FanPost

Will Bradford Shine or Develop PTSD This Season? Paul Boudreau Might Be Able To Tell Us.

*If you know me you know there is going to be "strong" language in this. Read at your own risk.

SUPER LONG TITLE!

So I remember watching the draft and thought to myself "Are we going to get any offensive linemen soon?" Then we drafted Watkins and thought "That Ving Rhames looking mother fucker is going to be the entire offensive line?" Then I was ok with that. Why? Because we have Paul Boudreau as our offensive line coach. What's so good about him you may ask? Let me explain.

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Paul Boudreau. A 62 year old Boston College Graduate has been an offensive line coach for eight different NFL teams, four NCAA teams, and (most impressively) one CFL team. He has been coaching in the NFL ranks for over 25 years. THE MAN! THE MYTH! THE WALKING CLICHE! Paul "The Maul" Boudreau! Who the fuck is this guy?

Paul Boudreau has coached for the following NFL teams: The New Orleans Saints (87-93) The Detroit Lions (94-96) The New England Patriots (97-98) The Miami Dolphins (99-00) The Carolina Panthers (01-02) The Jacksonville Jaguars (03-05) That one team in Saint Louis (06-07) The Atlanta Falcons (07-11) and is now coaching the Rams again! Lets just walk down his impressive NFL career team by team.

The New Orleans Saints are known as a historically bad team but Paul did very good when he was there. During this time Paul was working with legendary NFL head coach Jim Mora. This was when the saints had that "Dome Patrol" defense led by Sam Mills. The Saints went to the playoffs in 87 (Paul's first year) and again in 91 which came with a division title. During this time Boudreau's line placed in the top three in fewest sacks allowed four times. In 1992 they led the league in fewest sacks allowed with only 15. You might be chalking this up as the effect of Hall of Fame OT Willie Roaf. You would be dead wrong since Willie Roaf was drafted in 93. Paul's O-line in 92 only let up 15 sacks with players like Stan Brock, Richard Cooper, Jim "The Brow" Dombrowski, Joel Hilgenberg, Derek Kennard, and Chris Port. All of these men combined have ONE pro bowl. Yet in 1992 this offensive line helped Bobby Hebert throw for over 3000 yards on the way to a 12-4 record. Fun fact. According to pro football reference.com the saints had their training camp at UW La Crosse up here in Wisconsin. Why they would go all the way up to Wisconsin for training camp I don't know but I found that cool since I've been there.

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Then there is the Detroit Lions of 94-96. Wayne Fontes you suck. SO ANYWAY. His offensive lines of 94-96 helped Barry Sanders rush for over 1500 yards each season. Or maybe that was Barry just being Barry. Barry Sanders is a four time NFL rushing champion. He won two, half, 50% of those championships with Paul Boudreau coaching the O-line. Barry Sanders won his first AP offensive player of the year award in 94. The first year Paul Boudreau was the offensive line coach. In 94 the two QB's who started any games for the Lions (Scott Mitchell and Dave Krieg) were sacked a combined total of only 26 times (12 for Mitchell and 14 for Krieg). in 95 Mitchell was sacked 31 times. Then in 96 Mitchell and Don Majkowski were sacked a combined 46 times. That sounds ugly but not all of them can be winners.

Moving on to the Patriots of 97-98. This was a Patriot team coached by Pete Carroll. Yeah that guy. In this season Drew "Bledsoe much" Was sacked only 30 times as Cutris Martin (who only palyed in 13 games that season) ran for over 1100 yards. The Pats finished with a 10-6 record and a division title. They were 8th in total offense that year. The next year the Pats went 9-7 losing one more game. Not to bad huh? But they let up 10 more sacks. I think that's a pretty big difference.

HOW BOUT THEM DOLPHINS! 99-00! What a fuckin nightmare! Jimmy Johnson and all of the kings men could not have helped Dan Marino and his last season in the NFL. This was Dan's last and worst season as a QB and what a sour note to end a career on as the phins barely beat the seahawks in a wildcard only to get a 62 to 7 whipping at the hands of the Jags in the divisional. Enough about all that, lets see how the O-line did. Dan Marino and Damon Huard (Who?) were sacked a combined 37 times ( 9 for Marino and 28 for Huard). The Dolphins under Marino were never a running team so don't be shocked when I tell you their leading rusher got just above the 550 yard mark. This team just sucked. Their fucking comity of like eight running backs got about 1400 yards and 8 TDs combined. Damon Huard had more rushing yards than 2 of the running backs on the team (Autry Denson and Karim Abdul-Jabbar). HA! Karim Abdul-Jabbar. People must be disappointed when they realize he isn't the good one.

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Yeah this is KARIM Abdul-Jabbar. I'm not even making this up. Look it up if you doubt me. Do you believe this shit? I feel bad for this guy. He's like the sports equivalent of Micheal Bolton from Office Space.

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God damn TPS reports and other, better athletes with the same name as me!

Then there was the Carolina Panthers of 01-02. Who could forget these years for Carolina when they were coached by George Seifert. Well a lot of people because this was a very forgettable season. The Panthers weren't so good this year as they finished 1-15 which is good (bad?) enough for 5th place in the NFC west (remember this when we had the good old central divisions). Any way on to the stats. Alright so we have two QB's again with Chris Weinke and Matt Lytle. I guess Carolina loved QB's with shitty last names back then. These two nobodies were sacked a combined 29 times (26 for Weinke 3 for Lytle). The leading rusher was Richard Huntly with 665 yards as the team totaled 1372 on the ground for the season.

Now for the 03-05 Jacksonville Jaguars. Paul at this point in his career is working with Jack Del Rio and some talented running backs. Yet again there are two QB's with major stats. Here in 03 we have Mark Brunell and Byron Leftwich (which is surprisingly not a type of sandwich.) These two guys were sacked a combined 28 times (19 for Byron and 9 for Mark). They aren't the big news though. The important part of this offense is superstar running back Fred Taylor who ran for 1572 yards and 6 TD's with an average of 4.6 yards per carry. The next year in 04 Byron and David Garrad were the two QB's playing because Brunell needed to run to Walgreens to get some more Hair Care for Men because he wanted just a touch of gray. Leftwich sacked 25 times and Garrad sacked 6 for a combined total of 31. Fred Taylor missed two games but still got over 1200 yards. Then in 05 Leftwich was sacked 23 times and Garrad 8 for another total of 31 sacks. Fred Taylor missed 5 games this season but still had 787 yards.

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You know, I have a lot more respect for Leftwich knowing that he played a college game with a broken shin.

Now for his time in St.Louis from 06-07. Marc Bulger. Sacked 49 times. OUCH. That might be bad but look on the bright side. Steven Jackson had his best season as a pro that year. 1528 yards and 13 rushing touchdowns Steven was great. Orlando Pace was on the decline and Alex Barron was on the roster. What he did with this offensive line was pretty damn good.

Now to his most recent (and some of his best) work. The Atlanta Falcons of 08-11 were great when it came to the offensive line. BOSTON COLLEGE REPRESENT IN ATLANTA! The 08 season was a good one for Matt Ryan was one of the best protected first round rookie QBs I've ever seen. For a bit more context in the 2007 season the Falcon QB's were sacked a total of 47 times. In 08? Matt Ryan was sacked only 17 times. That's a difference of 30 sacks! In 07 the falcons had all of their current O-line starters except Sam Baker. You can't tell me that Sam Baker himself accounts for a 30 sack difference. This isn't the only impressive thing. Harvey Dahl and Tyson Clabo went undrafted. Todd McClure was a seventh round pick. Paul took these guys and had them playing a pro bowl levels, but it doesn't stop there. In 2007 the Falcons leading rusher was Warrick Dunn who had 720 yards and 4 touch downs. In 08 the leading rusher was Micheal Turner who had 1699 yads and 17 touchdowns. Turner more than doubled Warrick Dunn's yardage and more than quadrupled Dunn's TD total. In 07 the ENTIRE TEAM'S rushing yardage total was 1520 yards. That means Micheal Turner beat the 07 Falcons rushing yard total by 179 yards. In 07 Warrick Dunn averaged 3.2 yards per carry which means he would have to carry the ball 56 more times to close that 179 yard gap. Oh and Turner's carry average? 4.5. That's a 1.3 yard difference. In 09 Chris Redman started 2 games and played in 4 due to injury. Him and Ryan were sacked a combined 27 times (19 for Ryan and 8 for Redman.) Turner played and started only 11 games that year but still got 871 yards and 10 touchdowns with a 4.9 yard per carry average. 2010 the Falcons won a division title with a 13-3 record and Matt Ryan was sacked only 23 times. Turner played 16 games starting 15 and had 1371 yards and 12 TD's with 4.1 yard per carry average. Then in 2011 his last year with the Falcons Matt Ryan was sacked just 26 times. Turner had 1340 yards and 11 TD's and a 4.5 yards per carry average. Talk about consistency. Every year he coached there Matt Ryan was never sacked more than 30 times in a season and was once sacked for less than 20 and Micheal Turner always averaged about 4.0 yards per carry and always had more than 10 TD's and always had more than 1300 yards when he started at least 15 games. Deal with it.

Man that was a lot so congratulations if you read it all. Now for a poll!