Since the NBA is Locked out and football is in full swing, we decided to put together our list of who we think would start on a 22-man NFL Football team consisting completely of current NBA players. We broke it down into five parts, and this is the second one. Click here for Part 1: The Defensive Front Seven.
The Offensive Line:
If you hear Offensive Lineman and think big guys who are a few dozen pounds overweight than you’re about fifteen years behind on the times. The most effective lineman these days are ridiculously fit with minimal body fat, who are super athletic, freakishly strong, and have real quick feet.
With the NFL maturing into a passing league, that first step into pass protection is never more critical than it is today for O-Lineman, and a lot of that same footwork is what makes the guys on our offensive line effective under the basket in the Association too.
So anyways, here is our offensive line made up of current NBA Players:
Right Tackle: Kendrick Perkins
Right Guard: DeJuan Blair
Center: Glen Davis
Left Guard: Samardo Samuels
Left Tackle: Zach Randolph
First of all, we will be pulling the Guards on running plays and declaring the Tackles as an eligible pass catcher down near the end-zone in some instances. So if you are a 5’10” Defensive Back just be careful when you see DeJuan Blair and Samardo Samuels gathering a full head of steam in your direction as lead blockers for the Running Back. We also expect to sneak Z-Bo out into the flat to catch a Touchdown or two as well, and the Fumble-Rooskie is something else that we do also have in the playbook but we will not let you know when we are about to run that.
This Offensive Line of NBA’ers weighs in at 271 pounds per man in case you were wondering, and stands just under 6’9″ on average across the line as well. Samuels and Randolph are each 6’9″ / 260, while Blair is 6’7″ / 265, Davis 6’9″ / 289, and Perkins is the biggest at 6’10” / 280. As a comparison, the current starters on the New England Patriots Offensive Line weigh in at an average of 313 per guy, and stand approximately 6’5″ across their line of scrimmage in protection of Tom Brady.
The Patriots only have one guy that is 6’8″ or taller (Nate Solder) and this NBA line has four guys at least that tall. Now the Patriots do have an advantage of approximately forty-two pounds per man (313 vs 271), but we think this NBA line is way quicker than New England collectively, and will be also able to keep defenders at bay with their long wingspans. Think about how your older brother used to hold the top of your head when you charged at him for an example.
The issue that we might have is that these guys could possibly obstruct the QB’s vision because they are too tall. If that does create a problem, however, the plan is then to have our QB’s drop around twenty-five yards back in the pocket, like you did in Tecmo Bowl, and create passing lanes for themselves that way. We think the QB will have all the time in the world to find somebody open, and we really like our chances with this group.
Phillip Rossman-Reich contributed to this series; tomorrow will be Part 3: The Defensive Backfield
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Photo: Yahoo! / BDL
