Which offensive lines will make or break your fantasy football team?

Football is won in the trenches, and the same can be true in fantasy. So which teams are reliable and which are red flags?

Football is won in the trenches, with big men up front setting the tone for both the offense and the defense. You might not see it with all the focus on stats and highlights, but fantasy football is often won in the trenches too.

Don’t believe me? Just take a look at last year’s big offensive line (OL) movers and shakers. Two teams invested a ton into their lines and looked ready for a big improvement: the Los Angeles Rams and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags did well enough for rookie Leonard Fournette to break out, and the Rams improvements saw Todd Gurley turn into the fantasy MVP.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Houston Texans came into the year with a holdout from LT Duane Brown while the Cincinnati Bengals looked poised for a big drop after losing several key linemen. The Texans couldn’t make any room for disappointing RB Lamar Miller, and Cincinnati’s line was as bad as expected and saw the entire offense crumble around them.

Offensive lines really matter, and sometimes they can explain an entire team’s fantasy production — or lack thereof. With a little help from Pro Football Focus (PFF) and some research around training camps and the interwebs, it’s easy enough to figure out which lines look reliable…