Numbers don't lie.

They can be manipulated, to be fair, but the metrics regarding Auburn football's offensive line don't need to be altered to demonstrate how much the unit has struggled over the last four seasons. The Tigers, as a team, haven't finished a season with a run blocking grade from Pro Football Focus that puts them in the top 50 nationally since 2020, and they've been in the top 50 for pass blocking just once — 48th in 2021.

Those lackluster performances have come after six seasons of excellent play. Auburn's average ranking in run blocking from 2014-19 was 21st, and its average slotting in pass blocking was 17th. The Tigers went 50-29 from 2014-19, won eight or more games five times and secured 10 victories in 2017.

Auburn is 23-26 since 2020, and it hasn't finished with a winning record for three consecutive seasons for the first time since the 1970s. There are a number of reasons for Auburn's recent struggles, and all of it shouldn't be pinned to the troubles of the offensive line, but there can certainly be some connections made.

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The good news for the Tigers is that they may be turning a corner, at least according to coach Hugh Freeze.

“I think we should be good there," Freeze said Thursday of his offensive line. "... We’re excited, and we’ve got some good young ones, too – at a lot of positions, really. ... I think we should be solid up front.”

Auburn's issues in blocking can be directly tied to recruiting. In the 2021 and 2022 cycles, the Tigers brought in just three offensive linemen from high school, and only one — EJ Harris in the Class of 2022 — had a 247Sports Composite rating above .9000.

Even when Auburn was consistently adding to the position, the raw talent didn't look to be there. Of the nine offensive linemen the Tigers successfully recruited through high school from 2018-20, just one had a composite rating of .8900 or higher.

Auburn has made recruiting offensive linemen a clear priority over the last three offseasons, on track to make 11 additions with six on campus from the 2023 and 2024 classes and another five verbally committed in 2025. Three of these players — DeAndre Carter in 2024 (.9255) and Tavaris Dice (.9253) and Broderick Shull (.9250) in 2025 — are above the .9000 benchmark.

Even when the composite ratings haven't been there, Auburn has been able to find success. For example, Connor Lew was given a .8903 rating in 2023, and he became the starting center midway through last season and may be the most promising offensive lineman on the roster heading into 2024.

Lew's emergence is one of the main reasons why Freeze is optimistic.

"Connor Lew is already a leader," Freeze said. "I think he's a phenomenal football player and young man, and I think he's an NFL center. We're excited about him. The snaps he did get last year as a freshman, obviously he did really, really well."

Auburn has had issues finding consistency along the offensive line over the last few years. From 2014-19, the Tigers had an average of 6.3 linemen playing 200 or more snaps on the season. Over the last four seasons, that number has ballooned to 7.5 linemen.

That may be related to a trend of routinely cycling offensive linemen that's become popular across the country over the last handful of years, but it's also due to Auburn not being able to find consistent starters who perform well enough to stay on the field.

The Tigers seemed to have found at least one constant in Lew. With the way they've added to the unit lately, more constants could be in line to emerge in 2024.

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football: How offensive line could be a strength in 2024