5 things you need to know for Wednesday

Hello football fans! Here are the five things you need to know from Tuesday to start your day:

1. Using a purely grades-based approach, PFF offered up a ranking of all 32 offensive lines across the league. Starting with the Eagles at No. 1 and going through to the Seattle Seahawks at No. 32, PFF Senior Analyst Mike Renner offers up thoughts and analysis on the offensive lines, including who has points to build on and where the pure numbers approach might have missed a spot.
2. Before a Week 11 broken foot ended his season prematurely, Chicago Bears TE Zach Miller posted a career-best 87.1 PFF grade (eighth-best at the position) and had only one drop on 48 catchable targets. That said, the Bears signed Dion Sims in free agency and drafted Adam Shaheen, and saw Daniel Brown switch to tight end from wide receiver last season and perform. All those factors, plus Miller’s increased age and fragility, have the Chicago Tribune’s Brad Briggs theorizing that Miller could be the odd man out on the Bears roster.
3. The Houston Texans are reportedly excited about Braxton Miller’s chances to be the team’s primary slot wide receiver in the coming season. Miller didn’t do much as a rookie in 2016, with a PFF grade of 47.4 that ranked 113th of 115 qualifying wide receivers. He lined up in the slot on two-thirds of his 243 passing snaps played, totaling 56 yards on 154 routes run.
4. Wes Welker comparisons, anyone? The San Francisco 49ers drafted Trent Taylor in the fifth round of the draft out of Louisiana Tech, and have already started comparing the rookie to the retired star slot receiver. In the three seasons PFF has graded college football, Taylor’s receiving yards, receptions, touchdowns, targets, and routes in college all rank first.
5. Fantasy draft advice often centers on general ideas, like “draft a quarterback late” or “take the proven veteran.” PFF Fantasy’s Brandon Marianne Lee takes some of those pieces of advice and applies them to specific draft questions, like whether it makes more sense to take Tom Brady early in the draft (and a late-rounder) or Dak Prescott late (and the associated early-rounder), or whether it’s better to take a No. 2 receiver on a high-scoring team or a No. 1 on a worse offense.