Will the current version of the O-Line last?

[Blitzer88]

Hopefully a while, but I doubt it.

 

[KiwiHawk]

We started giving up fewer sacks last year when Wilson started to deliver the ball earlier. We can interpret this to be an improvement in the OL or not depending on what point people want to make. I guess the bottom line is this is a team sport where the actions of some impact the actions of others.

Personally I think it's silly to assess this OL until we actually see it play as a part of the whole team. We won't even know who the starters will be until after training camp / pre-season. Assessing something when you haven't seen it and don't know who it will be comprised of? Silly.

We don't even know the design intent. Are they there as run blockers who also pass block or as pass blockers who also run block? Carroll's history suggests they are selected for run-blocking first and foremost. We have not indicated we will change our identity by drafting multiple running backs.

At this point I trust the people who know how these guys are playing, who know who is projected to start, and who know what role they will be asked to perform. Other than that, it's wait-and-see.

 

[Hawks46]

People need to get a grip about Britt. He's not as terrible as you think. Say what you will he's starting nearly all the games in his NFL career. That says something. According to Cable- he was solid at RT in his rookie year, Last year according to Cable he was less consistent. I have a feeling he'll be just fine at Center.

Britt reminds me of Unger, in that Unger played 2 years at guard (his 2nd was cut short because of injury), and there were people all over this board talking about how much Unger sucked, that since he wasn't a great guard that somehow meant something concerning his prospects at Center.

I hope Britt wins the job, I think he'd be an upgrade over Lewis and would bring more length to the discussion. It should be interesting to see how it all sorts out.

This is a good post.

People tend to revise history, and if you actually look at what Cable is doing, it shows some consistency.

Start off with this: coming out of college, Britt was viewed as being raw, and needing to season in the NFL due to Mizzou's OL splits and spread offense. Mizzou gets some of the best athletes in the game, and their DL is usually pretty insane as well. They typically have one of the top 3tech DT's every year in the draft. Strangely, none of their OL seem to stick, or they don't produce right away. Britt needed time to adjust. His pass protection was dismal his first year,, but he ended up being the top graded run blocking RT at the end of his rookie year. I also remember him being the highest graded OLman in that SB for us (not saying much but still).

So then they move him to Guard, which he never actually played in college. There's an adjustment period (gasp! really?) and of course fans go ballistic. Some consistencies remain; he's good at run blocking and poor in pass protection.

Moving on to Center, and his weakness will be pass protection, where Centers usually get help. He'll be an upgrade in run blocking to anyone we had last year. The only question will be line calls. Since he's the longest tenured OLman we have (yup, seriously) and he's started more games than anyone else on our line, it stands to reason he'll be better at the line calls (I exclude Hunt as he played Center more in college, but he's physically challenged as being light in the pants).

Now look at Ifedi. He was graded out as a 1st round RT. Not Guard, but Tackle. He's also a bit raw coming out of a similar offense to Britt. We need(ed) Tackles badly, yet Cable slid him inside. He learned from Britt and is putting together a plan for the future.

This is one of the reasons the coaching staff has had more patience with Britt than all of us armchair GM's. They never expected Pro Bowl level out of Britt his first year. I theorize they slid him to LG just as much out of necessity as anything else (outside of Glow, whom no one knew how good he was {and maybe didn't show well in TC his first year} our LG position was looking grim).

We don't get all the information. This is why I don't freak out about these things, until after TC. After TC last year, our OL looked pretty bad, so we slid Britt inside, went musical chairs at Center and moved Gilliam up to RT. This was done during the preseason and our OL had no continuity.

Now it looks like they're going to roll with this through TC to get continuity and see what we come up with. Our OL this year is larger and much more athletic than last year. We might go through some growing pains, but the ceiling is much higher, and our offensive skill players have more experience with a quicker passing game that we can fall back on earlier before we did ourselves a hole like last year.

 

[Hawks46]

We started giving up fewer sacks last year when Wilson started to deliver the ball earlier. We can interpret this to be an improvement in the OL or not depending on what point people want to make. I guess the bottom line is this is a team sport where the actions of some impact the actions of others.

Personally I think it's silly to assess this OL until we actually see it play as a part of the whole team. We won't even know who the starters will be until after training camp / pre-season. Assessing something when you haven't seen it and don't know who it will be comprised of? Silly.

We don't even know the design intent. Are they there as run blockers who also pass block or as pass blockers who also run block? Carroll's history suggests they are selected for run-blocking first and foremost. We have not indicated we will change our identity by drafting multiple running backs.

At this point I trust the people who know how these guys are playing, who know who is projected to start, and who know what role they will be asked to perform. Other than that, it's wait-and-see.

Good post. It's laughable some of the "analysis" we're seeing.

If you took a .net temperature check, we'd see:

Britt sucks and there's no helping him.

Glowinski is the fix at LG and a solid improvment at LG (after exactly 1 game played in the NFL)

Webb looks like a decent RT pickup (he graded out horrible for the Raiders last year in the same position)

ifedi is the 1st round OL pick we've all been craving (don't get me wrong I'm happy as hell with the pick) and he'll immediately dominate.

We know none of these for sure. They haven't even put pads on yet. Glow could flop, Ifedi could take some time to get seasoned and Webb could also flop (personally, I see more indications he'll fail than succeed...the evidence is there).

I'll worry about it after the preseason.

 

[Jville]

People need to get a grip about Britt. He's not as terrible as you think. Say what you will he's starting nearly all the games in his NFL career. That says something. According to Cable- he was solid at RT in his rookie year, Last year according to Cable he was less consistent. I have a feeling he'll be just fine at Center.

Britt reminds me of Unger, in that Unger played 2 years at guard (his 2nd was cut short because of injury), and there were people all over this board talking about how much Unger sucked, that since he wasn't a great guard that somehow meant something concerning his prospects at Center.

I hope Britt wins the job, I think he'd be an upgrade over Lewis and would bring more length to the discussion. It should be interesting to see how it all sorts out.

I remember what Unger went thru. Tobeck was another highly belittled example. Some fans struggle with seeing and enjoying player, position group and team development.

As Coach Cable shuffles his roster to train and get a look at different combinations, some in the fan base will go crazy once again during training camp. Many will be oblivious to the mandate to gather as much information as quickly as possible thru shuffling the roster. It should trigger a host of outrageous reactions, amusing objections and noise.

Unger and Tobeck PALED in comparison for any struggles that Britt has shown. Britt has been a failure/bust. No other way to slice it so far.

Hence my doubts that he will fare any better at center, with even more responsibility on his plate than he had at guard or right tackle.

Frankly my friend, I think you have twisted yourself into a pretzel. Its a lot more fun kicking back and watching Cable and company work at their craft. It all begins anew on July 30th.

 

[Aussie Seahawk]

Hi everyone.

Lots of good reading on this thread, and so many others, as usual, and I appreciate this forum so very much.

I don't remotely consider myself knowledgeable enough to comment on individual players, but I've always been a big proponent of the vital importance of the OL in general.

In essence, it seems to me that some folks think our offense is going to be so incredibly good (and geez, I hope they're RIGHT!) even IF the OL is mediocre. But surely, statistically, the better the OL, the better on average, in the long term, the offense will perform? The season is a marathon, not a sprint. Even if a good starting five gets at least semi settled on, the dreaded "j"-word (I play the APBA football game) can cause terrible havoc, and multiple shufflings/changes in lineup.

Continuity then often suffers. If good offensive numbers get posted (particularly scores - even more particularly, wins!), so often the OL does not always seem to get enough of the credit it statistically is likely due.

You can have the veritable Father, Son and Holy Ghost in ball-carrying positions (please don't get me started on that abomination "skill position" term the commentators sometimes use), but surely they will perform better more often, on average, with a better OL?

Finally, please, what attributes dictate a player is a better left or right guard or tackle, or can play both, and in particular, what makes a good center? Obviously, for starters, he handles the ball on virtually every snap...

 

[HawkGA]

I think an important thing to remember with Britt is that even after a hole opened up at the right tackle position, moving him back there was not, apparently, an option. So while I don't really trust Cable's decision making at center after last year, I do take some heart in realizing that he didn't just plug Britt into the first available spot. They went out, spent some money, and got a free agent instead.

 

[Jville]

This is going to be a huge year for Tom Cable.

Three new drafted offensive linemen added to the three drafted last year.

Three running backs drafted plus a blocking tight end.

Tom Cable OTAs Press Conference video (before the pads go on) >>> [urltargetblank]http://www.seahawks.com/video/2016/06/01/tom-cable-otas-press-conference[/urltargetblank]

Building a roster is a process.

 

[Hawks46]

I think an important thing to remember with Britt is that even after a hole opened up at the right tackle position, moving him back there was not, apparently, an option. So while I don't really trust Cable's decision making at center after last year, I do take some heart in realizing that he didn't just plug Britt into the first available spot. They went out, spent some money, and got a free agent instead.

This is a good point as well. It's typical for a rookie to struggle, especially at OT. But not putting Britt back at RT, and then thinking Webb was a better option (I personally think they like the fact that he can slide inside if needed) shows us that they see something with Britt that they don't think they can fix in pass protection on the outside.