Alas for the reserve strongside linebacker. He was going at about only half-speed, and so it was no surprise when Redskins second-year offensive right tackle Jon Jansen knocked the unsuspecting defender a full 5 yards off the line of scrimmage.

Robert Hicks is one of a crop of up-and-coming right offensive tackles. (Allsport)

At game speed, after all, Jansen is capable of that same kind of physically dominating performance.

If you don't believe it, break out the game tape from Washington's 24-21 loss at Indianapolis last Dec. 19, in which Jansen and Redskins right guard Tre Johnson looked like a couple of human road graders as they manhandled Colts defensive ends and linebackers. Only the injury to tailback Stephen Davis, who in the first two quarters averaged 6 yards per carry every time he ran behind Jansen and Johnson, kept the blockers' bully boy performance from producing a victory.

Following that game, Colts linebacker Cornelius Bennett acknowledged Jansen, a second-round draft choice from Michigan, might have been the best right tackle he had seen all season. Not the best rookie right tackle, mind you, the best one, period.

Seven months later, Jansen appears seven months better, ready perhaps to move into an elite class of blocker in only his second NFL season. In Redskins camp, he has already become one of the quiet young leaders on a team where the focus tends to be on loquacious older guys. In league circles, his talent and blue-collar worth ethic are universally admired.

In the big picture, he symbolizes a new breed at what is fast becoming a critical position.

"It used to be," said Carolina Panthers personnel director Jack Bushofsky, "that you looked for a big, 320-pound guy to play at right tackle. You know, a masher who could run block and maybe was decent in pass protection. But a guy needs some athleticism now to play right tackle. You just can't put a 300-pound slug over there anymore and get away with it."

For the ongoing SportsLine.com preseason series on potential "breakout" players for the 2000 campaign, the focus characteristically is on individual performers.

Given recent trends, though, the right tackle spot is becoming a "breakout" position, one that has truly grown in significance and at which the league is developing a group of standout young blockers.

About five years ago, the critical nature of pass protection on the blindside and the salary cap conspired to elevate the left tackle spot to near "skill-position" status.

Now the pendulum has swung to the opposite side, and the contracts signed this offseason alone by players like Jon Runyan (six years, $30.5 million to jump from Tennessee to Philadelphia), Willie Anderson (a six-year extension in Cincinnati worth more than $30 million in "new money"), Fred Miller ($4 million per year to leave St. Louis for Tennessee) and Adam Meadows (a $20 million deal as a restricted free agent in Indianapolis) reflect the new and higher profile for NFL right tackles.

SportsLine.com has identified several possible "breakout" players at other offensive line spots as well.

• Green Bay mauler Ross Verba, for instance, should benefit from moving inside to left guard after two years of being miscast as a tackle.
• Guard Benji Olson Tennessee is a powerful in-line blocker, and Miami counterpart and former CFL blocker Mark Dixon is not only the Dolphins' top lineman but also versatile enough to slide out and play left tackle if needed.
• Oakland center Barret Robbins should garner more recognition this season.
• Chicago snapper Olin Kreutz, mark our words, is destined to become a Pro Bowl mainstay.
• This could be the year that Philadelphia left tackle Tra Thomas gains the consistency that will allow him to approximate his potential.

No O-line position, though, has so many young players in ascendancy as the right tackle spot.

One reason for the evolution of right tackles from tenacious to technical is the preponderance of upfield pass rushers who now play defensive left end, a position once counted on to be little more than an anchor against the running game.

With upfield rushmen like Kevin Carter of St. Louis, Jevon Kearse of Tennessee and the New York Giants' Michael Strahan playing the defensive left side, offensive right tackles can no longer get by on their drive-blocking proficiency alone.

"It's still more a power game on (the right) side, but you have to be able to move your feet, too," said Jansen. "It's not all about strength, like it maybe used to be, and it's not one-dimensional."

By unofficial count, Jansen surrendered only two sacks in 1999, and he dominated Strahan in their two matchups.

He is joined in a solid group of rising young veteran right tackles by Robert Hicks of Buffalo, Carolina's Chris Terry, Meadows of Indianapolis, Kyle Turley of New Orleans and perhaps the Detroit Lions' Aaron Gibson.

Turley and, particularly Hicks, are more reminiscent of the traditional right tackles, players who prefer to grab a defender by a jugular rather than slide and mirror him in pass protection. But the two youngsters have improved dramatically as pass blockers and are still capable of locking onto a defensive end or linebacker and driving him several yards upfield.

Terry, who some people still believe will eventually move to left tackle, is, like Meadows, a very advanced technician with good feet and a sound technical base. Gibson is coming off shoulder surgery that sidelined him for his entire '99 rookie season, but is a monster in close-space or in-line situations.

Hicks, a third-year veteran who last season slimmed down to 340 pounds, might be the shape of things to come.

An imposing physical presence who made major technique advances in the past year, he is, according to two personnel directors to whom SportsLine.com spoke, the best right tackle in the AFC already. Better even, they thought, than Leon Searcy of Jacksonville, lost for the '00 season to a knee injury earlier this week.

"He's an example," said one personnel chief, "of where that (right tackle) position is headed. Pretty soon, every team is going to want a guy just like him."