Building the Perfect O-Line Athlete: Guards

Welcome back to another episode of the OLP Lounge. I'm LeCharles Bentley, and I'm joined by Mr. Taylor Boggs once again. And we're going to get right into the topic of guards, building the perfect offensive line athlete. And we're going to dive into, as I said, guards. Who are the guards in today's game that we feel embody the most ideal traits of the perfect offensive line athlete? So Taylor's going to lead it off. The first category is gonna be strength. Who you going with, big dog?

It's probably an obvious one, but I'm gonna go with Kelechi from Oakland.

That's an easy pick.

I know, but I— it's like a highlight reel of strength.

Okay, fair enough, fair enough. Can I throw you off a bit? I told him before we got going that my list is a bit unorthodox, to say the least. And I think I'mma just kick it off with Langer Tomlinson. Lincoln, hold on, hold on.

I like Lincoln.

I know you like Lincoln. Hold on, hold on, let me tell you why. I'm going with Lincoln because as a former first-round pick, I think he started his career off a little rough, but there were some things that you would see on film that an average Joe just could not do. And then you also see some things on film every now and again that you'd expect from an elite-level guard in terms of movement relative to strength, and even football IQ. He's not a dumb football player. He's a very smart football player. Maybe that's because he went to Duke and all that type of stuff. I guess he got—

You think he was going to med school?

Yeah, he went to med school. He's supposed to be a doctor right now, not a football player. But anywho, I watch him play and he's always been able to get himself out of very awkward situations. And you see him now having a resurgence in San Francisco. Think he just got paid a little bit more money. I just keep seeing a guy that he may not ever become elite, but I can surely stand the idea that the dude is strong.

Yeah, he's good for any team.

Hell yeah. Any team, any offense.

Yeah, 'cause I'm a fan. And Laken's my friend.

Okay. Well, it's not fair then if he's your friend. I should've went with somebody else.

No, I mean, I'm glad you think highly of him. I think he's a good guy too.

But am I wrong?

No, dude, that guy, if we're talking power, mobility, strength, all that stuff, he's in another world, man.

Fair enough. That's fair enough. Well, let's go right to power, and I'm gonna tell you now, that mine's gonna be so basic now. It's basic. I told you, man, I came— I'm coming out the gate strong. I'm letting you know out the gate right now, I got two guys for power. Okay, well, I have an old and a new. Okay, so who you got?

I got Zach Martin.

For power?

Yeah. Dude, okay, first off—

Explain.

Because—

Explain.

First off, in space, it's beautiful. What he does for his big body in space, like him getting out there, screens, I could watch that all day. But then just the fact that he plays in the same stance all game, and it doesn't matter if his 3-tech lines up as a wide 9.

I give you that.

He gets out of his stance so smoothly, it's effortlessly, it takes a lot of power to be able to do that. And I really enjoy his game. Like, so I—

Okay, fair enough. I mean, you can't argue with it.

It's right though. It's basic, but it's right.

But is it a better pick than Larry Warford?

I got Larry on here. No, no, no, no.

Is Larry in power? Is he a better pick than Larry Warford for power? And also, I told you I'm coming strong, man. Mike Yopati. Now, Mike Yopati is not the same Mike Yopati of maybe 4 years ago.

Yeah.

But I'll tell you this, that Mike 4 or 5 years ago, not the Mike we talking about today, he's getting older, you know, the game has caught up to him. His best football is definitely behind him, but even with that said, he's still a current player. And you still see it moments and instances.

Oh yeah.

That Mike of 4 or 5 years ago, and it is scary. But my number 1, my 1A is Larry Warford. My 1B is Mike Iapati. But I just don't see Zach Martin in that category. Nah. You betrayed Larry, man. That's your boy too. Let him down.

Larry and Mike, those are like some of my closest friends.

Cut him down, man.

I'll tell you, like, Mike is, Mike's deuce block in San Francisco, I feel like it gave people nightmares. I've seen him just run over people on accident. Like, he's like, oh, oh, my bad, bro. No, I love both of them. I love the pick. When I just think of like, you got to have a lot of power to move as smooth as Zach does.

I agree.

And he does move smooth, and he's a big guy. Yeah, you know what I mean? He's a left tackle that came inside. Yeah. And he kind of kept that whole space concept and kept the smoothness. But I was surprised because, you know, tackles, they don't do anything on screens.

Fair enough.

And they just try to get— they pretend to get beaten on. They don't do nothing.

Pretend they get beat?

Yeah. Okay. But he never runs screens like that, and in college, and when he came to the NFL, you know, release flat, get up to the second level. It was just impressive to see a big guy like that move.

Okay, fair enough. I just have a hard time putting him in that Larry Walker, Mike Iapati category, because when I see Larry at that point of contact, and he's a nice guy, but it's violent. And when he hits people, they move. When people hit him, they generally stop. And Mike Iapati a few years ago, it is something serious. But I understand— Yeah. Your line of reasoning, but I went with Zach Martin with skill. So when I get down to skill, Martin is top of mind outside of Yanda, but we went with Yanda on the first part of the series. I had to switch it up.

I thought you were gonna get mad at me 'cause I switched it up.

No, no, no, I went Zach Martin. When I watch Zach Martin, I don't know how much longer he's gonna play. And to me it doesn't really matter because he surely, established himself as the premier guard of this era.

Oh yeah.

With that said, he would arguably, arguably be in my top 5, top 10 greatest guards of all time.

All time.

All time. And you know, some people may balk at that, but when you really do your homework on him, what he's done from day one, even now later in his career, overcoming injuries and circumstances that are much out of his control, he's still playing at a beyond elite level. So I can't wait to one day he does have a busting cat and deserve really something.

He will have one. Okay, so my skill— pick— my skill is Larry Warford.

All right, all right, all right. Okay, okay, okay.

And I mean, this is like unfair because, you know, I've seen this kind of as a teammate, as a workout partner, as as a coach, I've seen like the details that goes into his— okay, and he's so meticulous. And then he could go out there and still yam someone, like, you know, he has like the mindset you would see as like a finesse guy because the way he's— yes, ridiculous with his skill.

I totally agree.

But it just transfers into just him dominating people.

No, no, no, let's— let me play devil's advocate.

I, I don't dance with the devil.

Well, let me take the inverse of what you said. Let me go the opposite way. I'm a huge Larry Warford fan, obviously, but skill-wise, if you look at the complete body of work relative to Zach Martin, can we say that Larry's been as consistent as Zach Martin?

Oh boy.

Oh yeah, I told you I'm coming out. I'm coming out the gate.

Okay, so Then I got inside information to this, 'cause I know what he's been asked to do, and he's been making it work. I get it.

I know that too.

'Cause he went from setting deep.

Yes.

And he kinda had that, what's it?

The inside information is being he's had some very suspicious coaching, but keep going.

And then he went to jump setting. Mm-hmm. He had to jump. Yep. He always had to jump set.

Okay.

Third and long. And he was able to apply like, hey, it's the same thing. He was like, I drive catch to take, to create space, and now I'm drive catching to take away space. He's figured some things out with his hand. It doesn't matter who he goes against. He matches up well versus the short guys. Better than Zach Martin.

I agree with you there, yeah.

But he can stop the tall guys. As a shorter guard, he stops the tall guards. Or tall D-tackles. He does it with that inside hand. He— no.

So your stance with Larry is this, is that a part of true skill is being able to overcome circumstances by using base principles and applying those base principles to anything you're asked to do.

He's done it better than anyone.

I agree with you, but is that what you're saying?

Yeah, I didn't know I was saying that, but now I know I'm saying that.

Okay, let's get a little bit off topic here. Just a little bit off topic. Because this conversation, where we are now, I think this is relative to a lot of young high school athletes and even a lot of college athletes as well, that deal with very similar realities. Where it's, "Well, my coach told me to do this, and I'm having to do it this way, and I see what this person is doing, and what this person is saying, and instinctually this makes more sense, but my coach says do it this way." Is Leigh Walford a shining example of being able to overcome the worst of coaching?

Oh, hands down.

Now, how do you do it though? Is it what you just said? By living in that world of base principles?

Yeah, 'cause he just has a principle he lives by. He understands movement better than any athlete I've been around.

Totally agree.

And if you tell him a method, well, that's fine. He'll take that method, but he starts with his principle to apply to any method. Whether he's gotta be in a 2-point, remember in Detroit, the one year he had to be in a 3-point, even in 2-minute, and he had to jump set, but he went with his principles to that method, He went down to New Orleans, did the same thing. Yeah, now he's running. He was the guy, he was a 330-pound guard doing backside cutoff.

He was the guy that wasn't athletic enough.

Yeah, and he's— yeah, he runs— what did he run, a 5'6" 40?

He probably ran his height.

So, but he sticks to his principles. I get that because high school kids are always like, man, you know, because kids are smart now, they're aware, they're very aware, so they know they can smell some BS. But you know what, Yes, that's the BS, might be the method, but as long as you got the right principles, let's roll.

So with that said, principles— if you young athletes out there don't know what we're referring to relative to what are the principles you're talking about, go to— go over to the OLP website, live on our Instagram, live on a YouTube page. You will slowly but surely start to understand the principles of movement. Once you understand those principles of movement, you can then take those principles and apply them to any method, any scheme. So, little tidbit right there. Now, speaking of that, that's gonna take a little bit of acumen for young athletes, and acumen then leads us into football IQ. Now, I'mma kick this one off again because I gotta pay respect to my Cleveland boys. You know, the Cleveland guys always, always represent, and Roger Saffold, he's my pick for football IQ. First-time Pro Bowler this past year. Maybe, might be a Super Bowl runner-up. I don't know.

We'll see.

Maybe be Super Bowl champion. We don't know. But I know this. You watch him over his career. Came in as a second-round pick. Played left tackle out the gate. He was solid.

He's solid.

He was solid as a left tackle. Great feet, could move, understood principles. Whether he knew it or not, he definitely understood movement. Moved him into guard and his game never changed. But what I see out of him is, is a guy that's overcome a lot of, you know, I guess you can say less than ideal circumstances, but his performance has never wavered. When I watch him passing off games, seeing things before it happens, not having a guy like Whitworth next to him definitely takes the football IQ that much higher because Whitworth has so much experience. I just see a guy that is beyond just consistent of a football player. He's somebody that embodies intelligence to me. And he's from Cleveland.

That's the most important thing. So now I've been a huge fan of Robert Saffold over the years. Now I gotta take a step back I'm gonna take him down a notch. Why? 'Cause he's from Cleveland and that bothers me.

That's not fair.

So, but no, he's been one of—

That's racist.

He's been one— No, no, no, no, no. That's racist. No, he has been one of my favorite guards to watch for a long time, man. I feel like he just goes, I know he got contracts and stuff, but no one talks about him.

Nobody talks about him.

And he shuts down people.

Everybody. Yes.

No, big fan. I'm like, he's got short legs and he's overcome that. He just looks short in his stance, but he just— Weird. I love him. I like Whitworth too. But I'm a big fan of—

Definitely. Big fan of Saquon. Definitely. Who you got?

OK, football IQ. This is inside information, but I can tell you this. I'm gonna go with Josh Sitton.

I'll give you that.

Because we've watched him in games go to left tackle.

I give you that.

We've watched him play both guards in games, and we've watched him go to center. And he's played all of them at a high level.

I give you that.

And then, I mean, I've also been in a meeting with him. OK. And I had to sit there and just take notes of how much he knew.

Oh, really?

He was like, it was like I never seen a guard, you know, that much. Like he was like a 15-year center, it seemed like.

Really?

So yeah, that's inside information. But I mean, it is what it is. If you could play that many positions, you know something, you know.

Yeah, you figure some things out. Now, as you move into Attitude, and I don't appreciate your racist comments about this.

No, no, no.

I don't appreciate that.

No, no, no.

That's the problem in the society now. He's a part of that toxic masculinity culture.

I'm the soft one. Look on Twitter, everyone calls me soft.

Attitude. I'll let you go first with attitude.

I got two.

I got two. I got two too.

Okay, well, these are, um, I'll pick a third one, but go ahead. No, no, no, it's two.

Go ahead.

So I got Sean LeVar.

Okay.

And I think that's a guy that's been overlooked, but, uh, his whole career. I mean, you know why? It's because he's in Cleveland, and how could you not look past Cleveland? But he, uh, I just love the way he finishes.

I agree.

He takes pride in that. He takes pride in finishing. The other one is, he's not a friend of mine, but it's Ted Larson.

Are we picking up a trend here? Are we being a little biased here?

I know, I didn't want to do that.

Are we being a little biased here?

I didn't want to do that, but—

Interesting.

But I'll tell you why too. 'Cause Ted, he's always kind of been a backup. We know he's a starter, but he's always been kind of a backup. But he has that, he always finishes like Sean.

I agree.

He doesn't care who he's going against. He could come in off the bench.

He does not care.

He does not care. And he's gonna come in there and fight. Same with Sean. And they always finish. And they're just fun to watch. They are football players. And they have that.

Now you got me feeling bad over here, 'cause I agree with you. I agree. Well, I'm gonna go with the more, you know, I guess you can say popular picks.

Oh, okay.

So who am I going with?

It was World War III when I would say Kelechi.

Nope.

What I'm saying, when I said Kalenji, for sure. Oh yeah, of course.

Well, I think for me, and I'll tell you why, I got two guys. My first one is Quentin Nelson.

Big fan. Okay, big fan.

You're not gonna get much argument there.

This is attitude. No, heck no. Okay, when he, when he posed, right? I'll come back and explain that.

My second one, and I think this is more of a honorary selection because of what this person has done in the past, and it's Kyle Long.

Okay.

Alright? So now, right? Yeah. Now, let me explain Quentin Nelson. For a rookie to come in with so much hype, so much— everybody named Mama, oh my God, he's football Jesus on the offensive line. He comes in and he walks on water. And then, it wasn't just Everybody talking about him. He made some comments talking about, you know, a few of the D-linemen that, you know, it's guys like Fletcher Cox, guys like so-and-so and so-and-so that, you know, the NFL is having a hard time blocking. I'm that guy. I said, wow, man, okay, big dog, put the city on your shoulders. He did it. Then he gets into the league, and we've had some personal conversations, and we're like, look, I like it, I respect it, I appreciate it, but man, you, you had to put on your big boy drawers and really man up as a rookie. And you know what?

He did.

Dude, now the only caveat to that is this: I think he still has a lot of growing room, a tremendous amount of room to growth. I think that a little bit of the hype from the social media climate is a bit, um, let's just say exaggerated. I think it's easy to take clips and, "Oh, look at this clip. He's an animal." Like, yeah, but there's 60-some other plays. And everybody gets beat. I don't care who you are. And you can take those same, you know, micro shots of literally probably every player in the NFL on any given Sunday, and they're probably blowing somebody up.

Yeah.

But it doesn't happen. What happens is when there's a narrative created about a guy like a Ted Larson, right? Or a guy like a Sean Laval.

Yeah.

People tend to take those clips of something not going well and using that as a negative against them.

They're finding their 4 bad plays in the game.

Bingo! But no one wants to look at his 4 bad plays. So that's a wave that he's gonna have to ride, and I respect it. It is what it is. It's the climate that we live in. But at the same time, I don't feel that many players, like the players you mentioned, get the respect that they deserve because of people like Quentin Nelson. When they come in and you got this tidal wave of momentum that he's earned, and rightfully so, but at the same time, you got just jock sniffers. I'm sorry, jock sniffers. Jock sniffers that just, "Oh my God, look at this play." And then you also, you got certain jock sniffers that are former players that can't wait. Oh, look at him right here. Like, put your film on. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, we ain't gotta say no.

Yeah, yeah, put your film on.

It's not in the notes this time, so we're not gonna say any names. But then I get to Kyle Long, and I have so much respect for him because with Kyle, you can't kill him. Oh my gosh, no, you can't. You can't kill him. And that's why I love him. Like, Broke hand, broke foot, broke neck, broke back. Who I got?

Yeah, he played a new position, lining up with Julius Peppers, his first time ever. Yeah, with a club, with a club, with a club. And you know, he gave him a sack, and guess what? He fought the whole game, the whole game.

So that's why, and with Kyle, man, each and every week, it doesn't matter if he's on the injury report or not, that dude's gonna line up. If he's on the field, You're in for a fight.

Yeah, I've seen him just swallow people alive, like pulling and stuff every week. You're like, why would you— I didn't even know he was off IR. Look at him, just killed a man.

No, no, you said off of IR.

Yeah, he just killed a man.

He had surgery 2 weeks ago.

Like, did he just have surgery?

Right. Okay, mental resiliency. I got one that's gonna knock your panties off, man. Who you got?

Okay. I'm going with TJ Lang.

Explain.

Because now, I'm not a jump setter. I hate jump setting. And TJ Lang, I believe he uses great movement principles, a great stance. He's drive catching to close space. He jump sets. And he does it. If he gets beat—

Doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. He's gonna come back and jump set. If it's wide, it doesn't matter who he's going against. That's his game. He sticks to it. If he gets beat one time, it's probably the last time he gets beat in that game, and he's not changing anything. So I think he's, you know, I mean, everyone's been in a bad situation and they were like, oh, I can't do this this game. Yes. Well, he's done it his whole career and that's it. He's still changed it. Yeah. So I, you know, I respect that. I played in the division, so I watch him. I'm like, dude, he doesn't change his set.

I respect that for sure. I want a different route. And I like this guy because he's overcome a lot to get to where he's at. And that's Shaq Mason.

Oh, I like Shaq, man. Big fan of Shaq.

Some will argue, and hell, I might even be one of those people that would argue that he's been a benefactor of the Tom Brady effect. Okay, you look at Nate Solder, definitely a benefactor of the Tom Brady effect. You take him out of the Tom Brady system, different guy. But a different topic, won't discuss that right now. But with Shaq Mason, this is still someone that came into the league and never really took a pass set in college.

Maybe like 20 in a year?

Maybe 20 in a year, if you're lucky.

Yeah.

And most of them are gonna be rollouts and you aren't really gonna be matched up in a true one-on-one type of situation, coming from Georgia Tech. And he was more in that, you know, that wing T, forward, bulldozing type of offense, and there was nothing truly finesse about it. He was 6'1" on probably a good day, and people said he was too short, he wasn't this enough, he wasn't that enough. But yet, he found himself in the right spot, in the right system, with the right people, and he took ownership of it. It wasn't just, "I'm here, let me just be here." It was, "I'm here, let me thrive." And the skills that he didn't have, he developed them over time. I go back to, I believe it was last year, when he gave up that big sack late in the Super Bowl against Graham. And it really, I'm not gonna say it cost him the game, but it was at a very inopportune time.

You could've went in thinking, "I just blew the Super Bowl." Yes! You could've left there, I mean—

Thank you. Like, that is one of those moments that as an offensive line athlete, it's like for a center, you don't want to be the guy that throws the ball in a shotgun snap over somebody's head in that situation.

You made my stomach turn, right?

Like, it's like, no, not now. Uh, maybe a little low, but not too far right, not too far, just, just right. But with him, to give up a big sack in that situation When you watch him the next play, he didn't change anything. No. Then you come back the following season and he's had a great year. Oh yeah. And this is a guy, as I said, that he's making about $10 million a year average. They gave him like a $50 million contract. But this is a kid that wasn't ever enough. He wasn't a big-time recruit out of high school. He wasn't someone that grew up in a situation where football was spoon-fed to him. He grew up in a single-parent household. The same old story we typically always kind of hear.

Yeah.

For him to be where he's at in that situation and then take advantage of it, we've seen guys end up, or having a similar story, end up in very opportune situations and still blow it. And still blow it. There was one guy that was, we won't say his name, but that was there, that was the exact same deal and probably more talented, blew it. So he took advantage of it, so I respect the hell outta him in this game.

If you don't, if you're not a fan of Shaq Mason, you're crazy. You're out of your mind.

Out of your freaking mind.

Just that story you all said. But every guard in here loves watching Shaq Mason.

Yeah.

And you know what else though? He's like Lang, man. He just, he jump set Graham.

He's gonna do it again.

And he came back and did it again. He came back and did it again. All year this year.

Respect the hell out of it, man.

Yeah.

So we get to our linchpin trade with offensive line athlete.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

You got it?

No, no, no. Did you skip? Work capacity?

Oh, I'm sorry, I skipped it.

Dude, this is—

But can we go—

can we just get—

I'm excited, man. Can we get to—

No, no, no, no.

Why not?

I got to go work capacity.

I want to get to my linchpin trade, dude. That's the linchpin trade. I'm so— I'm excited about this linchpin trade, man. See, that's another racist comment. That's, that's very— you just letting them slide today. Anyway, work capacity, who you got?

I got Kyle Long. I see at 340 pounds. The guy with a broken everything, and he's still not tired on the field. He chases every play down. I've seen him chase an interception, tear his— I saw him tear his hamstring, and he got up and finished the game chasing an interception. I've never seen him tired. Okay, okay. Neck brace, whatever.

I mean, but he's a genetic freak. He should never be tired.

I don't care.

He should never be tired. I'm just playing devil's advocate. Yes. He should never be tired.

See, there he is, dancing with the devil. If I brace, you're devil worshiping. Kyle, I don't care. Kyle is— he never gets tired. He chases everything down. I've seen him weigh as much as—

probably 304.

I don't know if I want to say this, Kyle, but no, he's weighed 350 before. Oh, my bad. I was drunk. And he still just finished and finished. So, I mean, for me, Kyle.

All right, I'm going with a little bit off the grid, but he just made his first Pro Bowl. I think he was alternate, got in the Pro Bowl this year. Joe Bitonio.

I like Joe. Jordan Toliver.

I just like him.

Nevada.

Yeah, you know, he's a workhorse. I think he's a guy that just, he shows up each and every week. And I respect guys like him that when you come out of school like Nevada, I don't care where you're drafted, if you're undrafted, if you're a first-round pick, not much is expected of you. It just is what it is. There's not a lot of tradition there. The expectations and standards are relatively low. And then you go to a city like Cleveland, which is like the Malibu of the Midwest, and it's probably a bit of a culture shock for him. Would you—

no?

No, it's too far? Okay. All right, so you go to a city like Cleveland, to an organization— You go to a city like Cleveland, to an organization—

He walks outside, how is water on fire? Why is the water on fire?

Man, you gonna stop bringing up old stuff. So anyway, there was a clip, you talk about Kyle, there was a clip from, I believe it was rookie year, runs out of interception. We ended up posting it on our Instagram.

Yeah, I remember that.

It was that moment I said, let me pay a little bit more attention to this dude. He just shows up each and every week. Now, is that part of being around like a guy like a Joe Thomas early in your career and having that type of, uh, mentor, that type of tutor that really taught you what being a pro was all about? I don't know. But I do know this: every time you turn a film on, that dude is all over the the field. But now, with that said, can I get to my linchpin? Can I talk about what I want to talk about now? You want to talk about capacity and all that type of stuff.

I want to talk about Cleveland.

Duh, who doesn't? It's like talking about Hollywood.

Yeah, you talk about it. I can't wait to get out of Cleveland. It comes up a lot.

We talk about linchpin traits. The linchpin trait for an offensive guard is this. It's the enforcer. Who on that offensive line, or who within your offensive line room at the guard position, is going to be that player that when teams from the defensive side, they're game planning for the following week, they say, "Hey, that number 65. Hey, that number 68. Hey, that number 72. We need to watch out for him." That's the linchpin trait for a guard relative to building the perfect, the most perfect offensive line athlete. I don't believe that there's anybody in today's National Football League that is a better example of that than somebody that he blew it early in the telecast here with going with Kelechi Osemele. Kelechi Osemele is my pick. He is the linchpin. He is the guy that when you turn the film on, it's go time. It's when, if I were a quarterback, and I would probably be a very good quarterback. If I were a quarterback—

No, no, no, no.

What? Let me live in my head.

Can somebody get a ball?

Can I live in my head? Can I live in my head? Let me live.

You barely throw spirals between your legs and that's the best pass you've ever thrown.

See, here's the problem right here. You just won't let me live. Let me do my thing. So I'm trying to get back to my point here of me being a Hall of Fame quarterback that just never really quite, you know, took off the way that it did. So let's just say that I was. Kelechi Osimhen is my guy that I'm saying each and every week I'm good here. He's gonna get the rest of his offensive line together. He's gonna put the offense in a position where after that first play, that ball is snapped, we're now in control of the game. Period. I think that's something that many teams are missing. We often get and see in today's game an overreliance on what's the quarterback gonna do?

Is it great? Is it great at back?

Is he gonna— And then you come out there, your first 5 plays, are throws. Your quarterback is not a tempo setter. At the end of the day, this is a physical, rough-and-tumble game. Somebody, somebody's gotta get hit in the mouth. And if you're not gonna have somebody at that guard position that's going to set the tempo, I think as an offense, as a team, you're always going to be fighting uphill. Kelechi Asomelu, he's my pick for what an enforcer is supposed to be.

That's the obvious one.

No, it's not. Yes, I think I really was off the grid and brilliant with this pick.

I see, I do. I watch Kolechi's like I'm watching a movie.

I don't care about it. It's a highlight reel.

I just like watching this game.

Like Instagram story. Yeah, I'm just gonna hit that.

Yeah, I'm new to that.

But you know, I, uh, who you got?

Okay, and now I have to go back for why I made this decision.

It's gonna be some trash.

No, okay, first off, it's gonna be some trash. It's a Hall of Famer.

Okay.

Today, right now, he'll be a Hall of Famer. Okay, so 2012, I'm watching. Remember the Steelers that take a guy, headbutt him, 2-gap? Yeah, when it was— oh shoot. Yeah, they had— when it was Deebo Harrison.

Yeah, and you have Paula Moll. Deebo Harrison and James Harrison are two different guys.

Okay, so they're playing the Ravens. Ben Grubbs is the left guard. Was a monster.

He was a very good player.

I was a big fan of it.

Yes.

New Orleans. Then he was a first-round pick. There was this little third-round pick from Iowa, Yanda.

Okay.

James Debo, he had no respect for Ben Grubbs. He was trying to run through him. Palomalu was trying to run. This is 2012. And here's this little third-rounder. That was setting the tempo, whether it was naked. I saw him falling back on nakeds, trying to clean everyone's clock. And this is when Steelers were terrifying to play.

Yes.

I mean, they probably are right now, but there was some names then.

Cam Hayward. Exactly. Hey, that's not an easy son.

Yeah, but I mean, you know, yeah, the division, it's a tough division. But with Yonda James, when he kind of worked to that side, he had a little different respect for him. Yanda, and it was because the way Yanda just fought, you know what I mean?

I respect that.

And then Paula Malu showed the same respect for him, and I was watching it, I was like, you know, Yanda was my— he's like my favorite guard, um, ever, outside of like, you know, the obvious, you know, obviously Larry Allen. But just Yanda, the things he brought to like bringing that kind of space and that tackle set, I just love mindset.

Yeah, but he wasn't soft though. No, wasn't soft.

Oh, because they were, oh, that's— he set soft, get on him quick. No, like, no, he set right because He's stopping everybody. But when he has an opportunity versus those 3-4 defenses to tee off on the nose, on the nose, or to tee off on the 4-eye.

Yeah, he's doing it.

He's doing it. Yeah. And all that—

he's big.

All that. He's like, collection. He's just shooting scary.

Just to me, that sounds very—

sounds racist, right?

Dang it.

But he's just a big dude. Yonder. Yonder. You know, we might be at a grocery store together. You wouldn't know that guy just played. I agree.

You're right. Right, right. But he says just grabbing some milk. Yeah, yeah.

And people and defenders show him respect.

No, that is a fact.

And I know defenders aren't— I know defenders are scared of Kolechi, and they should be, and they should be.

Yes.

But I mean, Yanda, he's just— he's not very like intimidating looking or impressive looking. He just shows up and he's ready to fight.

If we had to go in a different direction and just could be completely off the cuff here, My list is done, your list is done. And we say fine. We went with Yonder on the first video for just, you know, the overall traits. And he was the only player that was a current player that we put on that list for skill. Now we come back and we get the guards. I wanted to pick him for skill, but I'm like, eh, I already picked him once.

Yeah.

He's the foundation. Let's kind of work our way through the bunch. Then we get to this element, this linchpin, and we go with Yonder, rightfully so once again. But if we had to go on a different route and you put me in a box where, like you said, Kelechi is an easy pick, who do we go with in today's game? In today's game, if I got out of my comfort zone of going with probably the obvious pick, we get out of one area where we go with someone that's new, this hasn't been on the list, who would we go with? Just off the cuff. I would— that's a tough one for this one. Yeah, it's a—

it's the— I believe, like, if we went classic players, I could come up with ones at every position— centers, guard, tackle— and they'd all be right. And not— I don't want to say classic, that's disrespectful. I'm— if we even went back from 2000, before 2010, there was tons of people playing offensive line.

And this is the point I'm trying to get at.

It's missing.

Yeah, that's the point I'm trying to get at, is that what you're saying— if we go back a decade, oh, we can be this guy, this guy, and this guy.

Yeah, I'll be like you or Olin or Nayland.

I can go throw names out there. Yeah. Now it's like, there's a lot of really good players, obviously, but it's like, if we had to pick that Is there one person that we say, excuse me, you take this player in today's game and you throw them back 15, 20 years ago, they would fit in in terms of the mentality? We know Kelechi does.

Yeah, I know Yonda does.

We know Yonda does. We know Larry would.

Yeah, Larry.

I believe Zach Martin would as well.

The little young guy in Indy would.

But I'm not sure if anyone's afraid of Zach Martin.

No, I don't think so either.

I don't think anyone is afraid of Larry Warford.

No, I don't think so.

I think those guys all have respect, but people were afraid of Larry Allen. I think, yes. People are genuinely afraid of Clutchy. I think defenders are genuinely afraid of Yonder. But our list gets really thin. I see Quentin Nelson. He's got that—

A rep maybe?

He's building towards that resume.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? I think this is something people overlook too with a rookie. Okay, yeah, show me year 2 and then we can talk.

Everyone has a slump that sophomore year.

It's hard.

Everyone, I mean, even you're talking about a great player.

Yes.

Something a little drama. Yes. Then they hopefully get back here.

Yes.

Hopefully they don't have PTSD.

Hopefully, right. And that's the part that I think so many people overlook is, okay, it's great. There's something— somebody left a comment on the, the second video or the first video. They were saying, well, hopefully someday you're going to be talking about, uh, Quint Nelson in the same light. I said, man, that's probably 20-plus years away. And there's so many factors that will play a role in that. Number one is staying healthy. Yeah, like, that's the hard part is just staying healthy. And then Getting through your second year, it is not easy, because everything that you didn't fix in year one that you muscled through, you tend to not fix 'em going into year two, because they really didn't hurt you. So I'm speaking from experience, they really didn't hurt you, but everything catches up to you. Like Coach Cooper at Ohio State used to always say, "It don't catch up to you until it catches up to you." Yeah. Now I didn't know what the hell he was saying until stuff started to catch up to me.

Doesn't work. It doesn't work.

It doesn't work. And so with that being said, most young players get into the league and they don't address their flaws. They just continue to build on their strengths because that's fun. Well, if he doesn't address flaws, those flaws will catch up the following year. Hopefully he fixes them, we're big fans, go forward. But the list is slim, man. And that's unnerving.

Yeah, you know, I hung out with you and some older players, you know, like I was in Chicago's older team, and then with Olin and stuff like that, it was just— that was more appreciated, you know what I mean? The guy that kind of fell on— maybe he falls on his face because he was trying to kill the guy.

Yes.

And he might miss because the guy looped, but it didn't stop him from trying to kill people. And that's, that's more scary than the guy not trying not to mess up. Absolutely. And now, you know, I believe O-line, it was more like— it was way more instinct. It is what it is. It was way more instinctual. We were trying to move people, we're trying to hurt people, whatever, within the rules of the game.

Yes. Yeah.

Now it's within the rules of the game. Let's not mess up. Let's not get beat. And it's just a mind shift.

It's a mind shift.

Yeah.

And the game is different. And, you know, we just have to ask ourselves, are we ever going to get back to that mindset? With players within the context of what we want to see moving forward. I think that's the hard part, is getting the game to continue to evolve, but players to evolve with it. You don't want to see the game to get to a particular space and players don't fit. Yeah, you want the players to fit what we're trying to get done. I think a lot of young players are paralyzed, you know, paralyzed because of the environments that they're in. And this can be an entirely different segment here that we probably should talk about at some point. It's probably a great topic, but nonetheless, this has been fun discussing guards, building the perfect offensive line athlete. We're gonna come back with tackles next and wrap up this series. And then we keep, you know, we keep talking about so many other little subtopics within this particular topic that there's so much more content coming from us here at the OLP Lounge. I had to make sure I spelled it right. O-L-P. Good job. You guys got it. Appreciate it.