Hadn't thought of this until today, but the final game of the season against the Titans featured Caldwell, Austin and Newton quite a bit. After halftime, the line became: Brown - Smith - Austin - Caldwell/S. Smith - Winston/Newton (didn't see Butler in any of the plays)
So there is some tape out there of what it may look like next year. If anyone has a copy of that game, it may be worth it to check out the second half. I'll check TYT for it sometime this weekend. Granted having Myers at Center ought to make a big difference over Austin, we should still be able to evaluate the RG and RT play. I found a few clips of it on NFL.com that I'll link here. I'll try to explain some of these as best I can. (really wish they had slo-mo...)
1st quarter play, Tate runs for a 4 yard TD.
LINK Oline is: Brown? - W Smith - Myers - Caldwell - Winston - Dreessen
I like this play because Caldwell really helps Tate punch it in the end zone. Caldwell chips Myers guy at the line and then proceeds to take a step forward and blocks the Titans LB Whitherspoon, which stands him up, Vickers comes in late to push him back too. Tate follows right behind and bashes through the other LB to get the TD. Good power by Caldwell to push back the LB and make room for Tate to run by.
This is a bad one for Caldwell
LINK. Early 1st quarter, Caldwell is the RG, and Jurrell Casey runs right by him and sacks Yates. Iirc, this is the play that bruised Yates' shoulder. Titans bring 6 guys and Yates gets gobbled up by two of them. 99 (Casey) goes right of Caldwell, while 90 takes a step towards Winston, then stunts back to the other side of Caldwell. I'm not sure if there was a miscommunication between him and Winston or what, because he may have been trying to pass 99 off to Winston. Either way, he didn't block either guy, but Winston wasn't much help either.
2nd Q 6:35 to go, Delhomme is stripped of the ball,
LINK. Line is:
Brown - W Smith - Myers - Caldwell - Winston
Fwiw, Caldwell and Winston do a good job double teaming 1 guy at the line, but the other 4 guys get to Delhomme and force the turnover. Winston probably should have left the double team and blocked the outside guy, but Ward did try to pick him up. The sack/fumble should probably be credited against Wade Smith on this play. Brown tried to pass off the guy to Smith so he could block the outside rusher, but Smith was out of position to pick him up.
On this play:
LINK it looks like a run to the right tackle, but the line gets blown up at the snap and the Titans almost get Tate for a loss. Tate avoids the first tackle and then cuts back to the middle and runs for a 56 yard gain. Vickers made a good block on the left side to keep the lane open for him. I'm having trouble seeing the center's number, but I believe the line was setup like this:
Brown - Smith - Austin - Caldwell - Newton - Dreessen
In any case, it didn't look very good for Caldwell and Newton as they both get moved back at the snap.
4th quarter 3:48 to go, the whole o-line fails on this one,
LINK. Line setup:
Gardner - W Smith - Austin - Caldwell - Winston
Wade Smith doesn't even try to block 99 Casey coming up the middle, Austin tries to pick him up but doesn't have the position to do so and gives him an open lane to the QB. Caldwell can't hold position to create space for Delhomme to step into the pocket to avoid the two pass rushers on the edge, so there were about 4 different ways he could be sacked on this play.
Not very encouraging overall, but Eric's poor pass protection makes me less concerned that he is gone. The lack of Butler makes me wonder if was playing or inactive for the game. Seems odd, maybe Newton will be the RT next year?