[Schneed10]

Offensive lines are clearly incredibly important, but PHazard's post above notes why a great QB is so much more important. Neither the Colts nor the Saints offensive lines are riddled with natural talent. They're all smart, hard working players. But they weren't protypical linemen coming out of college. Some are undersized, some aren't that quick, some are free agent castoffs, but they play well enough as a unit to allow their QBs to work. Manning and Brees didn't have the greatest lines, but Brees has enough escapability and accuracy on the run to be elite behind that line. And Manning has a knack for getting the ball out so quickly that he's elite behind his line.

When you have a Drew Brees or Peyton Manning, the offensive line doesn't need to dominate games like the Hogs. You want to talk about Redskin QBs, the reason we didn't need a dominant franchise QB is because our offensive line was DOMINANT. But look at the Saints, they don't need a dominant offensive line because their QB is dominant.

So clearly that says there are plenty of ways to build a championship team. But look at history, how many Super Bowls have been won using the Hogs formula, dominating with an offensive line with an adequate-to-good QB? How many have been won with dominating QBs but less-than-dominant lines? Bradshaw, Staubach, Montana/Young, Aikman, Brady, Roethlisberger, Manning, Brees. Some of those lines were very good and occasionally dominant, but mostly those guys played behind good-but-not-great lines. And look at how many of them won multiple times.

The elite QB just makes everything easier. They open up the secondary, teams think twice about blitzing QBs who are cool as a cucumber, elite QBs audible into successful plays to cover for their line's susceptibilities. And most importantly, they complete passes to covered receivers who most QBs wouldn't even throw to.

In history, it's a lot rarer for the offensive line to make the offense dominate than it is for the QB to make the offense dominate.