Gentlemen, because I'm obsessed with OLine play, all those re-runs I watched when plays broke down last season gave me an opinion about Ian Book and sacks --- here it is:
The article's gripe about Ian bailing out of the pocket too much is true and also untrue. These "bail-outs" almost always occurred because very early post-snap it looked as if Mustipher was going to cave and get pushed back into Ian's lap. Kraemer's side almost always looked more "unusual" than the left side, since DCs often didn't even challenge him on their rush base patterns --- Tommy would tend to swivel his head looking for work. Although that area was "safe", Ian might have noticed the confusion there and preferred to slide left anyway.
When Ian-of-the-extremely-quick-read would see this, his tendency was to take a further step back, but then fade slightly to his left. If Eichenberg was struggling with a good pass-rusher over there, one of two things might occur: A. The outside speed might get to Ian because of the step(s) back, or the inside spin or simple bull might get to him if he then stepped up (slightly) left.
In my opinion, neither Book nor Eichenberg were particularly at fault --- sure if ZMart were there Book might NEVER have been sacked, but we're talking human beings not demi-gods.
I believe that as the regular season played out, Book got cleverer in this situation, and instead trusted that Mustipher with help (Tommy often decided that this was where he was needed if Hainsey had it covered to his right) was not going to completely collapse the front center of the pocket. By residing there a bit longer, Eichenberg wasn't asked as much to do heroic things (Clemson doesn't count in this analysis for obvious DLine reasons.)
So ... Book bailing is almost the least of my concerns.
