BECOMING A LINEMAN IN THE NFL ISN’T EASY
Harris, Polumbus and Garcia reflect on breaking in with the Broncos
The three things Ryan Harris remembers most about his NFL draft day in 2007 are — in this order — “The Godfather” series, that neighbor who showed up almost hourly to ask whether he had been drafted yet and an impromptu trip to Dairy Queen.
“That was when the first round was like 6K hours,” Harris recalled. “So I was going to watch ‘The Godfather’ movies — just the first one, and I thought by then the first round would be done and I’d be in action. I watched two ‘Godfather’ movies, and then I left the house to avoid my neighbor. I was on my way to Dairy Queen — linemen and Dairy Queen, man — and I got a call on the way there.”
On the other end was Mike Shanahan, then the coach of the Broncos, and Ted Sundquist, then the Broncos’ general manager. Both congratulated Harris on being selected in the third round and becoming the newest, freshest face on the team’s offensive line.
Harris’ life changed in an instant that day, and he expected it to. But just how much it changed, as a rookie lineman trying to adapt to the size, the speed and the accompanying mind games of the pros — well, nothing could fully prepare him.
“No, not really,” former Broncos offensive tackle Tyler Polumbus agreed. “You get through that first week of (organized team activities) and you’re just swimming like crazy, mentally and physically.”
The learning curve for offensive linemen is steep — arguably the steepest among NFL positions — as rookies are forced to overhaul almost everything they know physically and mentally to work with four others in unison every practice, every play, every game.
Denver is in desperate need of a left tackle and could select one in the first round of Thursday’s draft with the intent of making him an immediate starter. A few names have already been labeled potential fits — Wisconsin’s Ryan Ramczyk, Utah’s Garett Bolles and Alabama’s Cam Robinson most prominently.
For any rookie, though, becoming a pro lineman isn’t easy. Take it from those who have done it.
Confidence is key
It wasn’t until Polumbus reached the pinnacle of the game that he realized how little he really knew about football. The former 6-foot-7, 305-pound lineman was signed by the Broncos as a college free agent in 2008 after a career at Colorado.
He had the size that couldn’t be taught and the smarts to make good use of it.
“But the mental aspect of the pro game and learning what it’s like to be in the building for 10, 12 hours a day every day and realizing how much more there is to know about football was huge,” he said. “And then the confidence side of it — realizing, yes, everybody here is the best I ever went against, but there’s a reason why I’m on this field as well.”
His mind needed more adjustment than his frame. His early days as a pro were consumed with one-on-one battles in practice and then personal battles in his head. He was the kid among men.
It wasn’t until midway through his first training camp when he started to feel more confident in his ability and place on the team, which was solidified when he made the final roster. He didn’t lose every battle. He wasn’t berated by coaches every day. He wasn’t just the new guy.
“Guys are going to test you because they need to know how you react in unfavorable situations, which is going to be 70 percent of the game that you play, whether that’s at Oakland or at New England on a Monday night,” Harris said. “The offensive line is very unique in that five players have to play together and really know each other to succeed.”
Polumbus played little his rookie season but started eight games at right tackle in 2009.
Harris became a full-time starter by his second season, but it wasn’t until his third NFL year that the gravity of each game was felt.
“Confidence can come in a lot of different ways, and it’s something they have to have to be successful as an offensive lineman in the NFL,” Harris said. “At the end of the day, though, what choice do you have? If you’re going against Von Miller, you better have confidence, or he’s going to eat you alive.”
Max Garcia, the Broncos’ fourth-round pick in 2015 out of Florida, didn’t have the luxury of time. After playing nearly every position on the Gators’ offensive line the two years before, he was thrust into a starting role at guard against the Patriots 12 weeks into his rookie season. Last year he started every game and was one of only two players, with center Matt Paradis, to play every offensive snap.
“I never played 16 games in the NFL before, or ever,” he said. “That kind of took its toll on me, so now I know how to prepare my body physically and mentally because it is a long season.”
In Year 3, when many linemen come into their own, Garcia faces another line shuffle in a new system with new coaches, and the prospect of becoming the reliable veteran at age 25. The job of a lineman rarely gets easier.
A different game
It’s around this time every year when talk of evaluating players coming from the oft-used spread offense in college is revived. Toss out the factors of size, speed and experience and you’re left with this basic fact: College linemen typically learned a completely different game from what they’re hired to play in the pros.
“The spread offense, it just doesn’t translate,” Harris said. “It’s as if you’re speaking Spanish and you’re going some place that speaks Italian. There are some things that are similar, but on the whole, it’s a completely different language.”
The spacing is different in the running game. The required footwork and angles at the line differ too. The awareness needed to face linebackers who can play the run first and then quickly adjust to cover the slot can be overwhelming.
“Sometimes linemen don’t even know how to put their hand in the dirt,” Garcia said. “They’re going at a two-point stance the whole game, which, in the NFL, you have to get your hand in the dirt and run block out of that and be able to pass protect out of that as well because defenses are so good at reading your stance and getting tipped off by that.”
New Broncos offensive line coach Jeff Davidson said the onus falls on the coaches to develop and hone the technique of younger players.
“I see guys as a blank canvas because of the fact that maybe he has the attributes that you are looking for,” he said. “There are certain things that I look for in an offensive lineman. If I see that and know that I can develop what that is, obviously I’m going to be a little more excited about those guys.”
But that excitement and responsibility isn’t always shared by the other 31 coaching staffs in the NFL. The emphasis, generally, is less on form and more on scheme. Meetings are for preparation of the next opponent and the next game plan.
Teaching a new language is rarely on the agenda.
“It’s very little about technique and actually getting better at your job because for the most part, you’re the best in the world at what you do,” Polumbus said. “Whereas in college, it’s almost the opposite — you spend 90 percent of your time on technique and getting better as a football player and very little on your opponent and X’s and O’s.”
Harris started his college career at Notre Dame under head coach Tyrone Willingham and finished under Charlie Weis. But it was his offensive line coach, John Latina, whom Harris credits for fine-tuning his technique and giving him a workable foundation in the pros.
“Even in Weis’ system, I didn’t even have to learn a playbook,” Harris admitted. “I didn’t have to learn a playbook for two years. Not only do guys have to learn a playbook (in the NFL), but then they have to apply what they’re learning — which is a skill they haven’t exercised sometimes for five years — but they’re doing it against guys who are bigger and faster.”
Putting it all together
The first word is always the same. Ask a lineman about the biggest challenge of adapting to the pro game, and he likely will echo Harris’ answer: “Speed, speed, speed.”
The game is faster. Plays are called faster. Time to read a defense is minimal. Time to learn a system is down to weeks, with only OTAs and limited camp time before preseason games begin. Time to adapt to the life and required physicality of the game, when defensive linemen are standing just 7 inches from your face and Justin Houston is about to make a beeline for your quarterback — well, it doesn’t really exist.
Skill-position players can often rely heavily on their athleticism and instincts. Defensive linemen can come up short for 10 plays and still turn in a performance worth lauding.
“An offensive lineman could have 58 great plays and two bad ones and it could be a terrible game,” Harris said. “It’s definitely tough to mentally understand what you’re doing, what you’re supposed to be doing and then understand where your opponents are coming from. That’s why you see the second-year guys putting it together, because they’re tying it all in.”
Last April, the Broncos drafted 6-4, 306-pound guard Connor McGovern in the fifth round. He was and is a weight-room junkie, with the size, athleticism and potential coveted by coaches. But McGovern wasn’t active for a single game last year.
The outside thinking was that something was wrong — he did something wrong, the team didn’t like him, the Broncos made a mistake drafting him.
The reality is that time is rarely accepted or afforded to NFL players, no matter where they’re drafted or which position they play. On the offensive line, however, McGovern’s so-called redshirt year is normal.
“I would say it’s abnormal for guys to play, but really even second, third round, you’ll see guys kind of take that redshirt year a lot,” Polumbus said. “It’s really only first-rounders who are expected to play their first year.”
If the newest Bronco is a firstround offensive tackle, the elation of getting that call with a 303 area code on draft day will never be forgotten. But it may quickly give way to weeks of confusion and uncertainty.
This is the life of a rookie offensive lineman. Take it from those who know.