More stats to prove the Buccaneers' offensive line was awful

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the worst offensive line in the league last year. That is my firm conviction, based on watching them screw up assignments and basic blocks week after week after week. And just in case the games didn't speak for themselves, here are some more statistics.

Most short (< 2.6 seconds) sacks allowed, 2014 1. Jaguars - 32 2. Buccaneers - 24 3. Dolphins - 23 For f'n shame, Florida.

— Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) May 30, 2015

It amuses me that the Bucs weren't actually the worst in this area last year. I guess Blake Bortles' reasonable performance is pretty admirable given that lack of protection. Too bad Josh McCown couldn't overcome the constant pressure in any way.

Of course, the concern here is that Jameis Winston will face a line that has replaced the two worst offenders, but did so by signing rookies, which is not the most secure way to improve any position. Rookies are unreliable -- getting quality play out of rookie linemen is certainly not unheard of, but it's not exactly something you can count on. That's going to hurt any offense, let alone one without a reliable running game run by a rookie quarterback.

Not that that lack of protection is going to ruin Jameis Winston. The idea that getting sacked a lot can wreck a quarterback's mental approach to the game seems to be based mostly on David Carr, and there's no real reason to believe that him getting sacked a lot is why he sucked -- rather, he probably just sucked, which incidentally tends to lead to more sacks, too.