Although they are often ignored until they allow a sack or are called for holding, the offensive line consists of some of the most important players on a football team.

Profootballfocus.com took a look at offensive tackles and rated them based upon their pass blocking efficiency in an attempt to discover the best and worst tackles in the National Football League last year.

In order to determine this, profootballfocus.com used a formula that included sacks, hits and hurries.

The Arizona Cardinals had mixed results as some players fared really well while others fared about as well as the team did last season.

The Cardinals had one player rank in the top 10 in pass blocking efficiency, but they did have two players in the bottom 15 and one in the bottom two.

Starting with the good news, right tackle Jeremy Bridges ranked as the eighth best right tackle in the league last season.

Also on the right side of the Cardinals offensive line was right tackle Brandon Keith, who participated in 56 more pass-blocking snaps than Bridges.

Although Keith was in on more plays, he was not the better protector as he was the eleventh worst right tackle in the NFL a year ago in terms of pass blocking.
Left tackle Levi Brown also made the list and not for anything positive or noteworthy.

If it were not for the Chargers’ Brandyn Dombrowski, Brown would have been the worst left tackle in the league last season.

Instead, Brown ranked second.

The Cardinals do need a quarterback in 2011, but having two tackles that cannot protect the quarterback will make it hard for them to win no matter who they are able to acquire.

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