We hear a lot in Packerland about zone blocking, but as this post from Smart Football details, there's a lot of noise behind the epithet of "zone". As often as not, it comes down to straightforward one-on-one blocking and communication between linemen about who should move onto the second level.

The article also examines the basic differences between inside and outside zones. If you're a bit confused about this terminology, give it a read — it's very well explained. It also contains a link to a four year-old but terrific analysis of the Colts' "pin and pull" stretch plays, which have made their way (in barely modified form) into the Packer playbook. The critical block in these stretches is thrown by the tight end — a reason why Jermichael Finlay's playing time is still limited.

It will be interesting to see if Ahman Green — should he get any playing time — can perform these zone runs more effectively than Ryan Grant.

I don't like the zone blocking shceme one bit. Especially now that it seems MM and staff don't have a clue how to run it properly. We had the best running game when Ahman was here without the ZB. I think it may be time to ditch it and acquire some big linemen for more POWER runs.

Absolutely. Lets rebuild our line for another 5 year so we can essentially change the nuance of who blocks who.

Or maybe we could just get one or two lineman that win their blocks?

I dunno. Tough call.

The funny thing is though, it's like we're still in stage 1 of rebuilding the line. So if they wanted to switch, you wouldn't see a difference anyways.

Its not that hard to switch from ZBS to an isolation gap type system.

I mean guys like Tauscher, Sitton,Clifton, and Spitz at center seem to me to be pretty much able to play that.

My question is why has MM stuck it out so long with the ZBS when the success has been minimal?

It depends on what you're looking for from your running game. We've done a good job, when we've had to run it.

When you've got Finley, Jones, Nelson, Driver, Jennings, and even Kuhn/Hall, why give over half of the snaps to Grant?

Because that's your QB down there, lying under a pile of 300-pound defenders for the 25th time this season.

That great line we had wasn't all that big.

The rebuilding of the line starts in the offseason, and as the article on the front page by Mr. Angeli points out, this process is hurting or even wasting the talent of an excellent young quarterback. Assuming the Pack doesn't rebuild the line by proven NFL players and relies soley on the draft, this could be a long process. And thats assuming that draft picks are hits. Oher might have been a good choice in '09, although I was torn between him and Raji.