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Jeff Haynes/Associated Press

5. Brian Winters, New York Jets

4. Luke Joeckel, Seattle Seahawks

3. Kenny Wiggins, Los Angeles Chargers

2. Xavier Su'a-Filo, Houston Texans

1. Jeremy Vujnovich, Indianapolis Colts

Like I did with the tackles, in order to keep things relevant, I built my guard list based on players who are both active and starting right now. Players like Earl Watford and Oday Aboushi are hard to leave off given their performances this year, but doing it this way makes the exercise more informative going forward.

Brian Winters is not a good player, and unfortunately, Jets fans will have to deal with him for awhile after signing him to a big extension that helped reset the offensive line market last winter. Between Winters' inability to clear out any sort of space in the running game and horrible processing skills, his deficiencies are clear. There is a reason why opposing defenses can utilize diverse fronts, stunts, and throw unique blitz packages at this Jets team to easily create pressure: They are easy to confuse and their lack of physicality up front doesn't scare you enough to play the run consistently. And Winters' issues are a big part of that.

I had a hard time choosing which Seahawks guard to include on this list, as the trio of Aboushi, Luke Joeckel and Ethan Pocic has been among the worst in football this year. Joeckel has hurt this team more this season in my eyes, though, as his inability to create push is part of the reason why this offense is so one dimensional. Joeckel was hyped as a low-risk, high-upside signing coming into the year, but those who had seen his tape at guard knew that giving him a second chance was not worth the effort. While he is actually stepping back far enough when pulling now and not tripping over his teammates' feet like he did last season, Joeckel still routinely gets overpowered by stout bull-rushers and completely taken for rides by technically sound players who win the hand battle to create efficient leverage. Frankly, Joeckel just doesn't have the base traits to play guard in this league with his current body composition.

Kenny Wiggins has been forced into the starting lineup in wake of Forrest Lamp's injury this year, and while he certainly works, he just doesn't have a lot of natural tools or a base level of play strength to pull from. The effort he puts in to win reps is ugly at times but commendable, but he's an absolute zero in the ground game and can't win hat-on-hat against most NFL interior players.

Xavier Su'a Filo has some nice play strength he flashes every once in awhile, but his hand technique is so bad at this point that it doesn't really make a difference. While he doesn't have much help around him, as the Texans almost had three OL in these lists with Jeff Allen being an honorable mention among worst guards, defenders are able to get inside his body and neutralize any power advantage he has with ease at this point. He has gotten more tight hipped as the season has gone on, and quick one-gap penetrators have beaten him faster and faster.

I'm sure Jeremy Vujnovich is a great guy, but he has no business being on an NFL field at this point, and it's frankly a joke that he has started every game up front for the Colts. He has no awareness of what is going on, and no concept of keeping his head on a swivel. Vujnovich is completely blindsided by defenders, oftentimes by his direct assignments, and he ends up on the ground a lot as a result. His feet look like they are chained down to the turf at times, and he has no ability to reset or mirror a defender's movements because most of the time he's not able to process what they are doing before they beat him. The game is just way too fast for him right now, and until he shows signs that it's slowing down, I am not sure he deserves to be given all these reps.

—Ethan Young, NFL1000 offensive linemen scout