Sporting Madness

In the last part of my interview series for this piece on left tackles at The Good Point , I present my full interview with Jason Brewer , who covers the Philadelphia Eagles for the excellent SB Nation blog Bleeding Green Nation . My previous interviews with KC Joyner and Bruce Raffel can be found here and here . Hope you've enjoyed this series! Andrew Bucholtz: What do you see the left tackle's role as in today's NFL: mostly pass protection, mostly run-blocking or a combination of the two? How would you evaluate a left tackle's importance as compared to the rest of the offensive linemen? Also, do you think this role's changed over the last decade, and if so, how so? Jason Brewer: I think that's entirely dependent on the team he's on. We all know that some teams, like the Eagles, pass more than others. However, I would say that primarily the role of a LT is be a great pass protector. The biggest reason the guy playing on the left is more important t...

Time to continue my series of supporting interviews for this piece I wrote for The Good Point on the importance of the left tackle. Today's interview subject is Bruce Raffel , editor of the excellent Ravens' blog Baltimore Beatdown . The Ravens' tackle situation is quite an interesting one; they used the first draft pick in their history in Baltimore on Jonathan Ogden , who turned out to be a great franchise LT. Recently, they brought in Jared Gaither to replace Ogden after his retirement. This year, they drafted possibly the most famous left tackle out there, Michael Oher of The Blind Side fame, 23rd overall. Raffel has some very interesting things to say about the Ravens' moves at tackle over the years, so read on! Andrew Bucholtz: How important do you consider the left tackle position, especially compared to the other positions on the offensive line? How important is a good left tackle to a team's overall success? Bruce Raffel: While the center position ...

For the last couple of weeks, I've been working on a piece for The Good Point about the importance of the left tackle in the NFL, particularly concerning the different views espoused by Michael Lewis and KC Joyner . I finished it up this morning, and editor extraordinaire Austin Kent already has it posted, so you can check it out here . It features interviews with Joyner, a famed author who also writes for ESPN and The New York Times , Brian Galliford of Buffalo Rumblings , Jason Brewer of Bleeding Green Nation and Bruce Raffel of Baltimore Beatdown . As with my previous piece for The Good Point , I got a lot of interesting information that I wasn't able to fit into the piece, so I've decided to again present extended interviews as part of my ongoing On The Ground interview series. I'll present my full interview with Joyner today, with Raffel's to come Wednesday and Brewer's on Friday. Almost of Galliford's quotes made it into the piece, so there ...