How bad is the Redskins' offensive line?

(this is part of the 30 questions/30 days series on the 2009 Washington Redskins)

At the end of last season, the Redskins’ offensive line was a mess. Chris Samuels was hurt, Randy Thomas was hurt, Stephon Heyer was limping and Jon Janson was overmatched. Jason Campbell had no chance against aggressive defenses like Baltimore, who battered him at will. When the team didn’t seriously address the position (beyond the signing of Derrick Dockery to replace Pete Kendall, who had replaced….Derrick Dockery) during the draft or free agency, a lot of people thought it was a really dumb idea. Count me as one of them.

When the Washington Post declares the line a “train wreck” two days into training camp, it’s an indication of two things: the Post can be a tad…reactionary, and they’ve still got problems.

The biggest problem is that the line is old. Samuels, center Casey Rabach and Thomas are all on the wrong side of 30, which is young for a person but old for an offensive lineman. The advantage is they’re experienced; the bad news is that they’re battered and more susceptible to injury. Rehabilitating from a neck injury, Thomas may be one stinger away from having his career ended (or worse).

The other two likely starters, Dockery and Heyer, are big question marks. Dockery was great his last year in Washington and translated that into a huge contract with Buffalo. Two years later, he’s back, released because his performance just wasn’t that good. Coach Jim Zorn seems to love Heyer, but he hasn’t shown much to inspire confidence that he’s a solid NFL player.

That’s why right tackle is the biggest problem on a problem-plagued offensive line. If Heyer proves to be incapable of handling the job, the ‘Skins’ options are limited. One is former No.1 draft pick Mike Williams out of Texas, who has been out of football for two years and needed to lose 100 pounds to get down to 345. Concerns about his ability to pass block have already appeared a mere week into camp, which was something he had trouble with when he was supposedly an elite lineman. If the Williams experiment fails, Carolina castoff Jeremy Bridges is the likely replacement.

With a bunch of young players with no experience backing up at every other position, the Redskins have precisely no margin for error this season. If the offensive line remains healthy (and Heyer can play), they should be competent. If there are any injuries, disaster looms.