About Us myCNN 4. In the old days an offensive line would stay together for five years, maybe longer. Free agency has ended that.
Linemen move around now if they're young and skilled, going wherever they can earn big bucks.
An unsettled line, manned by marginal and hopeful players, can cause an offense to be torn apart, especially a quarterback. Just ask the Colts' Jim Harbaugh. Last season the Patriots broke his nose in one game and wrenched his knee in another. The Bills bruised and battered him with six sacks. Harbaugh says that the punishment he absorbed in '96, when he was sacked 36 times, was even worse than what he suffered in his final season with the Bears in '93, when he was sacked 43 times.