The starter has played the position for just a few incidental snaps in a regular season game, pro or college. The backup hasn’t played it for any snaps. The third-stringer played the position some in college, but only once in a starting role.
Is the position significant? Kind of. So much so, in fact, they made a big-time movie about it last year in Hollywood. Won a bunch of awards. People loved it.
Don’t know if the Chargers loved the movie, “The Blind Side,” but it does seem that they are quite happy with their own. Blind side, that is.
Really?
Why aren’t they losing sleep over the fact that a rookie fourth-stringer Ryan Otterson — who got beaten cleanly on the Dallas Cowboys game-winning safety Saturday night — is the only player currently on the roster who has ever started a string of meaningful pro or college games at left tackle?
Erstwhile starter Marcus McNeill is still holding out and doesn’t figure to be back any time soon — if at all this year. Veteran Tra Thomas, signed to replace McNeill, abruptly announced his retirement Saturday afternoon.
And Philip Rivers somehow is calmly counting sheep despite the fact that his season could end every time he drops back to pass? And Coach Norv Turner isn’t panicked over the fact that if Rivers’ season ends, so to does the Chargers’ season? And General Manager A.J. Smith isn’t searching every nook and cranny around the league to beef up the position?
As it stands right now, undrafted lineman Brandyn Dombrowski out of San Diego State (pictured, above) holds the key to the success of the 2010 Charger season in his inexperienced hands. Dombrowski was practically a revelation last season, stepping in on opening night for the injured Louis Vasquez, and stepping in later in the season for right tackle Jeromey Clary. He did a fantastic job by all accounts.
But the situation he’s stepping into now is far different. Left tackle is a whole different animal, if for no other reason than the fact that if Dombrowski gets beat, Rivers can’t see the finely-tuned, muscles-bulging, face-grinning athlete who will be bearing down on him.
Most teams attack the quarterback from the blind side for this reason. You can’t evade what you can’t see. Nobody in the NFL can argue the fact that in order to have a successful passing attack, you must construct a solid wall around your quarterback’s back side.
Dombrowski very well may prove capable. Heck, the guy who now lines up next to him, Pro Bowl guard Kris Diehlman, was undrafted out of college as well. And McNeill was once an unproven rookie fresh out of college, too.
But the difference is that those guys at least had experience playing the positions they eventually mastered as pros. Dombrowski, as good as he has been playing elsewhere along the line, simply can’t be bringing that same depth of knowledge to his new (crucial) spot.
In the second quarter of Saturday night’s game, the Cowboys ran a simple stunt from Rivers’ blind side, with rush linebacker DeMarcus Ware cutting to the inside while defense end Stephen Bowen looped around him to the outside.
Dombrowski stayed nicely with Ware, but Bowen broke around the edge cleanly and put Rivers down on the turf. The sack was nullified by a Dallas penalty downfield, but the play appeared to expose the lack of experience along the Bolts front left wall. Perhaps Dombrowski was simply executing his particular assignment on the play, and the free rusher was somebody’s else’s responsibility.
Regardless, the point is that a simple stunt is not the only tactic defenses will use to test Dombrowski’s lack of reps once the regular season gets underway. Will the Chargers have to use running backs to help block more often than usual this year? Will they be able to call as many seven-step drops for Rivers as they would like to?
Time will tell. One thing we don’t have to wait for is this knowledge: if Dombrowski were to get injured, then what? Backup Tyronne Green came to Auburn as a defensive tackle, then switched to the offensive line where he never played anything other than center and guard. Rookies Nic Richmond (TCU, where he was mostly a backup and started exactly once at left tackle) and Otterson (Wyoming) are the only other current options.
Don’t know about you, but that leaves me with a rather uneasy feeling. If the Chargers don’t have that same uneasy feeling…well, then maybe they’re just turning a blind eye to the blind side.
– Ello
Craig Elsten -
Chainsaw -
