Florida State’s offensive line came under fire last season for its inability to consistently keep the quarterback upright in pass protection.

The Seminoles allowed 2.77 sacks per game, which ranked 106th out of 128 FBS teams, and their QB Sack Percentage (times a quarterback is sacked per passing attempt) of 7.88% was 101st nationally. The pass protection eventually picked up at the end of the year as the Seminoles entered a stretch against top-tier defensive lines such as Michigan and Florida -- FSU’s QB Sack Percentage was 4.55% in its final three games. However, the stigma from a season in which rookie QB Deondre Francois was routinely roughed up is hard to shake.

“We’re letting the quarterback get hit too much, that’s a fact. We’re leading the ACC in sacks, that’s unacceptable,” FSU center Alec Eberle said last October. “...We know all this, we know we need to get better.”

Not all of the problems with pressure fell solely on the offensive line. Francois has said that he can do a better job getting rid of the ball quicker and some miscues came from tight ends and running backs as well. But the burden of pass protection falls primarily on the offensive line, and the unit struggled in that area for a majority of the 2016 campaign. But where exactly did the breakdowns up front come from?

Below are attributed QB Sacks, QB Hits and QB Hurries per lineman from data collected by Pro Football Focus. Please note that the stats are through only the regular season (not including the Capital One Orange Bowl vs. Michigan) and we focused only on linemen who had more than 50 snaps in pass protection.

Player QB sacks QB hits QB hurries Total pressures Pass-block snaps Snap per pressure Wilson Bell 0 1 5 6 217 36.16 Roderick Johnson 2 3 8 13 464 35.69 Alec Eberle 2 1 11 14 460 30.43 Cole Minshew 0 1 2 3 64 21.30 Kareem Are 2 2 11 15 310 20.66 Landon Dickerson 3 6 4 13 252 19.38 Rick Leonard 1 1 10 12 212 17.66 Derrick Kelly 2 3 1 6 105 17.50 Brock Ruble 4 2 14 20 261 13.05

A few takeaways from the data:

--The fact RG Wilson Bell, who transferred to Auburn, was FSU’s most efficient pass blocker based on the data above is not surprising. The Seminoles’ pass protection got better when Bell entered the lineup for injured starter Landon Dickerson, although Dickerson was more aggressive and a better fit as a run blocker.

--Losing Bell and LT Roderick Johnson is tough. Statistically, these were FSU’s two most reliable blockers in pass protection. FSU should see improvements at guard given that Dickerson will enter the year with a season of experience and Cole Minshew produced well in several starts to end the season. Left tackle, however, has less proven options.

--C Alec Eberle graded out well given that he had a rookie to his immediate right more most of the season and three different starters to his immediate left. Although undersized, Eberle managed the line well. Eberle is sometimes a victim of optics -- when he gets pushed back, he often struggles to gain traction and goes back into the QB -- but the numbers show that he was fairly sound in pass pro.

--FSU needs a lot more consistency at right tackle. Combined, Brock Ruble and Rick Leonard allowed 32 QB pressures.

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