Position Overview: Offensive Line
Andy Backstrom
Staff Writer
From 1999 to 2015, Boston College had 15 offensive linemen selected in the NFL Draft. The program had 34 total draftees during that span. In other words, 44 percent of BC’s NFL Draft picks over the course of that 17-year period came from the offensive line. Back then, the Eagles boasted the “O-Line U” reputation, a title shared by a few schools that eventually slipped away from BC’s grasp.
Last summer, ESPN released a series called “Position U,” where it generated top-10 lists of the most notable schools for each position group, factoring in All-American selections, NFL Draft picks, and even a player’s approximate value over the course of their fist four pro seasons. Data was traced from the BCS and College Football Playoff era, including all players from 1998-on.
BC was nowhere to be found.
Instead, the O-Line “U” list featured both Notre Dame and ACC Atlantic Division foe Florida State. Granted BC’s offensive lines were still productive amid the latter half of Steve Addazio’s seven-year tenure, but the Eagles have stagnated, in terms of shipping guys up front off to the NFL Draft. After all, only one BC offensive lineman—right guard Chris Lindstrom—has heard his name called in the NFL Draft during the last five years.
That said, the Eagles have the pieces in place to be right back on one of those lists in years time. BC is returning four of its five starters from a 2019 unit that paved the way for the eighth-best rushing attack in college football and allowed just 13 sacks. Four starters who were each recognized on Athlon Sports’ All-ACC Preseason Teams. Not only that, but the Eagles’ 2020 recruiting class was headlined by four-star offensive tackles Kevin Pyne and Ozzy Trapilo.
If or when the 2020 season happens, BC will boast as good of an O-Line as any FBS team.
Projected Starters: LT Tyler Vrabel, LG Zion Johnson, C Alec Lindstrom, RG Finn Dirstine/Christian Mahogany, RT Ben Petrula
Biggest Questions
Who’s in the mix for the right guard job?
The only “hole” in the Eagles’ O-Line is right guard, where graduate student John Phillips started all 12 regular season games last year. Phillips was a fringe NFL prospect, yet like many players who weren’t invited to the Combine, he had to resort to a virtual Pro Day and ultimately went undrafted. Still, he was in the conversation because of what he accomplished in 2019.
A veteran anchor on the right side of BC’s line, Phillips earned First-Team All-ACC honors alongside star running back AJ Dillon. Phillips’ overall Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade of 72.5 was good for second among ACC guards pre-bowl season. He was especially effective against the pass—the 6-foot-6, 305-pound Phoenix, N.Y. native conceded just one sack and six quarterback hurries all season.
Finn Dirstine might just be the favorite to fill Phillips’ shoes. There have only been seven BC recruits in the past five years (including the 2021 class) that have received a Rivals Rating of 5.8 or higher, and Dirstine is one of them. Another Lawrence Academy product, the 6-foot-5, 312-pound guard finished high school as the 24th-best player at his position and the second-best overall Class of 2018 recruit in the state of Massachusetts. Dirstine made his collegiate debut as a true freshman during the Eagles’ season-opening rout of UMass but redshirted the season soon after that.
With Phillips, Johnson, and guys like Anthony Palazzolo and Adam Korutz ahead of him on the guard depth chart, Dirstine watched the 2019 campaign unfold from the sideline. One year older and stronger, the Acton, Mass. native will have the opportunity to fight for the starting job.
It’ll most likely be an open competition, though, as new offensive line coach Matt Applebaum and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. will probably look for the best scheme fit above all else. Christian Mahogany could very well win the position battle, too. The three-star guard redshirted last season after being rated by Rivals as New Jersey’s 30th-best prospect. He was also recruited by some schools as a tackle, a testament to his versatility in the trenches.
Of course, Applebaum, Cignetti, and Jeff Hafley could even go for a younger option, such as redshirt freshman Blerim Rustemi or true freshman Dwayne Allick.
Will the run game be just as productive without AJ Dillon?
Probably. That’s the short answer at least. It’s not a slight to Dillon but rather a reflection of BC’s returning production up front and David Bailey’s bell cow potential. However, it’s a bit more complicated of a question than you might think—simply because, as any BC fan knows, Dillon was special. Just how special? Well, check this out.
In his three-year BC career, Dillon set the program record for both career rushing yards (4,382) and touchdowns (38). Of those 4,382 rushing yards, 3,039 came after contact, according to PFF—to put that in perspective, his yards after contact alone would be good for the sixth-most rushing yards in school history, and, notably, 65 yards more than Willie Green’s career total.
The future Green Bay Packers’ second-round pick was a bowling ball on the Heights. Last year, he carried the rock 240 times with eight or more defenders in the box. No other player came within 100 rushing attempts of matching that mark, not even Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor. The offensive line certainly helped, but Dillon also broke 79 tackles.
Luckily for BC, Bailey has shown that he can be that same kind of bulldozer.
At Syracuse, the Ridgely, Md. native piled up 16 carries for 172 yards and two scores. What’s more, he forced four missed tackles and recorded a whopping 7.38 yards after contact per rush, according to PFF. Everyone beat up on the Orange during that 58-27 win, one in which BC broke the single-game program record for total yards (691). But Bailey’s physicality at the first and second level was on full display. The same could be said about his performance against N.C. State, when he churned out touchdown runs of 54 and 48 yards, while shedding four and three tackles, respectively, in the process.
There shouldn’t be much of a drop off at running back. Bailey, who actually led the team in 2019 with 5.7 yards per rush, was more of a 1B option at tailback last year than a backup. He’s lost four pounds since and appears to be in tip-top shape. There’s no reason why the offensive line—led by Petrula, a four-year starter, and Johnson, who blocked for the triple-option at Davidson before transferring—shouldn’t be creating the same kinds of running lanes this time around. The question is, though, can Bailey bounce off defenders game in and game out while racking up 20-plus carries a week? Assuming Pat Garwo III isn’t used quite like Bailey was last year, Bailey will be looking at a much more demanding workload in 2020.
The running game’s power could hinge on his ability to routinely make defenders miss a few yards past the line of scrimmage in order to provide a potentially pass-compromised offense much-needed chunk plays. There’s no doubt the O-Line will put him in position to do so.
Andy Backstrom
Staff Writer
From 1999 to 2015, Boston College had 15 offensive linemen selected in the NFL Draft. The program had 34 total draftees during that span. In other words, 44 percent of BC’s NFL Draft picks over the course of that 17-year period came from the offensive line. Back then, the Eagles boasted the “O-Line U” reputation, a title shared by a few schools that eventually slipped away from BC’s grasp.
Last summer, ESPN released a series called “Position U,” where it generated top-10 lists of the most notable schools for each position group, factoring in All-American selections, NFL Draft picks, and even a player’s approximate value over the course of their fist four pro seasons. Data was traced from the BCS and College Football Playoff era, including all players from 1998-on.
BC was nowhere to be found.
Instead, the O-Line “U” list featured both Notre Dame and ACC Atlantic Division foe Florida State. Granted BC’s offensive lines were still productive amid the latter half of Steve Addazio’s seven-year tenure, but the Eagles have stagnated, in terms of shipping guys up front off to the NFL Draft. After all, only one BC offensive lineman—right guard Chris Lindstrom—has heard his name called in the NFL Draft during the last five years.
That said, the Eagles have the pieces in place to be right back on one of those lists in years time. BC is returning four of its five starters from a 2019 unit that paved the way for the eighth-best rushing attack in college football and allowed just 13 sacks. Four starters who were each recognized on Athlon Sports’ All-ACC Preseason Teams. Not only that, but the Eagles’ 2020 recruiting class was headlined by four-star offensive tackles Kevin Pyne and Ozzy Trapilo.
If or when the 2020 season happens, BC will boast as good of an O-Line as any FBS team.
Projected Starters: LT Tyler Vrabel, LG Zion Johnson, C Alec Lindstrom, RG Finn Dirstine/Christian Mahogany, RT Ben Petrula
Biggest Questions
Who’s in the mix for the right guard job?
The only “hole” in the Eagles’ O-Line is right guard, where graduate student John Phillips started all 12 regular season games last year. Phillips was a fringe NFL prospect, yet like many players who weren’t invited to the Combine, he had to resort to a virtual Pro Day and ultimately went undrafted. Still, he was in the conversation because of what he accomplished in 2019.
A veteran anchor on the right side of BC’s line, Phillips earned First-Team All-ACC honors alongside star running back AJ Dillon. Phillips’ overall Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade of 72.5 was good for second among ACC guards pre-bowl season. He was especially effective against the pass—the 6-foot-6, 305-pound Phoenix, N.Y. native conceded just one sack and six quarterback hurries all season.
Finn Dirstine might just be the favorite to fill Phillips’ shoes. There have only been seven BC recruits in the past five years (including the 2021 class) that have received a Rivals Rating of 5.8 or higher, and Dirstine is one of them. Another Lawrence Academy product, the 6-foot-5, 312-pound guard finished high school as the 24th-best player at his position and the second-best overall Class of 2018 recruit in the state of Massachusetts. Dirstine made his collegiate debut as a true freshman during the Eagles’ season-opening rout of UMass but redshirted the season soon after that.
With Phillips, Johnson, and guys like Anthony Palazzolo and Adam Korutz ahead of him on the guard depth chart, Dirstine watched the 2019 campaign unfold from the sideline. One year older and stronger, the Acton, Mass. native will have the opportunity to fight for the starting job.
It’ll most likely be an open competition, though, as new offensive line coach Matt Applebaum and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. will probably look for the best scheme fit above all else. Christian Mahogany could very well win the position battle, too. The three-star guard redshirted last season after being rated by Rivals as New Jersey’s 30th-best prospect. He was also recruited by some schools as a tackle, a testament to his versatility in the trenches.
Of course, Applebaum, Cignetti, and Jeff Hafley could even go for a younger option, such as redshirt freshman Blerim Rustemi or true freshman Dwayne Allick.
Will the run game be just as productive without AJ Dillon?
Probably. That’s the short answer at least. It’s not a slight to Dillon but rather a reflection of BC’s returning production up front and David Bailey’s bell cow potential. However, it’s a bit more complicated of a question than you might think—simply because, as any BC fan knows, Dillon was special. Just how special? Well, check this out.
In his three-year BC career, Dillon set the program record for both career rushing yards (4,382) and touchdowns (38). Of those 4,382 rushing yards, 3,039 came after contact, according to PFF—to put that in perspective, his yards after contact alone would be good for the sixth-most rushing yards in school history, and, notably, 65 yards more than Willie Green’s career total.
The future Green Bay Packers’ second-round pick was a bowling ball on the Heights. Last year, he carried the rock 240 times with eight or more defenders in the box. No other player came within 100 rushing attempts of matching that mark, not even Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor. The offensive line certainly helped, but Dillon also broke 79 tackles.
Luckily for BC, Bailey has shown that he can be that same kind of bulldozer.
At Syracuse, the Ridgely, Md. native piled up 16 carries for 172 yards and two scores. What’s more, he forced four missed tackles and recorded a whopping 7.38 yards after contact per rush, according to PFF. Everyone beat up on the Orange during that 58-27 win, one in which BC broke the single-game program record for total yards (691). But Bailey’s physicality at the first and second level was on full display. The same could be said about his performance against N.C. State, when he churned out touchdown runs of 54 and 48 yards, while shedding four and three tackles, respectively, in the process.
There shouldn’t be much of a drop off at running back. Bailey, who actually led the team in 2019 with 5.7 yards per rush, was more of a 1B option at tailback last year than a backup. He’s lost four pounds since and appears to be in tip-top shape. There’s no reason why the offensive line—led by Petrula, a four-year starter, and Johnson, who blocked for the triple-option at Davidson before transferring—shouldn’t be creating the same kinds of running lanes this time around. The question is, though, can Bailey bounce off defenders game in and game out while racking up 20-plus carries a week? Assuming Pat Garwo III isn’t used quite like Bailey was last year, Bailey will be looking at a much more demanding workload in 2020.
The running game’s power could hinge on his ability to routinely make defenders miss a few yards past the line of scrimmage in order to provide a potentially pass-compromised offense much-needed chunk plays. There’s no doubt the O-Line will put him in position to do so.
