Grey Zabel looks......

[Sperrydogg]

I think the pressure got to John this draft given the fact he hasn’t been able to piece together an even league average O Line in nearly a decade. Couple that with Pete trying to get cute every single god damn draft (Penny, Eskridge, trading down) they finally went with the consensus, stood pat, and drafted the best player available at the position of dire need.

Fans, media pundits, and social media were calling for Zabel leading up to the draft. I honestly believe the organization took that into consideration. I honestly thought they would trade back and take Emmanwori with their first pick. Glad they didn’t and glad they got both.

Nice theory

 

[bileever]

Bradford looked like he was gettin' it done last night, at least on a few plays it was noticeable.

Yes! He was mowing people down. Bradford didn't look anything like he did last year.

 

[ccla]

I think the pressure got to John this draft given the fact he hasn’t been able to piece together an even league average O Line in nearly a decade. Couple that with Pete trying to get cute every single god damn draft (Penny, Eskridge, trading down) they finally went with the consensus, stood pat, and drafted the best player available at the position of dire need.

Fans, media pundits, and social media were calling for Zabel leading up to the draft. I honestly believe the organization took that into consideration. I honestly thought they would trade back and take Emmanwori with their first pick. Glad they didn’t and glad they got both.

At the end of the day the GM has to draft what the coach wants (I know John was not the GM during Pete’s run). If Pete tells you I do not need an offensive lineman, or I can do with this guy in the third round, you can argue but at the end of the day you have to get what the coach says he needs, or tells you he needs.
I don’t get all these people saying John cannot draft OL. In my opinion it was Pete that did not want to draft OL. It cannot be a coincidence that two years after Pete is gone we went from a rag team OL to something that seems well above league average (and yes, I know it is only pre-season).
I will always be grateful to Pete, but I remember the season we traded Russel I came up to Seattle and I was talking to my sister about the job only being 50% done. I really wanted Pete gone. I am grateful to him for bringing us our first Lombardi, but I will never forgive him for straying from his philosophy and destroying what could have been a dynasty.

 

[Atradees]

Imagine if we had a RG of his caliber…
I think Cabeldue can be a dominant player at RG

He was listed with an upper body injury? Hopefully, it's not a tear of something

 

[LeveeBreak]

Bradford looked like he was gettin' it done last night, at least on a few plays it was noticeable.

Bradford graded our as the #1 offensive performer on the team (92.49). Sundell was #2 (92.4).

 

[MORGULON]

grey zabels
and the horses of the righteous
Pray daily for the brave

Nice.

 

[AROS]

What impressed me most was this was still not our “A Team” OL. No Cross at LT, Olu still unavailable at C and RG is still a horse race. Still, that unit was flat out dominant. I don’t care if it was against half of the Chiefs starters. When you see scheme and coaching and execution working, you see scheme and coaching and execution working regardless of who they are going up against.

And we saw that in plain sight Friday night and even the national pundits are beginning to take notice.

 

[Jac]

What impressed me most was this was still not our “A Team” OL. No Cross at LT, Olu still unavailable at C and RG is still a horse race. Still, that unit was flat out dominant. I don’t care if it was against half of the Chiefs starters. When you see scheme and coaching and execution working, you see scheme and coaching and execution working regardless of who they are going up against.

And we saw that in plain sight Friday night and even the national pundits are beginning to take notice.

What impressed me most is that I've obviously seen holes opened up in the running game (talking league wide), and sometimes BIG holes. But in this game, they built "walled-off lanes" on a few of those runs. I'm not sure I ever recall seeing that.

 

[Ruminator]

What impressed me most is that I've obviously seen holes opened up in the running game (talking league wide), and sometimes BIG holes. But in this game, they built "walled-off lanes" on a few of those runs. I'm not sure I ever recall seeing that.

If they continue to accomplish this during the regular season, our RBs are going to put up some crazy numbers by Week 17.

 

[sutz]

What impressed me most was this was still not our “A Team” OL. No Cross at LT, Olu still unavailable at C and RG is still a horse race. Still, that unit was flat out dominant. I don’t care if it was against half of the Chiefs starters. When you see scheme and coaching and execution working, you see scheme and coaching and execution working regardless of who they are going up against.

And we saw that in plain sight Friday night and even the national pundits are beginning to take notice.

Obviously when it starts counting we are not gonna run up 250 yds/game. But if we can average 125/game we're gonna win a lot of them.

 

[Appyhawk]

What impressed me most was this was still not our “A Team” OL. No Cross at LT, Olu still unavailable at C and RG is still a horse race. Still, that unit was flat out dominant. I don’t care if it was against half of the Chiefs starters. When you see scheme and coaching and execution working, you see scheme and coaching and execution working regardless of who they are going up against.

And we saw that in plain sight Friday night and even the national pundits are beginning to take notice.

The national pundits are nothing but a school of fish and they act exactly exactly like what they are. From the end of last year up until pre-season game 2 they had us ranked as one of the lesser teams that did not make the playoffs. Now all of a sudden they all see us as a likely contender.
We had the same record as the Rams but lost to them on tiebreaker #6. That little difference kept us out of the playoffs while the Rams were suddenly SB contenders. Truth is we could have, and should have, swept the Rams last year. But we didn't so the "experts" swept us out with the trash positing us to finish last in the division this year. NOW they are abruptly changing their tune.

 

[Trackhawk]

I know you can't make a perfect evaluation of players in pre-season, but you can still recognize the beauty of a well schemed and coached line. Yes, starting D-Lines will get more out of the small errors that our line commits, but what I am seeing is way way fewer MAJOR errors by our line.

It appears that our opponents will have to take advantage of the small errors, rather than having the road to the QB and RBs paved for them

 

[Steve Hawk]

Greybull rolls off the tongue a lot better than Grey Zabel. For a rookie with 2 pre-season games under his belt you can't ask for much more.

 

[Appyhawk]

At the end of the day the GM has to draft what the coach wants (I know John was not the GM during Pete’s run). If Pete tells you I do not need an offensive lineman, or I can do with this guy in the third round, you can argue but at the end of the day you have to get what the coach says he needs, or tells you he needs.
I don’t get all these people saying John cannot draft OL. In my opinion it was Pete that did not want to draft OL. It cannot be a coincidence that two years after Pete is gone we went from a rag team OL to something that seems well above league average (and yes, I know it is only pre-season).
I will always be grateful to Pete, but I remember the season we traded Russel I came up to Seattle and I was talking to my sister about the job only being 50% done. I really wanted Pete gone. I am grateful to him for bringing us our first Lombardi, but I will never forgive him for straying from his philosophy and destroying what could have been a dynasty.

JS appears to have gravitated from best player available to best player available at position of greatest need. It works!

 

[Sperrydogg]

What impressed me most is that I've obviously seen holes opened up in the running game (talking league wide), and sometimes BIG holes. But in this game, they built "walled-off lanes" on a few of those runs. I'm not sure I ever recall seeing that.

Right the hole wasn’t just wide it was deep too

 

[oldhawkfan]

What impressed me most was this was still not our “A Team” OL. No Cross at LT, Olu still unavailable at C and RG is still a horse race. Still, that unit was flat out dominant. I don’t care if it was against half of the Chiefs starters. When you see scheme and coaching and execution working, you see scheme and coaching and execution working regardless of who they are going up against.

And we saw that in plain sight Friday night and even the national pundits are beginning to take notice.

No “A Team” yet on the oline but closer than you think. Out of the starting five from Fridays preseason game I believe that Cross is the only starter missing. Bradford has gotten most of the work at RG and I expect him to be the starter game one. Sundell is playing well at center and I think it will be his job going forward. At LG we have a rookie next to a free agent center. However, that rookie LG and second year free agent center have more experience playing together and know each other better than anyone else in the offensive lineman room. I’ve often heard that one of the things that makes an offensive line good is familiarity with each other. How many of those nice runs Friday were a result of Gray and Sundell working together?

 

[Ostatehawk]

He was listed with an upper body injury? Hopefully, it's not a tear of something

He went back in the game later so fingers crossed

 

[Ostatehawk]

Right the hole wasn’t just wide it was deep too

I’ll take “things you can’t say to your wife” for 200 Alex.

 

[Sperrydogg]

I’ll take “things you can’t say to your wife” for 200 Alex.

Yeah I thought that a second to late…