One aspect of any football team that can’t fully develop cohesion until training camp is the offensive line.
The way the collective bargaining agreement is structured between the NFL and the NFLPA, players cannot participate in full contact practices until training camp.
For the offensive line, the five-man unit can utilize the offseason workouts to sharpen their mental grasp of their assignments, but the true measure of the unit’s impact can’t be felt until the line collides with the defense to set the line of scrimmage.
Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans told reporters Wednesday after the first day of training camp practice at Houston Methodist Training Center that he looks forward to the offensive line developing chemistry in the coming practices.
“With our offensive line, it’s all of the guys just being able to gel together,” Ryans said. “The best offensive lines, they work in sync. They work as one. It takes time to develop that, that chemistry amongst our group. Now to have the guys back, each and every day let’s see how much can that chemistry improve, how tighter can these guys get to where they’re in sync and operating as one.”
From what Ryans has been able to tell in padless practices, the offensive line is, “doing an excellent job of protecting in the passing game.” However, Ryans also expects the offensive line to “[be] able to knock guys off the line of scrimmage and reset the line of scrimmage in the run game.”
New offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik’s scheme, which is a continuation of San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan’s run-heavy design, will need the offensive line to take command.
Said Ryans: “That’s my philosophy of team building. It all starts up front. If you can’t win the line of scrimmage, it’s going to be hard to win games.”
