve with a good QB.Next, I took each position and calculated the "average" draft position invested. So for example, at LT the top teams invested a 1, 3, 1 (FA), 1, 1, 1, 1, 4 (FA), 2, 1. I treated all FA and UDFA signings as an "8" and then averaged the draft position to determine where and how much draft capital was spent.Average draft capital: LT - 2.7, LG - 5.2, C - 6.5, RG - 3.8, RT - 4.6.For comparison the Bucs don't have a single drafted player on the OL, and only have one homegrown player in Dotson.In terms of average draft capital by team: NE - 4.6, NO - 6, BAL - 5.2, DEN - 5.4, IND - 4.4, DAL - 3, MIA - 4.2, CHI - 5, CIN - 2.4, ATL - 5.4.It's tough to draw any further conclusions. Clearly the Bucs have under-invested in their OL. Yet, the line would be much better with Penn and Zuttah. And OL do have a high bust rate.It's interesting to see that RG is the 2nd most invested position. Without more research it's impossible to know whether that's by chance or an actual trend. By far, the most FAs and UDFAs are seen at center with only 3 teams drafting centers, and only one (Pouncey) being more than a 4th round pick.It's also difficult to know if Football Outsider's ratings tell the true story of "best" OLs. I don't think there's a better system, and it does change the narrative about which teams OLs are bad. This makes sense because few (none?) media pundits watch much OL play and most OL accolades are hype.This does confirm though that for all the Bucs OL flaws, improved play will be seen from improved QB play. Second, a quick turnaround is possible as Atlanta, Chicago and Miami demonstrate. Lastly, this can be accomplished with a high number of FAs as ATL, CHI, and DEN all have the most FAs with 3 each.
