by Ben Muth

After a seemingly never-ending offseason, I am excited to be back writing Word of Muth columns. For those of you who haven't read my work in the past, the general idea of the column is that I pick three teams at the beginning of the season and cover their offensive lines throughout the year. I'll focus on one team each week and break down certain aspects of the line's play from the previous game. Sometimes it's an individual player's performance, sometimes it's blocking schemes, sometimes it's even entertaining. This first column is just a broad overview of the teams I'll be looking at this year and some of things about them that interest me most.

Cleveland Browns

Cleveland has a very well regarded offensive line, but I personally haven't seen much of it. It starts with Joe Thomas, who just about everyone agrees has been a top-three offensive tackle since he was drafted third overall in 2007. He's a probable Hall of Famer and I'm looking forward to watching a lot of him this year. From what I have seen of him, the thing that separates Thomas from his peers is his balance. Watching some games from last year I was amazed at how in control and balanced Thomas was at all times. His footwork is great, so he always had a strong base, but it didn't matter if he was run blocking, pass blocking, or chasing down skinny guys on screens, he always was balanced and playing within his frame. My first impressions are, unsurprisingly, very positive.

Next to Thomas at left guard is Joel Bitonio. He was Cleveland's second-round pick last season and had, by all accounts, a great rookie year. Bitonio played tackle in college and is listed as the backup right tackle on Cleveland's depth chart, which is interesting and shows his versatility. Watching Bitonio I can certainly see the promise. He's a pretty good athlete who plays with strong natural power. He plays hard and finishes blocks well. If he builds on some of the promise he showed last year, the Browns may have the best left side in football.

At center is Alex Mack, another former high draft pick. Mack missed most of last season with a broken leg and plenty of folks in Cleveland point to his injury as a turning point when the offense, and the running game in particular, disappeared late in the season. Mack has always been regarded as an upper echelon center, and if he returns to form it will be a big boost for the Browns. The most interesting about Mack, though, may be his contract status. It seems as if this will be his last year in Cleveland; the Browns used a first-round pick on Cameron Erving as a potential replacement. Mack is 30 years old and needs to have a strong, healthy season to get one last decent contract.

The right side of the offensive line is not nearly as strong as the left side, but it's not terrible either. Right guard John Greco and right tackle Mitchell Schwartz may not be Pro Bowlers, but they're respectable and have played with each other for a couple of seasons now. Looking at FO's numbers certainly paints them in a bad light though. Cleveland was a top 10 team when running off left tackle or end (fifth and eighth in adjusted line yards) and in the bottom half of the league running to the right (18th and 29th off tackle and end respectively). If Schwartz and Greco can improve (or if Erving proves a better option than Greco), Cleveland could have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL.

Why They Were Picked In One GIF

The Browns have a lot of interesting players up front, but Joe Thomas is the guy that I really want to see. That play up there is as good as it gets from a left tackle. The line is sliding away so he has no help and he has to kick out to wide rusher Jerry Hughes (who has had back-to-back 10-sack seasons). Thomas' feet are under control and efficient. He doesn't bite on the head fake inside, and when he goes to engage he sees Hughes is off balance trying to bull rush. So Thomas just calmly pushes Hughes' shoulder pads into the dirt. It's a nice play, but what really impresses me is how the whole thing looks so effortless.

Denver Broncos

The reason I wanted to write about the Broncos has almost nothing to with the actual offensive linemen. That feels weird to say, but it's the truth. I wanted to write about Denver because Peyton Manning and Gary Kubiak are going to be on the same sideline and I'm really excited about what that might look like. Take a look at this table from Football Outsiders Almanac 2015 to get an idea why this could be so interesting.