Seahawks playing with fire with unproven offensive line personnel
Matt Williamson is a former scout for the Cleveland Browns and spent the last 10 years at ESPN as a scout and co-host of "The Football Today Podcast."
The Seattle Seahawks are one of the most successful organizations in the NFL over the past several years, largely due to a great coaching staff and front office. They know what they are doing. Still, their offensive line is frightening. That isn’t anything new for this team, but some key departures might make it a riskier gamble than usual this season.
Of course, every organization has to cut corners on its roster to some degree. With today’s salary cap, you just can’t have it all. That was even true when Russell Wilson was making third-round-pick money. With the money Wilson is making now, it's even tougher to keep a great roster intact.
Clearly, there was a point when the Seahawks decided they didn't need to dedicate as many resources to their offensive line as other teams. Why would they think this? First off, they have an elite offensive line coach in Tom Cable. This organization thinks he can get more from mid-round draft picks than the average coach. They are probably right.
Seattle was also right to predict that Wilson’s great athletic ability and penchant for extending plays would make up somewhat for a talent-starved front five. This held true when Marshawn Lynch was in town as well. There aren’t many ball carriers in recent memory who can get more yardage on their own than Lynch. With an amazing defense and those two talents, you can see why trusting Cable to manufacture quality play from mediocre talents was an understandable business model.
However, the Seahawks also had Russell Okung and Max Unger for much of their successful run. Both are well above-average players (at least when healthy) and entered the league with high draft pedigree. Well, Unger was dealt to the New Orleans Saints in the Jimmy Graham trade, while Okung was allowed to leave in free agency without much resistance and took his talents to Denver. And Lynch has retired. This is now Wilson’s offense.
That is putting a lot of faith in Wilson, as well as a young stable of running backs. There wasn’t a better player in football than Wilson during the second half of the 2015 season, so it certainly looks as though he is up for the challenge. And while the offensive line last year wasn’t a star-studded unit either, it clearly got better as the season went along.
The group of running backs won’t make anyone forget Lynch, but Thomas Rawls, C.J. Prosise, Christine Michael, Alex Collins, and Zac Brooks aren't lacking for upside or ability. It will be interesting to see how the backfield roles end up playing out, but Prosise should be an ideal passing-down back and, if he is fully recovered, Rawls is a fine early-down hammer.
Greater than the sum of its parts?
Still, this offensive line is frightening. Garry Gilliam struggled as the starting right tackle last year. So what do the Seahawks do? They move him to the more difficult left side! Who will replace Gilliam at right tackle? J’Marcus Webb, who has been one of the league’s worst starting linemen since being drafted by the Chicago Bears in 2010. Bradley Sowell also could factor into the starting equation, most likely at right tackle, but he isn’t starting material. It is difficult to find a group of starting tackles that inspires less confidence in this league than this trio.
The interior is better, but not by leaps and bounds. Seattle used its late first-round selection on Germain Ifedi, a huge and talented but very raw prospect out of Texas A&M. Ifedi was very inconsistent in college and has a ton of technique work to do - and the rookie will be switching positions from tackle to right guard. There is a lot for Cable to work with here, but not a lot of time to get Ifedi ready for opening day.
The rest of the interior is just as suspect. Justin Britt was Seattle’s second-round pick in 2014 and has already faltered at tackle and guard. He is now being moved to center to compete with Patrick Lewis, who's played pretty well at the pivot. Moving Britt is curious when you consider his size, since players with his extreme height rarely do well at center. You have to wonder if this is a last-ditch effort to save his spiraling career.
The last player to mention is Mark Glowinski, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2015 draft. We haven't seen much of Glowinski to this point, so he remains a major unknown, though he does have the skills and makeup of a quality NFL starting guard. It wouldn’t be surprising if he is Seattle’s most consistent lineman at left guard, but that again requires very optimistic thinking.
As you can see, there are some movable pieces here. But unfortunately, those pieces have moved mostly because they have not yet established themselves at one specific position or stood out in a singular role. Maybe Cable and company will piece together a respectable offensive line - stranger things have happened. In the meantime, Seattle will enter the season with a position group riddled with questions and uncertainty, even before injuries surely set in throughout the year.
Then again, that really isn’t anything new for the Seahawks.