Byron Bell--the good

[davos]

So let's talk about the elephant in the room on the offensive line: Byron Bell

 

-99% of this board and it seems even our casual fans think he's just not a good RT.  

-He constantly gets beat by edge rushers and looks just fricken' lost at times

-He's young, I would say good depth for a team, but I just have to be missing something

 

Our staff seems to have soo much faith in the kid; even giving him a chance to start at LT this coming season.  I just want any huddler out there to be as unbiased as possible and fill me in on what apparently the majority of us are missing.  I'm no expert by any means when it comes to good offensive line play and would just love to get educated on why I should be hopeful as our staff is for this guy.  

 

Much appreciado,

Beach 

 

[jarhead]

Have to think about it.

 

[Keep Steve]

I do not even judge lineman, way too many variables that fans can't know.

[AceBoogie]

You want the good? He's cheap, he's big and most importantly he's cheap.

[Khaki Lackey]

The good? He's actually on our roster.

[Your GFs favorite huddler]

So let's talk about the elephant in the room on the offensive line: Byron Bell

-99% of this board and it seems even our casual fans think he's just not a good RT.

-He constantly gets beat by edge rushers and looks just fricken' lost at times

-He's young, I would say good depth for a team, but I just have to be missing something

Our staff seems to have soo much faith in the kid; even giving him a chance to start at LT this coming season. I just want any huddler out there to be as unbiased as possible and fill me in on what apparently the majority of us are missing. I'm no expert by any means when it comes to good offensive line play and would just love to get educated on why I should be hopeful as our staff is

for this guy.

Much appreciado,

Having played in college I'll do my best to give as unbiased an opinion on his play as possible judging from the 3 games I still have saved on my DVR, the first niners game, the saints home game, and the playoff game.

Being an offensive lineman starts from the ground up, bell has pretty quick feet for a 300LB tackle but tends to over step and get unbalanced at time. This is a coachable fix but considering how long he's been on the roster I'd like to think they'd have addressed the issue already. Playing OL is all about having a good solid base, your power comes from your legs, no matter how much you bench if you don't have a powerful base your done. If there's one very solid thing a bout Byron he has power, if he gets his hands on a defender while run blocking then they're done and often times out of the picture, however often times like I said he over steps himself causing him to get unbalanced and sloppy.

The most noticeable problem is his pass blocking. What I notice most his his lack of cutting the distance between him and the defender. Instead of stepping into the defender CUTTING THE DISTANCE between him and the DE, he steps back and allows the defender to come to him. This allows the defender to generate all the power, and set him up for moves that were so evident in the bills and playoff game. Also a coachable fix, cutting the distance and engaging the defender in pass pro, slows down the DE's advance, giving them less time to generate power to bull rush and keeping yourself balanced and powerful, with a solid base, instead of what constantly happens to bell, where he ends up starlight up and down, unbalanced, and dominated.

I don't think all hope is lost for Byron, all his downgrades are coachable fixes however in my opinion I don't see him ever being anything more than an ok RT. If he's our answer at LT I have serious concerns going forward. But I admit I'm simply a fan, I don't get paid to do this nor do I claim to be an expert. This is my humble opinion. Gman and Rivera get paid millions because they are pretty good at what they do, I respect and put faith in their decisions.

[MedellinHeel]

he is a back up RT as far as I am concerned. 

[Toundra]

I like Bell he is cheap and good enough to be a backup T

 

[MHS831]

This is what I have noticed.  In addition to everything else, it shrinks the pocket. He makes contact with the DE later than other RTs, which suggests his drop is more toward the QB than the DE.  It eliminates the guess work, frankly, if Bell drops toward the QB because that is where we all know the DE is going.  Fewer moves are effective there--or needed.  I see Bell and his man in Cam's right ear all the time.  Pisses me off.  However, I wonder if it is because he is burned too often on the LOS.

[TheNewStandard]

Bell had 13 games where he only gave up 1 sack to LEs, so saying he "constantly gets beat by LEs" is off the mark...by a lot. His roughest games were against the Bills, of course, and the Saints. You take his best game, his worst game, add in a year of seasoning including a playoff game and you'll fi fled the truth somewhere in between.

First of all, I find it highly suspect that you'd be paying so much attention and giving so much grief to an offensive lineman in the first place. Like you really sat thee and scrutinized his play, during a 12-4 season mind you, when Cam and the rest of our guys were making plays in the field.

Secondly, Bell gave up 9 more Total QB pressures, 6 more QB hits and only 3 more sacks than did Jordan Gross on the entire season and he did this going up against LEs. I say he did this against LEs because out of the top 10 pass rushers, in the league, 7 of them were LEs. If you take away the bad game against the Bills, Which was only Bell's 3rd or 4th career start, then he didn't give up any more sacks than did Gross.

Finally, Gross had the advantage of playing beside Travelle Wharton, a seasoned vet, while Bell was paired with Chris Scott and Nate Chandler who are not as experienced as the former. Bell was not only going up against more skilled pass rushers than Gross had to face, but he was doing so with inexperienced teammates, due to the loss of starting guard Kugbilia. That side of our line had a tough year but we still went 12-4 and came out ranked 16th in terms of pass protecting, despite having one I the toughest schedules in the NFL.

This will be Byron Bell's third season with the Panthers. It would be logical to suppose that he will continue to progress and develop with another season under his belt and another offseason of conditioning. The coaches say he's better suited at LT and will be paired with Amini Silatolu, who was supposed to be our starting LG in '13 but missed the better part of the year due to injury. Upgrading our line will be addressed in the draft and we should have strong competition across our line as we have a lo of bodies to decide how to get the most out of who we have. If Bell does take over LT, it will be because he earned it and I'm confident he can get the job done because not only do we go up against a weaker schedule this year, but he won't be faced with the abundance of LEs who make their living by getting sacks.

That's the good concerning Byron Bell.

[Ace_Aladdin]

 

Ron Rivera needs to hire Jordan Gross as assistant OL coach. I remember watching video on Panther.com about  gross breaking down techniques playing LT. He is a master technician that can teach the younger players already having familiarity with them.

[Mistuh Jones]

yo man that was a hell of a scouting report. dig it

[philp]

So let's talk about the elephant in the room on the offensive line: Byron Bell

 

-99% of this board and it seems even our casual fans think he's just not a good RT.  

-He constantly gets beat by edge rushers and looks just fricken' lost at times

-He's young, I would say good depth for a team, but I just have to be missing something

 

Our staff seems to have soo much faith in the kid; even giving him a chance to start at LT this coming season.  I just want any huddler out there to be as unbiased as possible and fill me in on what apparently the majority of us are missing.  I'm no expert by any means when it comes to good offensive line play and would just love to get educated on why I should be hopeful as our staff is for this guy.  

 

Much appreciado,

Beach 

 

i think the staff knows they have nothing else.  if you you lie to yourself about it long enough, you'll eventually believe it.  

[davos]

Bell had 13 games where he only gave up 1 sack to LEs, so saying he "constantly gets beat by LEs" is off the mark...by a lot. His roughest games were against the Bills, of course, and the Saints. You take his best game, his worst game, add in a year of seasoning including a playoff game and you'll fi fled the truth somewhere in between.

First of all, I find it highly suspect that you'd be paying so much attention and giving so much grief to an offensive lineman in the first place. Like you really sat thee and scrutinized his play, during a 12-4 season mind you, when Cam and the rest of our guys were making plays in the field.

Secondly, Bell gave up 9 more Total QB pressures, 6 more QB hits and only 3 more sacks than did Jordan Gross on the entire season and he did this going up against LEs. I say he did this against LEs because out of the top 10 pass rushers, in the league, 7 of them were LEs. If you take away the bad game against the Bills, Which was only Bell's 3rd or 4th career start, then he didn't give up any more sacks than did Gross.

Finally, Gross had the advantage of playing beside Travelle Wharton, a seasoned vet, while Bell was paired with Chris Scott and Nate Chandler who are not as experienced as the former. Bell was not only going up against more skilled pass rushers than Gross had to face, but he was doing so with inexperienced teammates, due to the loss of starting guard Kugbilia. That side of our line had a tough year but we still went 12-4 and came out ranked 16th in terms of pass protecting, despite having one I the toughest schedules in the NFL.

This will be Byron Bell's third season with the Panthers. It would be logical to suppose that he will continue to progress and develop with another season under his belt and another offseason of conditioning. The coaches say he's better suited at LT and will be paired with Amini Silatolu, who was supposed to be our starting LG in '13 but missed the better part of the year due to injury. Upgrading our line will be addressed in the draft and we should have strong competition across our line as we have a lo of bodies to decide how to get the most out of who we have. If Bell does take over LT, it will be because he earned it and I'm confident he can get the job done because not only do we go up against a weaker schedule this year, but he won't be faced with the abundance of LEs who make their living by getting sacks.

That's the good concerning Byron Bell.

Thanks for the good response. Hit on some good points.

I don't know why but he always jumps out to me with letting guys go by him so those numbers were way lower than I expected.

I guess what I take from it is that the areas he lacks are fixable and he's young. I mean if he excels year 3 that'd be great.