We've been looking at offensive lines over the past few weeks: best lines, best position-by-position breakdowns of those lines. Now we get to the money position, left tackle. It's not hard to see how hitting on that position can make all the difference in the world, as can missing on it.
It's not the end all and be all, of course. The Browns have one of the league's best left tackles (the best in our rankings) yet their offense is annually terrible. So you need more than that. But look at the teams who have spent high picks on the position and have them not work out. Those teams are typically out of the running for the NFL's postseason early on.
A couple of the players are currently ranked modestly (Jake Matthews, Ereck Flowers, Donvan Smith) because it's too soon to say -- they could go either way. Others (Luke Joeckel, Eric Fisher) seemingly aren't going to pan out.
The below rankings show how we rank the league's current projected left tackles, with the second column showing where the offensive lines rank.
NFL LEFT TACKLES, 1-32 | ||
---|---|---|
Team | Left Tackle | OL Rk |
Cleveland | Joe Thomas | 3 |
Philadelphia | Jason Peters | 4 |
San Francisco | Joe Staley | 10 |
Washington | Trent Williams | 12 |
Dallas | Tyron Smith | 1 |
Seattle | Russell Okung | 23 |
New Orleans | Terron Armstead | 5 |
New England | Nate Solder | 8 |
Minnesota | Matt Kalil | 13 |
Miami | Branden Albert | 11 |
Cincinnati | Andrew Whitworth | 7 |
Arizona | Jared Veldheer | 24 |
Green Bay | David Bakhtiari | 2 |
NY Jets | D. Ferguson | 14 |
Baltimore | Eugene Monroe | 6 |
Detroit | Riley Reiff | 9 |
Atlanta | Jake Matthews | 30 |
Buffalo | Cordy Glenn | 15 |
Indianapolis | Anthony Castonzo | 16 |
Houston | Duane Brown | 17 |
Pittsburgh | Kelvin Beachum | 27 |
Oakland | Donald Penn | 20 |
San Diego | King Dunlap | 18 |
Chicago | Jermon Bushrod | 22 |
NY Giants | Ereck Flowers | 29 |
Tennessee | Taylor Lewan | 25 |
Kansas City | Eric Fisher | 21 |
Denver | Ty Sambrailo | 19 |
Tampa Bay | Donovan Smith | 31 |
St. Louis | Greg Robinson | 32 |
Jacksonville | Luke Joeckel | 26 |
Carolina | Michael Oher | 28 |
--Andy Richardson