Wayne Hunter has been perhaps the most maligned individual player in the entire league over the past two seasons. The New York Jets had to expect some drop off in performance as they tried to replace one of the best right tackles in the league, Damien Woody. However, the level to which Hunter struggled in his stead was alarming. In six starts in 2010 he amassed a -10.3 grade. In a full season of starts during 2011 he was among the bottom six graded tackles with a simply terrible -20.3 grade, which included 11 sacks allowed.
In spite of the constant rumblings of support from the Jets’ coaching staff, front office and his fellow players, the writing was on the wall. Even when the Jets’ trade for Jeff Otah fell through there was no way back for Hunter, and a hasty trade with the Rams was arranged to re-unite Hunter with former offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer in St Louis. Many observers expected Hunter to drift into anonymity, even on an offensive line that was so devoid of talent last season.
However, something incredibly unexpected has happened to Hunter. After failing so spectacularly for the Jets at right tackle, he has put in some solid performances at left tackle for the Rams this season. And they've come against some top-line pass rushers. Coming off an eight-sack performance against the Green Bay Packers on Monday night you would have thought the Seahawks' devastating defensive line would make mincemeat of the Rams' offensive line. It didn’t happen. The Rams’ offensive line surrendered only one sack, one hit and nine hurries.
This week in Marquee Matchups we’re going to take a closer look at Hunter’s struggles in New York, and what has changed in his better performances in St Louis. Is it as simple as a change of scenery?
Right-Side Struggles in New York
Outside of his performance in 2010 against Mario Williams (much talked about in the offseason), no two games highlighted Hunter’s struggles in New York better than his displays against Von Miller in Denver and Jason Babin in Philadelphia, both last season. He simply couldn’t cope with the speed and physicality that two of the best pass rushers in the league possessed. Against Denver on a Thursday night, Hunter was twice outdone for pure power by the rookie phenom Miller. Midway through the first quarter (8:33 remaining) Hunter was walked back to his quarterback, as Miller proved the age-old coaching adage that ‘low man wins'. Miller was not even especially low on this play, but Hunter was simply caught far too upright. His more crucial error in this game came with 38 seconds remaining, as again Hunter allowed Miller to get under him. In a critical situation, Hunter was too concerned with getting outside to cut off Miller's speed rush and was caught off balance by a strong punch as the Denver defender just came straight through him. Big mistakes like this in New York were an unwanted hallmark of his tenure.
In spite of his sometimes cumbersome play, speed was not necessarily a massive issue for Hunter in New York. He just couldn’t put it all together on a given play, let alone a given game. Against Jason Babin in Philadelphia he had three crucial plays (one hurry, one hit, one sack) that perhaps showed the Jets it was time to move forward in a different direction. On each pressure allowed he got out at a decent rate of knots to cut off Babin’s speed rush, but on each occasion he simply couldn’t finish the play. On his sack midway through the first quarter (8:06) he simply didn’t cut off the corner, and allowed Babin to turn for the sack. Just prior to halftime he got out quickly to start with, but this time was outmatched for speed as Babin got past his shoulder to pressure Mark Sanchez. This forced a dumpoff pass that limited the Jets to a field goal prior to the half. Then finally in the third quarter (11:29), Babin capitalized on Hunter over pursuing to the outside, exactly as Miller had done a month earlier. Unlike Miller, Babin cut all the way inside of Hunter to pressure Sanchez rather than coming straight through the middle of him.
On the big occasion you need your players to step up and keep the opponents’ big guns quiet. This was Hunter’s greatest weakness and meant he was never going to survive the offseason in the red hot media cauldron of New York — especially with the added scrutiny the arrival of Mario Williams in Buffalo generated.
Solidity on the Left Side in St Louis
As he is 10-year veteran you would have been excused for thinking Hunter would drift out of the collective conscience of NFL fans. However, after he was traded for the Rams’ own troubled right tackle Jason Smith, and found himself backing-up Rodger Saffold in St Louis, Hunter was always likely to see the field one way or the other. When Saffold was lost after only 13 snaps against the Washington Redskins during the Rams’ Week 2 victory, Hunter got his chance at redemption sooner than many would have expected. He responded immediately with a performance that left many Jets’ fans dumbfounded — he surrendered only two hurries in 31 pass blocks. Up against the Seahawks this past week he again raised his game opposite a top-line pass rusher. Coming off of a four-sack performance, and tying an NFL record for most sacks in a single half, Chris Clemons was rendered ineffective by Hunter, who again yielded only two hurries, this time on 33 pass blocks. So what has changed?
Well, on many occasions that a team plays sub-standard tackles — and you would not be alone in considering the Rams’ pairing of Hunter and Barry Richardson just that — the offensive coordinator will keep extra blockers in to help. Not so this week in St Louis. The Rams’ tight ends and backs only stayed in to block for a combined six pass-block snaps. And against Washington that number was only 14 snaps on 41 pass plays. Hunter was also rarely given help from the man to his inside, Quinn Ojinnaka. When Hunter faced Clemons he was handling him one-on-one but the Seahawk simply couldn’t make the impact almost everybody expected of him.
The Rams’ willingness to get the ball out quickly certainly helped and was a necessary response to the Seahawks’ powerful pass rush. On nine occasions Sam Bradford got rid of the ball within two seconds of the snap, but he still had the confidence to hold the ball for three seconds or more on 11 occasions. The two have built confidence in each other. The quick throws allowed Hunter's performance (alongside the rest of the offensive line) to flourish, and the resulting confidence boost must have helped him keep Clemons quiet on those slower developing pass plays. Going up against a player like Clemons — very similar to Babin and Miller with his ability to rush from a wide alignment with both speed and power — Hunter showed clear improvement over last season. He was as quick, if not quicker, to get outside against Clemons but he was under far more control this time. On a third-and-long conversion in the second quarter (5:10) Hunter showed quick feet initially to ensure he was never chasing Clemons, and then locked on and turned the defender to the back of the pocket. Just four plays later (3:16) he showed the improvement in his balance against a bullrush after meeting a wide rush. Unlike last season, where he might have folded or been driven straight into his quarterback, this time he re-gathered his feet and held up just short of his QB, and again turned Clemons to the back of the pocket. This allowed Bradford to step up into an acre of space snd get off a pass to rookie Brian Quick.
There is no doubt the Rams did an excellent job of finding plays to limit the impact of the Seahawks’ pass rush. But considering how much we have seen Hunter struggle in the past, you can’t help but be impressed by a performance like this against a pass rusher coming off such a big game.
Can a Leopard Change his Spots?
We are as guilty as any fans at piling on to players when they have bad games. It’s not always a pleasant thing to do, but you have to point out poor performances when they happen, crystallize them and point out what went wrong and why. Too often players are just tagged as failures and every performance they give written off as fitting into that pigeon hole of performance. Consequently, it is refreshing to see performances like the one we saw from Hunter last week against the Seahawks. Without being patronizing, it is a pleasure to be able to remind fans that just because a player is one of the worst in the league at their position they aren’t capable of quality performances. These players all made it to the NFL, and in Hunter’s case stuck around for a decade, for a reason.
However, I do also have to temper any excitement that Hunter might be emerging as a quality left tackle. It may happen, but in between those two good home games was a more familiar road performance against the Chicago Bears which saw Hunter yield eight hurries (1 Sk, 1 Ht, 6 Hu), principally to Julius Peppers. You need to see more consistent performances before you can anoint a player as having turned a corner, but it doesn’t hurt to tip the hat to a player when he comes up with strong performances. Particularly when they start performing in their Marquee Matchups.
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