How do you turn an above-average offensive line into a seeming liability? Putting its best player on the shelf for half the season is a good start, and when that player is the center, it's an even bigger issue. That's the story in Pittsburgh.
When we published our updated offensive line rankings last week, it was before Pittsburgh center Maurkice Pouncey broke his fibula, an injury that will knock him out for half the season. It happened in the same game Packers wideout Jordy Nelson tore his ACL, and got less press, and has a little bit less fantasy impact. Nelson was a second-round fantasy pick.
But for the team, the injury might be even more significant, and it will affect the fantasy prospects of key players like Ben Roethlisberger and LeVeon Bell. The Packers are still going to have a great passing game. The Steelers will really miss Pouncey.
In his place for the next half season, Pittsburgh will use Cody Wallace. He's 30 and the Steelers are his fourth team; pretty much the definition of journeyman. He wouldn't keep getting jobs if he couldn't play at an NFL level, but it's a big downgrade.
The below rankings show how we rank the league's current projected starting centers, with the second column showing where the offensive lines rank. Pittsburgh was 12th before the Pouncey injury; now they're 26th. Note that very few highly ranked lines have lesser centers, and many of the best centers are key to some of the league's very best lines.
NFL CENTERS, 1-32 | ||
---|---|---|
Team | C | OL RANK |
Cleveland | Alex Mack | 4 |
Dallas | Travis Frederick | 1 |
Carolina | Ryan Kalil | 28 |
Oakland | Rodney Hudson | 18 |
Miami | Mike Pouncey | 11 |
Philadelphia | Jason Kelce | 5 |
NY Jets | Nick Mangold | 14 |
Minnesota | John Sullivan | 19 |
New Orleans | Max Unger | 6 |
Green Bay | Corey Linsley | 2 |
Detroit | Travis Swanson | 9 |
Baltimore | Jeremy Zuttah | 7 |
Buffalo | Eric Wood | 13 |
Tennessee | Brian Schwenke | 24 |
San Francisco | Marcus Martin | 10 |
Jacksonville | Stefen Wisniewski | 25 |
Atlanta | Joe Hawley | 29 |
New England | Bryan Stork | 8 |
Houston | Ben Jones | 16 |
Kansas City | Mitch Morse | 20 |
Chicago | Hroniss Grasu | 21 |
Washington | K. Litchtensteiger | 12 |
Tampa Bay | Evan Dietrich-Smith | 31 |
Cincinnati | Russell Bodine | 3 |
Arizona | Lyle Sendlein | 27 |
Denver | Matt Paradis | 23 |
NY Giants | Weston Richburg | 30 |
San Diego | Chris Watt | 17 |
Indianapolis | Khaled Holmes | 15 |
Seattle | Lemuel Jeanpierre | 22 |
Pittsburgh | Cody Wallace | 26 |
St. Louis | Tim Barnes | 32 |
--Andy Richardson