Patrick Lewis

Given that he played center at Texas A&M with Johnny Football, his experience playing with a shorter mobile QB may have been a big reason why he was picked up by Pete & John.

He has looked great and has done so since filling in last year for Unger.

Knock on wood but i don't think Patrick has had any bad snaps. He's doing great.

I hope he's earned the job permanently this time. He was pretty good at center in 2014 too.

Is center a need going forward? I think Lewis might have solved that problem.

Hasselbeck":13e4jp85 said:

Is center a need going forward? I think Lewis might have solved that problem.

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I agree. I think he has solidified the position. Now it comes down to what the front office wants to do with Okung. Even if we keep Okung not a bad idea to get a tackle in the off season.

He's taken a while but I'm now a believer.

Hasselbeck":e5dbpcz7 said:

Is center a need going forward? I think Lewis might have solved that problem.

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LG, RT and resigning RG and/or LT are all bigger issues :lol:

Haven't paid much attention, but how has Gilliam been doing at RT? Haven't heard much about him which must mean he's doing fine....right?

Hustle_Wilson":3rsiu4b2 said:

his experience playing with a shorter mobile QB may have been a big reason why he was picked up by Pete & John.

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I would wager a not-insignificant amount of money that this never even entered PC&J's minds.

Hawk-Lock":3ja259xp said:

Haven't paid much attention, but how has Gilliam been doing at RT? Haven't heard much about him which must mean he's doing fine....right?

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From what I can tell he's been pretty solid. He had a good game going up against Elvis Dumervil this last week. Him and Okung are getting great help with how much more the TE/WR's are chipping on the ends on their way out into routes. When done well, this makes a huge difference in pass pro.

Hawk-Lock":2zen6nxk said:

Haven't paid much attention, but how has Gilliam been doing at RT? Haven't heard much about him which must mean he's doing fine....right?

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Specifically watched him on a couple plays and did fairly well.

kearly":1jf9ksu2 said:

I hope he's earned the job permanently this time. He was pretty good at center in 2014 too.

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I was so confused when he wasnt the starter...I had thought he did good when he played last year and then they just hand it to a rookie, like WTF

WilsonMVP":2ivi5km8 said:

kearly":2ivi5km8 said:

I hope he's earned the job permanently this time. He was pretty good at center in 2014 too.

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I was so confused when he wasnt the starter...I had thought he did good when he played last year and then they just hand it to a rookie, like WTF

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Not only was he not the starter, he barely even got into preseason games.

I think Cable was hell bent on finding another JR Sweezy .. really puzzling that they didn't go to Lewis from the beginning. You wonder how the first part of the year may have gone with much more stability on the line.

kearly":2r43k9zw said:

I hope he's earned the job permanently this time. He was pretty good at center in 2014 too.

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I won't put it past Cable to give Nowack or someone else a chance to unseat Lewis, if that other player can run the 40 a tenth of second faster than Lewis or something like that, no matter how unskilled they are as a center.

If there is any chance that the planets might align and the ark of covenant is found and pigs begin to fly and that player might, after weeks or even seasons of failure, turn into a better center than the very solid center that Lewis already is, Cable will be tempted to play him. Even if it ruins the team's season in the present. PC has already shown that he won't stop it from happening. Never underestimate Cable's desire to be labeled a genius, and this is his chosen method to achieve that.

Good Grief :34853_doh:

I sure wish we could depersonalize these outbursts? They convey nothing about the team or season.

Might as well blame global warming.

With regards to Lewis and Nowak, my all too abbreviated view of the competition at center between the two of them is as follows.

In 2014 there were 4 different men who started at center. The one man that stuck out in my eyes was Patrick Lewis. He stood out because he was so different in contrast to the center Tom Cable built his line around when he first joined Pete Carroll. Lewis was different because, although he was not as athletic or as long as Max Unger, he was stout at the point of attack. And even though second level blocking lessened and his range was limited, one could see the appearance of a stouter pass pocket and more leveraged push for the inside run game.

In August of 2015, Lewis returned slower and heavy legged to my eye. He was not called out over weight and conditioning concerns like Alvin Bailey but he had plenty of work to do to get in better competitive shape IMO. And they did already know what they had in Patrick while he worked in the background. In December, a quicker Patrick Lewis with better range returned to the starting lineup. He became more assertive with line calls and more consistent with his play. He is playing with heighten confidence. He is good to go for a strong finish to this season. Although, Lewis is undersized in a league where big men beat up on small men. He will also become a (restricted) free agent in 2016.

Back in August, Drew Nowak was in shape to compete. He was the conversion project they wanted to look at. He had no contested experience at center and, he also had nothing in the way of accrued (cap) seasons. Nowak has the longer frame so his upside looked inviting. It should be noted that Nowak and Lewis are both viewed as less athletic than the other linemen on the team. Their strength and grit are why they are in Seattle as centers.

Regardless of who starts, both Lewis and Nowak represent a distinct departure from what they had in a longer, more athletic and accomplished Max Unger. The line blocking has changed. It's all about tradeoffs. More power in the middle and a stiffer pocket are the gains that, for the moment, justify concessions in other areas. I am enjoying this ongoing journey and hope many fellow 12s are as well. :th2thumbs: Keep grinding Tom Cable and company. Win forever!

Go Hawks!

Hawk-Lock":2jvjlsio said:

Haven't paid much attention, but how has Gilliam been doing at RT? Haven't heard much about him which must mean he's doing fine....right?

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He has improved over the year and PFF has rated him positively, namely in the Ravens and Steelers games.

+2.4 vs BAL
+5.4 vs PIT (2nd highest rated RT of the week)

If the o-line continues to play as well as they have been playing for the rest of the season and into the playoffs I can see PC/JS sticking with this group for next year. Signing Okung is a must unless you get a steal in the draft who can come in right away and replace him which will be hard given the 3*nd(lol) in the draft.

Tom Cable LOVES Sweezy. So much that in the offseason he went as far as saying he is the best RG in the game. Obviously that isn't true in reality but he is good enough to keep the starting job and seems to get better every year especially as the season progresses.

Britt will be in his 3rd year with the team and 2nd year at LG. We haven't heard his name being called as much the past several weeks which is a good thing. I think most people are still up in the air about him given his brief history with us at RT and now LG. I think this is another case of where Pete rolled the dice on a player that no one thought was worthy the draft position he was taken in but then with a little coaching and some patience by this staff he might be turning into our LG that we have needed. Pete was wrong about Nowak and he made the change. I feel he would have made the same change at LG with one of our draft picks at the same time if he didn't see progression he had hoped for.

Gilliam. hhmmm. This may be the one area where we might go out and spend the money on or a draft pick if Pete finds a guy who he thinks can play better than Gary. I say that only bc Gilliam was thrusted into that position out of need bc Britt could handle it. He may just be a stop gap until we fight the RT of the future. With that being said, he has shown that he can man that RT spot the last few weeks, but lets see what he does when we have to play the Rams and AZ the last two weeks and also when we have to play the Panthers in the playoffs.

Its hard to get any kind of realistic idea of what this staff doesn't going into the offseason in regards to the offensive line. They literally went from the worst O-line in the league and almost history to playing lights out and near the top of the league after the break.

Will they keep up this level of competition that we have seen since the bye week or is this just a product of playing some bad defenses with no pass rush.

hard to tell.

Jville":2yloqv98 said:

Good Grief :34853_doh:

I sure wish we could depersonalize these outbursts? They convey nothing about the team or season.

Might as well blame global warming.

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But isn't this the place to vent like Missing_Clink did? Not like he called Cable low rent names, etc.

WilsonMVP":1is264qh said:

kearly":1is264qh said:

I hope he's earned the job permanently this time. He was pretty good at center in 2014 too.

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I was so confused when he wasnt the starter...I had thought he did good when he played last year and then they just hand it to a rookie, like WTF

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Just another instance of PC thinking he is smarter than he actually is. It's high risk high reward thinking. It's what got us to the promised land from such a hell hole that mora and holmgren left us. But now that that the Hawks have arrived it about maintaining and it's time to moderate the risk. Simply can't afford any more drafts like 13 & 14 or Ike giving the center job to nowack. If Lewis had started from the get go we would be battling for the division