Hog-wild about new O-line

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This article was published 05/08/2015 (4040 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

So, you say you wanted a new offensive line?

Well, you’ve got one, Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans — and then some.

With Patrick Neufeld replacing Chris Greaves at left guard last week — and, based on an impressive performance, likely doing so for the foreseeable future — the last of the old guard (literally) remaining on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers O-line has moved to the sidelines.

Greaves was all that remained of the core of a line that included fellow veterans Glenn January at left tackle and Steve Morley at, alternately over the years, right guard and centre.

Every season it seemed, things would change all around that beefy troika, but the one thing you could count on in recent years was come opening day, January, Morley and Greaves would be protecting whoever was the Bombers quarterback du jour.

But the winds of change (more like a tornado, actually, precipitated by a franchise-worst 71 sacks last season) swept away January and Morley, replaced by pricey free agents Stanley Bryant and Dominic Picard at left tackle and centre, respectively.

Rookie non-import Sukh Chungh then promptly won the right guard spot in training camp, while the right tackle spot remains — as it was last year — a revolving door, with Jace Daniels winning the job by default when free-agent Marc Dile turned out to be lousy and Devin Tyler got hurt in his only start a few weeks ago.

But through the upheaval — brought on by a need for the pass protection to get dramatically better if QB Drew Willy was going to have a chance to win this team some games in 2015 — Greaves at left guard was the one constant that remained, until last week.

Now, there had been loose talk in the off-season the Bombers front office wasn’t entirely enamoured with Greaves and GM Kyle Walters sent some feelers out to find what the market would return for a veteran non-import guard with five seasons in the CFL.

The answer was not much — or, at least, not enough for Walters to trade Greaves. So as the 2015 CFL season began, it appeared Greaves had weathered the storm that swept away Morley and January and would remain right where he’d always been — tucked between left tackle and centre on the starting line.

And that’s where he remained until last week, when head coach Mike O’Shea and offensive line coach Bob Wylie decided the line was still giving up too many sacks and still failing to generate a ground game and needed more change.

In a monument to both how quickly Chungh has adapted to the pro game and how far Greaves has fallen out of favour, the change the coaching staff decided on when Neufeld got healthy — after the latest in a litany of injuries — was Neufeld for Greaves instead of Neufeld for Chungh.

Right guard — Chungh’s position — is also Neufeld’s natural position, and the fact the Bombers were willing to move Neufeld over to the opposite guard position is testament to how well Chungh has played in his rookie season and how poorly Greaves has played in his sixth season.

Where does this leave Greaves? In the short term, it’s likely going to leave him watching from the sidelines, unless injuries — Bryant sat out practiceMonday, while Daniels didn’t finish practice — make room for him again.

While the O-line with Neufeld at left guard surrendered four sacks last week in a 23-13 win over the B.C. Lions — Winnipeg has now given up the most sacks in the CFL with 16 — the final result Thursday coupled with the best performance by the running game since Week 1 suggests Neufeld now has the left guard job until he loses it or — because this is Neufeld we’re talking about — gets hurt again.

The offensive line personnel has changed in a dramatic way this season — and the changes keep coming. The question now is whether all those changes will change the final result come November for a franchise that hasn’t seen the playoffs on anything other than TV since 2011.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek