6 Best Guards and Centers Hitting the Market This Offseason Part 1

BY ADAM GREENE

Interior offensive lineman are often overlooked and underrated, but if you want to win a championship, or keep Aaron Donald from putting a baby into your quarterback that will be born hungry and mad in nine months, you need to make sure you have a serviceable unit up front.

As coveted as edge rushers and edge blockers are, nothing disrupts an offense more than surrendering pressure on the inside. I’ve compiled a list of the six best available guards and centers primed to hit the market and your line-poor team should look at signing five of them. Ignore that sixth guy. Really.

We’ll get to that.

1. JOE THUNEY, GUARD, UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENT

6-5, 308 pounds, 27 years old, PFF Grade: 77.4

Thuney has been keeping defensive linemen and linebackers out of Tom Brady’s face for the last four seasons since the team drafted him in the third round out of North Carolina State. In those four years, he’s never missed a start.

Thuney has six or more solid years ahead of him and a team should have no issues, with his resume and health history, of laying down the appropriate contract and add him to their squad for the next four seasons.

Where he should end up: Los Angeles Chargers

If the Chargers are in the market for Tom Brady, and after Monday’s announcement of a conscious uncoupling with Philip Rivers they should be, it would be smart to beef up the offensive line required to keep a 43-year-old quarterback upright and alive. L.A.’s best guard, Michael Schofield, is hitting free agency this offseason and their other starter, Dan Feeney, had a 51.7 grade from PFF. Bringing back Schofield and his 63.8 PFF grade might make sense, but only on the right side. The Chargers need a major upgrade on the left and Thuney takes care of that for the next presidential administration.

2. BRANDON SCHERFF, GUARD, UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENT

6-5, 315 pounds, 28 years old, PFF Grade: 75.0

After starting all but two games his first three years in the league, Scherff has been banged up the last two for the Washington Redskins. The No. 5 overall choice in 2015, the Skins used their fifth-year option to keep him on the team in 2019. After getting just 11 games from him and a new regime led by Ron Rivera coming in, it’s unlikely he’ll be back.

Scherff did make his third Pro Bowl this last season in spite of finishing up on injured reserve. A team signing Scherff is rolling the dice a little. He’s an elite guard, one of the best in the league, but have these last two years been aberrations or is he going to be one of those guys that stays on and off the injury list for the next few seasons until his career wraps up way too early?

Where he should end up: Cincinnati Bengals

I made the argument in my 6 best offensive tackles list and stand by it, if the Bengals are going to invest in a No. 1 overall rookie quarterback, they need to build a stellar offensive line around him.

I know Scherff is a risk, but I think he’s worth it and with the right contract language and incentives, he (and Castanzo) would lock down the left side of the line for the foreseeable future.

That guy with the high PFF grade your team should avoid signing at all costs shows up in Part 2.

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