Gilliam is the key to the offseason

[Hasselbeck]

If we don't draft an OT at 26 I am going to be deathly afraid of Russell Wilson surviving another season of this.

 

[Exittium]

i wanted to say Gilliam Looked like he whiffed a lot but in reality, it was sweezy doing his typical flopping around on the ground while the dlinemen run into qb/rb.

 

[CANHawk]

Always love a good A-Dog post; well informed and well thought out without being too preachy.

Fwiw, I agree that Gilliam is a guy to keep an eye on. Lots of ability and untapped potential there. A real athletic studmuffin. He's going to need a safety net though. If not Big Russell, another journeyman. I'm thinking like a Tyler Polumbus level guy; serviceable but... Yawn... Safe.

 

[Smellyman]

Remember, more often than not nowadays, the RT goes up against the best pass rushers.

Watch Mack, Miller, Avril etc.

If Gilliam is a better RT, leave him there.

 

[firebee]

Hate to be the barer of bad tidings, but Gilliam is not the key to the offseason... If you guys haven't figured it out... COMPETITION is the key to the offseason on the 0-Line. We're going young and letting the best at any given position win the job. Nobody's getting penciled in at any spot. This is a huge reason why I really don't see us bringing Okung back, unless it's on a real team friendly deal with the understanding that he might not be the starter this year.

Look at the FAs were bringing in. Almost all are younger FAs that are looking to break through and make their mark.... not any namebrand FAs that you have to pencil in somewhere because you can't afford to keep them on the bench or release them. If you're thinking that this guy should start at LT or that guy should start at RG, you haven't been paying attention to our front office the last 5 years. They're getting back to basics with the offensive line... Depth, ComPete and may the best man win. Nobody on the offensive line is going to be guaranteed a spot.

 

[titan3131]

Amen firebee.

Compete. None of this "we were good last season... Blah blah blah..."

 

[brimsalabim]

That is a big IF. He struggled at RT last season so what makes you think he can lock down the blind side this season?

 

[LickMyNuts]

Gilliam is not a left tackle.

 

[mikeak]

Gilliam's been groomed since he got here to be LT. He's the reason they ain't sweating Okung. I'm way cool with the idea. I love his progression.

Great post, pookie. Thank you.

How do you know they aren't "sweating Okung"???

From what I read they made a really strong offer - if they were so confident in Gilliam would they not have tried to keep one of the other OL players that just left???

 

[Hawks46]

Pretty much all of the OL looked better after Lewis provided a degree of stability at center and the team switched to a spread heavy offense.

To this point, Gilliam looks like a replacement level tackle. And he didn't win a starting RT job so much as Britt lost it. The goal for Seattle should be to have five OL who EARNED their starting jobs. Last year, too many of the starters were anointed by default, with predictably disastrous results.

On the current roster Seattle has exactly zero OL that should be considered valuable assets. But even on such a weak OL, I don't like the idea of any player winning a starting job by default. I want Gilliam to earn his spot, and so far, he hasn't done that.

Keep Gilliam around, give him more opportunities to win a job, but if Seattle just hands him the LT job, then something went terribly wrong this offseason.

This is a natural assumption to make, but I try not to make it. We don't know with any degree of certainty (unless folks have insider info that they haven't shared) that Britt was moved from RT because he lost the job, or because he was needed more at LG.

Anyone remember who was slated on the 1st team at LG in week 2 of TC ? Bailey. He's gone now, obviously they didn't like him. We also had Gilliam on the roster that could play RT. This switch makes sense out of necessity, but it also makes sense that Britt was pretty bad in pass protection (which Cable actually seems to care less about) so they moved him inside.

I can't make any assumptions on the OL this year as we really don't know what's going to happen. It kind of scares me in that the OL is probably going to be more in flux than it was to start last year. That could be a good thing, or a very very bad thing.

 

[McGruff]

Pretty much all of the OL looked better after Lewis provided a degree of stability at center and the team switched to a spread heavy offense.

To this point, Gilliam looks like a replacement level tackle. And he didn't win a starting RT job so much as Britt lost it. The goal for Seattle should be to have five OL who EARNED their starting jobs. Last year, too many of the starters were anointed by default, with predictably disastrous results.

On the current roster Seattle has exactly zero OL that should be considered valuable assets. But even on such a weak OL, I don't like the idea of any player winning a starting job by default. I want Gilliam to earn his spot, and so far, he hasn't done that.

Keep Gilliam around, give him more opportunities to win a job, but if Seattle just hands him the LT job, then something went terribly wrong this offseason.

This is a natural assumption to make, but I try not to make it. We don't know with any degree of certainty (unless folks have insider info that they haven't shared) that Britt was moved from RT because he lost the job, or because he was needed more at LG.

Anyone remember who was slated on the 1st team at LG in week 2 of TC ? Bailey. He's gone now, obviously they didn't like him. We also had Gilliam on the roster that could play RT. This switch makes sense out of necessity, but it also makes sense that Britt was pretty bad in pass protection (which Cable actually seems to care less about) so they moved him inside.

I can't make any assumptions on the OL this year as we really don't know what's going to happen. It kind of scares me in that the OL is probably going to be more in flux than it was to start last year. That could be a good thing, or a very very bad thing.

IIRC the rationale behind the move had nothing to do with Britt at all. It had to do with Gilliam. They really liked Gilliams and thought he was one of their 5 best linemen and wanted to get him on the field. So they put him at RT and shifted Britt to accomodate.

 

[Hawks46]

Pretty much all of the OL looked better after Lewis provided a degree of stability at center and the team switched to a spread heavy offense.

To this point, Gilliam looks like a replacement level tackle. And he didn't win a starting RT job so much as Britt lost it. The goal for Seattle should be to have five OL who EARNED their starting jobs. Last year, too many of the starters were anointed by default, with predictably disastrous results.

On the current roster Seattle has exactly zero OL that should be considered valuable assets. But even on such a weak OL, I don't like the idea of any player winning a starting job by default. I want Gilliam to earn his spot, and so far, he hasn't done that.

Keep Gilliam around, give him more opportunities to win a job, but if Seattle just hands him the LT job, then something went terribly wrong this offseason.

This is a natural assumption to make, but I try not to make it. We don't know with any degree of certainty (unless folks have insider info that they haven't shared) that Britt was moved from RT because he lost the job, or because he was needed more at LG.

Anyone remember who was slated on the 1st team at LG in week 2 of TC ? Bailey. He's gone now, obviously they didn't like him. We also had Gilliam on the roster that could play RT. This switch makes sense out of necessity, but it also makes sense that Britt was pretty bad in pass protection (which Cable actually seems to care less about) so they moved him inside.

I can't make any assumptions on the OL this year as we really don't know what's going to happen. It kind of scares me in that the OL is probably going to be more in flux than it was to start last year. That could be a good thing, or a very very bad thing.

IIRC the rationale behind the move had nothing to do with Britt at all. It had to do with Gilliam. They really liked Gilliams and thought he was one of their 5 best linemen and wanted to get him on the field. So they put him at RT and shifted Britt to accomodate.

Yup, I totally agree with this too. They had to get Gilliam playing time to see how they could handle the situation with Okung. The consensus here is that Britt is too terrible to play RT, but I'm not sure the coaching staff believes that. I wouldn't be surprised (and I actually expect) to see Britt starting at RT in TC if they can't find a viable solution at LT, and need to slide Gilliam over.

It also makes sense in the FA moves they're making. No real panic and no big offers to any of the FA LT's out there, but they've signed, and are looking at, guys that are solid in the middle and could possibly play swing Tackle. Schneider loves to hedge his bets.

 

[A-Dog]

The Seahawks weren't willing to fork over $5M guaranteed for Okung. I think that says a lot about their belief in Gilliam. FA is not over and we still have the draft, but it's looking more like Gilliam is the frontrunner to be our starter at LT.

 

[v1rotv2]

I think the reason Cable has had somewhat limited success with our OL has the do with transitioning. When someone is taken out of a role they have done for a long time they have to be trained almost from ground up. I understand that there maybe certain nuances similar to each the old role and the new but most transitions aren't as lateral as one may think. For instance the transition from guard to tackle should be easier to accomplish than say from DE to tackle. Then there are aspects of the new role that take longer become more efficient. I think that pass blocking is the toughest assignment a lineman can do. And is typically the last thing that develops when transitioning to OL. In Gilliam's case he has never be asked to pass block as a Olineman until last year. He will be better this year.

Now apply this theory to almost every Oline we have had since Cable got here. So now this scenario has been played out over and over again because we can't for some reason keep a group of players together for any length of time. Why we keep wanting to make players do things they have never done before and having to go through this process every time is beyond me.

 

[drdiags]

Just saw this tweet and figured I would add it to an existing thread on Gilliam:


[tweet]https://twitter.com/SheilKapadia/status/712346332745359361[/tweet]

 

[McGruff]

Just saw this tweet and figured I would add it to an existing thread on Gilliam:


[tweet]https://twitter.com/SheilKapadia/status/712346332745359361[/tweet]

In other words, Gilliam would be our starting Left Tackle.

 

[vin.couve12]

Reposting for emphasis.

 

[vin.couve12]

Just saw this tweet and figured I would add it to an existing thread on Gilliam:


[tweet]https://twitter.com/SheilKapadia/status/712346332745359361[/tweet]

Given his trend of extreme improvement in his first year, this could be a very good thing. I don't know that a 1st round pick would beat him for the job.

 

[vin.couve12]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/gbellseattle/status/712351210154536960[/tweet]

Kind of what I thought all along, but that could obviously change. Either way, it seems like this line is shaping up a lot like the 2013 line.

 

[vin.couve12]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Garry_Gilliam/status/712345926761754624[/tweet]


OK, I'll slow my roll on the spam...