Do the Texans need major offensive line turnover to pass better?
A brief investigation of the statistical offensive line improvements of the last five years.
This is a brief list of teams that have jumped from outside of the top 15 in adjusted sack rate to inside the top 10 over the last five seasons. I have also included a PFF pass blocking grade for each team and the rank within:
First thoughts as I was researching this: Wow, PFF pass blocking grades sure are sticky. It is fascinating how few of these teams that improved in sack rate actually took a meaningful leap on their offensive line block grades.
Of course, we all know that sack rate is tied to quarterbacks and new quarterback makes line go up and down. Russell Wilson to Bo Nix last year being an obvious one, as well as Desmond Ridder to Kirk Cousins/Michael Penix. Many of the entries on the list can be explained by that.
But what jumped out to me were the 2024 Ravens, who I would argue are an example of a team that saw a boost purely on playcalling. Perhaps you can argue that Lamar Jackson took a leap forward in that department — I think he definitely handled blitzes better this year — but I think this is also a spot where Todd Monken was clearly better at making sure Jackson could handle what was thrown at him. The Ravens returned most of their 2023 line, but had better health from Ronnie Stanley and broke in Roger Rosengarten at right tackle. I think you can argue they lost a lot of talent from 2023 to 2024! Kevin Zeitler and John Simpson got starting contracts in free agency, and Morgan Moses was traded to the Jets early that offseason. But they improved from a sack rate perspective. It was almost like being more careful with their protections was a good thing overall for the offense even though it was about protecting their young linemen.
Let’s look at the three teams that took a leap forward in PFF pass blocking grade and adjusted sack rate: The 2024 Cardinals, 2022 Raiders, and 2020 Bills.
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