Lets keep some things in mind... (sorry if its a little all over the place)1. Koetter is a genius when it comes to oline... Its arguably his best attribute. Due to injuries, he once protected Matt Ryan in a game with 3 scrub backs up on the OL, plus a back up TE at LT! How Ryan and the offense was able to weather that s### storm proves that Dirk is a genius... need more proof? Look how quick our OL turned around in his first year. 2. Everyone thought starting Donovan, Ali, EDS, and losing our RT was going to be a train wreck... not to mention most people thought the 2 rookies were huge risks and/or projects. The funny thing is Koetter was telling us the whole time in his PC's that he wasn't worried one bit about the OL like the fans and the media. On paper the OL looked crappy to put it nicely. Dirk was right tho, everyone else was wrong. Gotta give the man his props and we had to eat our crow. Start Donovan at LT to protect the blindside of your #1 pick??? Having a rookie from Hobart anchor your running game??! LOL, Koetter pulled it off with flying colors when everyone thought it was madness.3. Jason Licht and Koetter found Hawley off the street to replace that bum EDS. Hawley was a gel player and we saw some of the best center play TB has seen in how long? Who saw that coming?4. Then K+L signed Gosder freakin Cherilus who turned out to be an unsung hero after we lost our best olinemen in Dotson.5. Oh and Pamphile has been developing nicely, can fill in and challenge for a starting spot. Didn't cost a high round draft pick. You need players like him.6. Licht did get very good value out of the Mankins trade. He had 1 pro bowl season and showed Ali and Donovan the ropes for a year...immense value because it helped their confidence and work ethic. That will continue to pay off for the rest of their careers. The OL was pretty great last year compared to what we're used to. Lets remember that every OL that has come in here under Koetter has helped Jameis and the team tremendously.... Koetter has yet to fail on his OL pick ups. He had nothing to do with Anthony Collins, EDS, Gilkey, etc...his hands are clean and we should give him the benefit of the doubt on this Sweezy signing IMO. And cant forget that its going to be year 2 of Koetter's system, which should equal more quality play out of the OL.
