The most important offensive linemen to know in the 2023 Pac-12 season
As we continue our preview of the 2023 college football season in the Pac-12 conference, we are going to shift our focus from individual teams to individual positions. The last several weeks have been spent picking apart each school out west, finding where they improved the most over the offseason, and identifying what realistic expectations should be for them going forward.
You can see them all here: Arizona Wildcats — Arizona State Sun Devils — California Golden Bears — Colorado Buffaloes — Oregon State Beavers — Stanford Cardinal — UCLA Bruins — USC Trojans — Utah Utes — Washington Huskies — Washington State Cougars
Now, we’re going to look at position groups as a whole in the conference. Whether it’s a quarterback or a linebacker, a punter or a safety, there are dozens of highly talented players out west. We want to go through them all, position group by position group, and highlight some of the most important names that fans should know at each spot.
— Quarterbacks — Wide Receivers — Running Backs — Tight Ends
What is the most important position in football? I’m not here to say that it isn’t QB; it is impossible to succeed without a good QB at nearly all levels of the sport. But you can also have an elite QB and still go nowhere because of a lackluster offensive line. The “big boys up front,” as many running backs like to call them, are vital to the success of any offense, especially in the Pac-12 where passing at a high rate is the norm.
In this article, I examine 10 offensive linemen who I think will have the most impact on their respective teams in 2023. Some have been shutting down pass-rushers for years, while others are young and have just shown flashes of what they can do. They are in my opinion, the 10 most important offensive linemen to know in the Pac-12 for the 2023 season.
There aren’t a ton of stats for the offensive line, at least not basic ones or ones that are readily available. With an absence of statistics, I chose to use a few other metrics to determine the linemen to be highlighted in this article. Pro Football Focus (PFF) grades nearly every position in college football including offensive line, which was something I took into account. I also examined former All-Pac-12 team selections as well as 2023 preseason All-Pac-12 team selections when constructing this list.
Sataoa Laumea
Troy Fautanu
Justin Dedich
Jackson Powers-Johnson
Jonah Monheim
Taliese Fuaga
Joshua Gray
Jordan Morgan
Roger Rosengarten
Josh Conerly Jr.
