John Benton hired as new OL coach

[SoulfishHawk]

deFRAUD

 

[Jville]

Credit Locked on Seahawks podcast >>>

 

[Chukarhawk]

Ahead of time. Fire Benton!

6 games until this starts. Guaranteed.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Yep. Shoot, first game we don't put up a 40 burger on offense.

 

[Jville]

I'm encouraged by how the competition at the center position is shaping up.

Olu Oluwatimi has got some experience under his belt and has the off season to work on improving his quickness and movement.

Jalen Sundell has shown exceptional movement skill. Versatile background and excellent football intelligence. He is definitely a fit for the improved scheme with a full off season to add core strength. His athletic movement and quickness reminds me of Connor Williams. I like him.

The return of Mike Novitsky via a futures contract was a solid indicator of the direction the blocking game is headed. Played every OL position at one time or another. Excellent athlete. Exceptional movement skills and leadership background. Adding more core strength over the off season should make him more competitive the second time around. Hind sight being 20/20, Mike's signing might have telegraphed the arrival of John Benton.

 

[Sperrydogg]

All ready having an influence. Adding the latest offensive line developmental prospect didn't take long.​

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Seahawks Sign G Sala Aumavae-Laulu To Reserve/Future Contract https://www.seahawks.com/news/seahawks-sign-g-sala-aumavae-laulu-to-reserve-future-contract​

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The Ravens closed out their 2023 NFL Draft class with a strong offensive lineman they can develop in Malaesala "Sala" Aumavae-Laulu out of Oregon in the sixth round.
Standing in at 6-foot-5, 317 pounds, Aumavae-Laulu is a very powerful blocker with a history of forklifting defenders. He takes pride in being a physical, punishing offensive lineman.
"[He is] a very, very large offensive lineman," General Manager Eric DeCosta said. "A very, very good athlete for his size. [He] can pull, can play on his feet. We look at him as a real strong developmental guy. [He has] a lot of upside potential."

View attachment 69338 https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/sala-aumavae-laulu-ravens-nfl-2023-draft

That dudes arms are bigger than my legs

 

[Sperrydogg]

All ready having an influence. Adding the latest offensive line developmental prospect didn't take long.​

​

View attachment 69339​

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Seahawks Sign G Sala Aumavae-Laulu To Reserve/Future Contract https://www.seahawks.com/news/seahawks-sign-g-sala-aumavae-laulu-to-reserve-future-contract​

View attachment 69337



The Ravens closed out their 2023 NFL Draft class with a strong offensive lineman they can develop in Malaesala "Sala" Aumavae-Laulu out of Oregon in the sixth round.
Standing in at 6-foot-5, 317 pounds, Aumavae-Laulu is a very powerful blocker with a history of forklifting defenders. He takes pride in being a physical, punishing offensive lineman.
"[He is] a very, very large offensive lineman," General Manager Eric DeCosta said. "A very, very good athlete for his size. [He] can pull, can play on his feet. We look at him as a real strong developmental guy. [He has] a lot of upside potential."

View attachment 69338 https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/sala-aumavae-laulu-ravens-nfl-2023-draft

Why did Baltimore give up on this guy

 

[Jville]

Why did Baltimore give up on this guy

He is currently listed on the Ravens practice squad as a tackle / guard until the 12th of March which marks the new league year. On that date, his now future contract signing with the Seahawkis will go into effect as a guard.

I don't know that the Ravens gave up on him as a developmental player so much as they made choices. The Ravens signed 2 younger lighter rookies (a tackle and a guard) from their practice squad to future contracts.

Seahawks will probably add another 5 or 6 linemen for training camp. We likely will see some roster churn beginning with OTAs.

 

[SeaWolv]

Athletic Article on Seahawks OLine

Left guard Laken Tomlinson started every game but didn’t play well. Veteran center Connor Williams struggled before retiring after the Week 10 bye. He was replaced by second-year center Olu Oluwatimi, who was an improvement but didn’t play at a level that should dissuade the Seahawks from attempting to upgrade the position this offseason. Four of Seattle’s five offensive line spots were “shaky at best,” said Thorn, who described the team as having “one of the bottom five or six lines in the league.”

With left tackle Charles Cross due for a potential extension and Lucas now healthy, the interior three positions are the primary points of concern.

Thorn’s top-rated true guard in the class is Tyler Booker, a two-year starter at Alabama. Despite the Crimson Tide deploying a diverse run scheme, Thorn said Booker would make sense for the Seahawks, who could use his combination of size, strength and athleticism in both the run and pass game. He also anticipates Booker winning teams over because of how he carries himself and his reputation as a good teammate.

The big fish in this year’s free-agent class is Kansas City Chiefs right guard Trey Smith, a sixth-round pick in 2021 who was voted to the Pro Bowl on the initial ballot this year and will be only 26 years old next season. Smith has a chance to become the highest-paid guard in the league, surpassing Eagles left guard Landon Dickerson’s average annual salary of $21 million.

Aside from Smith, Thorn said, there’s a second tier of impending free-agent interior linemen that includes Bears left guard Teven Jenkins (27 years old next season), Buccaneers left guard Ben Bredeson (27), 49ers left guard Aaron Banks (28), Lions right guard Kevin Zeitler (35), Steelers right guard James Daniels (28) and Cardinals right guard Will Hernandez (30).

 

[Seahawker]

A short 2/13 piece on Field Gulls titled "Seahawks have the pieces to improve O-Line."
Terms like, "In house development and improvement" and "Another round of coaching just may do the Seahawks right."
Kubiak did say that a zone scheme needs an elite center. Talks about Benton's influence and ability as an O-Line coach. Hints that they will try to fix the Line with minimal new players.

I hope this is just a smoke screen for the draft and trying to support & instill confidence in our young guys.
Sounds like we NEED an elite center, LG, RG and a Swing tackle in case Lucas goes down. We don't need to give up on young guys we've invested in, but we can still add players and carry one or two more on the roster, and cut dead weight.
It's a little worrisome after watching our offensive line struggles the last few years that it may not get fixed and our poor run game & Geno sacks will continue.
Bring in some new talent.

 

[Hawkinaz]

A short 2/13 piece on Field Gulls titled "Seahawks have the pieces to improve O-Line."
Terms like, "In house development and improvement" and "Another round of coaching just may do the Seahawks right."
Kubiak did say that a zone scheme needs an elite center. Talks about Benton's influence and ability as an O-Line coach. Hints that they will try to fix the Line with minimal new players.

I hope this is just a smoke screen for the draft and trying to support & instill confidence in our young guys.
Sounds like we NEED an elite center, LG, RG and a Swing tackle in case Lucas goes down. We don't need to give up on young guys we've invested in, but we can still add players and carry one or two more on the roster, and cut dead weight.
It's a little worrisome after watching our offensive line struggles the last few years that it may not get fixed and our poor run game & Geno sacks will continue.
Bring in some new talent.

Just going to a ZBS will greatly help the Seahawks very young O line reducing pressure on them to pass block a majority of plays that were out of the shotgun using 5 and 7 step drops with no threat of the run.

After watching film of the present linemen Benton and Kubiak will have a better idea what they need. I do agree with what you said about the reasoning of what Benton said about needing minimal player changes. I do assume when coaches/GMs say about what they want to do for off season team improvements they are lying

 

[Torc]

Those of us who are completely unqualified to judge the talent vs coaching question will be interested to see how the offensive line does. The argument last year was that Grubb and his staff were out of their league (literally) in the pro game, that the scheme and the coaching were not NFL ready. We don't have that excuse this year. I hope to see some significant improvement in the line play, however that gets done.

 

[sutz]

Those of us who are completely unqualified to judge the talent vs coaching question will be interested to see how the offensive line does. The argument last year was that Grubb and his staff were out of their league (literally) in the pro game, that the scheme and the coaching were not NFL ready. We don't have that excuse this year. I hope to see some significant improvement in the line play, however that gets done.

Might be difficult for us to see, really. They will definitely add to the roster and the OL room. I guess we'll know something if they invest in some highly prized OL before the draft. Other than that, we may not really know what really led to any improvement.

In any event, I agree with you. I expect big strides forward for our beleagured OL this coming season.

 

[Subzero717]

Not to be a Debby downer but does anyone know where the Saints OL ranked last year in pass protection?






Dead last.

 

[Wsumatt1982]

Not to be a Debby downer but does anyone know where the Saints OL ranked last year in pass protection?






Dead last.

There’s a lot of factors that go into that. I’m not looking it up so I’ll assume you’re right. They had injuries all over so they were playing a lot of first year and backup players. That’s not just the line but ALL positions. That made them a bad team and playing from behind a lot which means you have to pass more.

You can’t just take it with face value. Typically these coaches are middle of the pack. I’ll take that

 

[DarkVictory23]

Not to be a Debby downer but does anyone know where the Saints OL ranked last year in pass protection?






Dead last.

Who has them ranked dead last? Because I find that kind of hard to believe.

They were ranked 29th by Pass Block Win Rate, 25th in QB Pressure Rate, 15th in Time to Pressure, and 14th in Sack rate. And outside of PBWR (we were 21st), every single one of those metrics was better than the Seahawks.

NFLLines.com does a nice scoring system for NFL offensive lines. By no means perfect, but a nice aggregate of the various different metrics that try to assess offensive line play (which is notoriously difficult), and they have the Saints ranked 19th in Pass Pro.

We were ranked 31st.


That said, I think it's fair to have a bit of a skeptical outlook on all this. The overall results of the different O-Lines that Benton has coached kind of adds up to... underwhelming, I guess? NFL Next Gen Stats only go back to 2018, but tracking that far back, based on Pass/Run Block Win Rate, most of his teams have been in the average to below average category.

But, of course, nothing happens in a vacuum. We've had a pretty downward slope on our O-Line since 2020. We've had nothing that resembles an identity for our O-Line to rely on for years. Getting an experienced NFL O-Line coach with an established identity is a step up for some teams and I think we're one of those teams.

 

[Subzero717]

Who has them ranked dead last? Because I find that kind of hard to believe.

They were ranked 29th by Pass Block Win Rate, 25th in QB Pressure Rate, 15th in Time to Pressure, and 14th in Sack rate. And outside of PBWR (we were 21st), every single one of those metrics was better than the Seahawks.

NFLLines.com does a nice scoring system for NFL offensive lines. By no means perfect, but a nice aggregate of the various different metrics that try to assess offensive line play (which is notoriously difficult), and they have the Saints ranked 19th in Pass Pro.

We were ranked 31st.


That said, I think it's fair to have a bit of a skeptical outlook on all this. The overall results of the different O-Lines that Benton has coached kind of adds up to... underwhelming, I guess? NFL Next Gen Stats only go back to 2018, but tracking that far back, based on Pass/Run Block Win Rate, most of his teams have been in the average to below average category.

But, of course, nothing happens in a vacuum. We've had a pretty downward slope on our O-Line since 2020. We've had nothing that resembles an identity for our O-Line to rely on for years. Getting an experienced NFL O-Line coach with an established identity is a step up for some teams and I think we're one of those teams.

PFF

Not that I believe they are perfect but that's who is most often referenced.

Outside zone teams aren't always the best at Pass blocking.

 

[JPatera76]

I’m pretty happy with this hire. And Kubiak. Really looking forward to the upcoming season

 

[Subzero717]

There’s a lot of factors that go into that. I’m not looking it up so I’ll assume you’re right. They had injuries all over so they were playing a lot of first year and backup players. That’s not just the line but ALL positions. That made them a bad team and playing from behind a lot which means you have to pass more.

You can’t just take it with face value. Typically these coaches are middle of the pack. I’ll take that

We had and have had a lot of injuries. Our QBs have also been responsible for a lot of sacks. Our OL coaches never seem to get the same grace. Just sayin.

 

[DarkVictory23]

PFF

Not that I believe they are perfect but that's who is most often referenced.

Outside zone teams aren't always the best at Pass blocking.

Thanks for letting me know. I don't like PFF's method of rating offensive lines, because they do a weird aggregation of their individual O-Linemen rankings.

To the degree that they are good at ranking individuals (I'll let everyone else be the judge of that... I think they do a better job with some positions than others... their grades for MLBs seem to be wildly off what watching film would suggest), I think this is almost a bigger indictment of the talent that the Saints finished the season with at O-Line.

Also, blocking for Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener was much different than blocking for Derek Carr, which is what the Saints originally planned for. I watched film of Haner's start vs. the Commanders and I did see the O-Line struggle against stunts... but holy heck is Haner bad when he even thinks there's going to be pressure. His line will have a pocket for him to step into, but he just turtles up in the backfield instead. He's inviting sacks to happen.
Rattler, on the other hand, does a lot more with his feet in terms of trying to buy time when the pressure starts to come and has way better poise than Haener in the pocket.
Both are a contrast to Carr, who is almost too quick to throw the ball away. He's super conservative. That's three different styles of QB they were trying to block for all season. (Of the three, Rattler was the most comparable to Geno's style in the pocket).

We'll see how it all shakes out, though.