"Staying the course" offensive line...

[HumanCockroach]

http://sea.247sports.com/Bolt/John-Schn ... e-43905392


Uh oh. People aren't going to be happy....

[NorthHawk]

We can only hope this past years experience will make them better.
If they start out playing like last year, it's going to get interesting.

They've gone to athletic players, but it seems to me that we had grinders who punished and bullied people up front when we won the SB. I don't see that quality there at the moment, but maybe Poole and Glowinski can get us back to that. What's the use of SPARQ numbers if they can't play the position at the NFL level?

[RiverDog]

I don't put a lot of weight in the comments of our GM about our general philosophy, at least not this time of year when as Mike Holmgren once said "everybody lies".

The fact is that last season we regressed, and the major reason for that regression was the deterioration of the offensive line. I refuse to believe that we are simply going to "stay the course" and expect everything to heal thyself.

[HumanCockroach]

You must have been watching a different football team than I if you felt they regressed throughout the year on the offensive line. I saw drastic improvement along the line, play calling and Quarterback decision making as the year wore on.

[mykc14]

I am not surprised by this at all. They have a formula and it won them a SB. They really want those young guys to develop. With that being said they have not been shy about drafting OL early in the draft so this does not mean that they won't this year. Furthermore, they have signed 'cheap' OL in FA and I could see that happening again. Like others have suggested I wouldn't be surprised to see the Big Russian back with the team.

[monkey]

http://sea.247sports.com/Bolt/John-Schneider-preaches-staying-the-course-with-offensive-line-43905392


Uh oh. People aren't going to be happy....

Nah.
I for one, expect them to continue doing what they've been doing.
The talent level on the line has been allowed to degrade, and that needs to be addressed, but as far as the overall offensive line philosophy, I fully expect that to remain the same. They will continue to get guys that are athletic, and can move well in that zone blocking system. They will continue to emphasize run blocking more than pass blocking partly because it's what Cable has always done, and partly because with Wilson's elusiveness, we can get away with it better than most teams.
The problem with the line is a lack of talent, not a need to switch the philosophy IMO.

[RiverDog]

You must have been watching a different football team than I if you felt they regressed throughout the year on the offensive line. I saw drastic improvement along the line, play calling and Quarterback decision making as the year wore on.

I was referring to the team as a whole, but I get your point.

I agree that there was a big improvement late in the season, but that ain't saying much. It went from absouletly horrid to inadequete. Even at their peak, they're still not as good as any of our units over the previous 3 seasons, and simply standing pat isn't going to cut it, especially if we don't bring back Okung and/or Sweezy. It's the area of the team with the most room for improvement.

[obiken]

River, If they don't draft an OL in the first 3 rounds, please help me not to flip out!

[RiverDog]

River, If they don't draft an OL in the first 3 rounds, please help me not to flip out!

I suspect that you won't be disappointed. But Cable hasn't done real great with our high round OL picks (Britt, Carpenter), so let's not get our hopes up too high if it happens.

[NorthHawk]

I believe it's the interior of the OL that needs to be improved.
The strategy against us is to flush Wilson out into the arms of a DE.
With a weak center (Center and Guards), the OL doesn't have much of a chance to protect the QB.
It's all about strength up the middle.

[Zorn76]

The OL "improved" when they were playing lesser competition overall. The most impressive effort was the last game @ AZ. Two weeks later, back to the same ol' thrashing when facing the Panthers.

Pete and John can stick with their philosophy all they want, but the talent just isn't there, and this particular group can't remain in tact. They've whiffed badly on their high OL picks the last several years. It's one of the few areas where they don't get a high grade.

Keep swinging away, and try to raise your OL rank from 30th to, say, 20th, lol. If the line were just decent, it's be Huge for this team. For Carroll and Schneider to say anything less than complimentary about this speaks volumes. They're also looking at a real possibility of Okung leaving (which, given his injury history, isn't worth a mega millions contract anyway). I'd rather see Glowinski in there over Sweezy, too.

Maybe this season they'll get it right.

[Hawktawk]

I think the line definitely improved midway through the season. Of course the offensive philosophy changed a little as well. They must have done something right to allow Wilson to set several team and NFL passing records. Really the line had 2 bad games the second half of the year. Unfortunately one was against the Panthers. Even then they allowed Seattle to outscore the Panthers 24 zip in the final 35 minutes. I chalk a lot of the start of that game up to the field conditions and the grueling ordeal in Minnesota a week earlier. Id line up against Carolina tomorrow and expect our line to be able to compete. Hopefully there wont be any more attrition though. It isn't currently as broken as some think. If Rawls comes back healthy I think we will be able to move the ball just fine. Even Michael ripped off some pretty good gashes the last few weeks of the season.

And honestly bad line play is a complaint by most of the teams in the league. Palmers line looked worse against Carolina than ours did. Luck got knocked silly. Brady got hit 21 times vs Denver. Rodgers was supposedly playing behind a bad line in Green Bay leading to his numbers being down. It isn't just Seattle, which is why the market for guys like Okung is going to be off the hook and someone will possibly even overpay for Sweezy. I color Okung gone and I'm ok with it strictly because the guy is a china doll who cant stay healthy. Glowinski looked OK in a short audition so maybe that's OK. Just get the center position right. Its the QB of the O line. Nowak probably cost us 2 games, maybe more. No more experiments at that position please...

[SalmonBB]

I think our line is one of the best - maybe the best - in the running game. There, smaller, athletic linemen make sense. And with a QB who can scramble, and who plays some of his best ball when scrambling, it's logical that we'd stick with a line that can run block over one that focuses on pass protection. And, they did get better at pass protection as the year wore on; not the best, but adequate.

With this said, this isn't my personal preference. I always liked hogs up front - still do. But I'm fine with a different style so long as we're winning.

Only thing that seemed as an area where there's a glaring problem to me - even towards the end of the season - was on that right side with Gary Gilliam. I like him because he's from near where we lived in PA, and he's a great human-being; but I saw him get owned enough last year to think we need a new RT. If we could get a good RT in the 2nd round of the draft, that'd be great (I'm generally not a fan of first round picks, although ET was a definite exception). Gilliam's greatest value, I think, would be to place him in as a blocking TE. He's athletic,but he's not a hoss, and you need at least a bit of hoss at the tackle position.

GO SEAHAWKS!!!

[NorthHawk]

How good is our OL running for short yardage or in the Red Zone? I honestly don't know, but I don't have much confidence in them at the moment. Not after not being able to get a first down to work the clock in a couple of games.
That's where the Hogs SBB talks about come into play. I don't think the athletic guys can get the push required for those situations.
Maybe Poole, Glowinski, and Sokoli can be one or some of those players, but they have to take a big step forward if they want to contribute this year.
I'd like to get back to the type of OL we had in 2012/2013 where we pounded on DL's until their will broke.

[RiverDog]

How good is our OL running for short yardage or in the Red Zone? I honestly don't know, but I don't have much confidence in them at the moment. Not after not being able to get a first down to work the clock in a couple of games.
That's where the Hogs SBB talks about come into play. I don't think the athletic guys can get the push required for those situations.
Maybe Poole, Glowinski, and Sokoli can be one or some of those players, but they have to take a big step forward if they want to contribute this year.
I'd like to get back to the type of OL we had in 2012/2013 where we pounded on DL's until their will broke.

I agree. Those smallish athletic types excel on 1st and 2nd down, but when teams know we have to run, they stuff us. It's been a weakness for the past two seasons and was a major factor in our 4th quarter woes early in the season when we couldn't get a first down to close out games.

[HumanCockroach]

Interestingly enough all five of Seattle's starters, as well as their backups either were "average" by NFL standards or exceeded them when it comes to size. I would be far more prone to believe that it was a combination of playcalling, formation, defenses playcalling and mental mistakes than some sort of lack of beef on the front line.

Truth is, running a dive on 3rd and one or two want successful across the board in the NFL and even less successful when using a single back shotgun formation ( something Seattle absolutely loves to run on short yardage for some unknown reason).

[curmudgeon]

Bevell, Bevell, Bevell.........

[RiverDog]

Interestingly enough all five of Seattle's starters, as well as their backups either were "average" by NFL standards or exceeded them when it comes to size. I would be far more prone to believe that it was a combination of playcalling, formation, defenses playcalling and mental mistakes than some sort of lack of beef on the front line.

Truth is, running a dive on 3rd and one or two want successful across the board in the NFL and even less successful when using a single back shotgun formation ( something Seattle absolutely loves to run on short yardage for some unknown reason).

Although it's never been great, we didn't seem to have as many problems grinding out first downs or getting a much needed yard or two on 3rd or 4th down when we had Carpenter, Unger, Breno, Miller, and McQ up front as we did this season with our current personnel, so I think to a large degree our problems are related to our personnel at least as much as it has been play calling or a general trend around the league.

[HumanCockroach]

.... And Mike Robinson lined up at FB paving the way. A single back shotgun formation with 4 receivers simply isn't conducive to a short yardage run, despite the theory many coordinators believe ( the "spread them out" theory). It's just the way it is. Even WITH those extra receivers, a shotgun formation means the RB has to gain 5 yards prior to even getting back to the line of scrimmage, giving the defense tons of time to diagnose the play correctly and attack that 5 man line with 7 or 8 defenders. Not a recipe for success whether you have five Walter Jones up there or not. Of all the boneheaded calls in the last four seasons, the insistence on continuing this standard Playcall in short yardage situations is at the top of my list of "fire Bevell" list ( followed closely by the bubble screen to slow receivers with guys like Lockett and Baldwin as the blockers).

The loss of Carpenter while accepted and even endorsed by many on this board and amongst many fans was a large blow to the "short yardage" run game, that said, this line can run block, but 5 on 7 or 8 is a losing proposition for every line in the league no matter how talented.