Too many people are hailing Bitonio, who not only did all playoff teams pass on in last years draft, but is not a good OT period.
Bottom line is that Terry Poole played very well Friday night and this move is about Bailey not playing as well. Poole is a better tackle than Britt, but not a better guard. Before they start to annoit Poole too early, they have decided to reward a hard-working Gilliam to that position, with a goal that Gilliam or Poole are your future left and right tackles with tremendous footspeed to get downfield, something Bitonio lacks severely.
I don't watch games and wait for the media to tell me who played well or what the team did to tell me, just watch the tape. Gilliam did OK but Poole in his limited action at RT, played better than Gilliam or Britt did at either tackle. I'm looking forward to Glowinski and Poole as making this offseason/draft the one that ultimately extends this run for another 5 years.
Line this year with Okung healthy (drum roll if thats possible) is Okung, Britt, Nowak, Sweezy and Gilliam/Poole
Line next year or later this year is Okung is not healthy for all 16 games and another 3 playoff games to Santa Clara is
Gilliam, Britt, Nowak, Sweezy/Glowinski at RG and Poole at RT
Next years for certain line is Gilliam/Poole at LT, Britt, Nowak, Glowinski and combo of Gilliam and Poole at RT.
We are looking at 7 starters coming out of this offseason, which is very high considering where we drafted.
Glowinski will be a dominate guard, Poole is at tackle, Tye Smith played very well at LCB and figures to play or start over Cary Williams next year.....add in Lockett, Frank Clark, Jimmy Graham and Nowak and you have revamped the entire weakness of the roster and did so with limited funds.
New England, Green Bay and now Seattle have figured out that you cannot invest 30M of your cap into offensive lineman, if you have to have a highly paid QB, skilled people to support your 20 to 25M a year QB, pass rushers to get after the opponents QB when you have a lead and multiple playmakers in the secondary to slow down passing games of the opponents.
Only Green Bay and Seattle have all 5 of these layers covered, unless New England has a miraculous find in their secondary. It's called cap management and it's really clear that we all saw Britt struggle at OT and survived him starting almost 20 straight starts at RT, letting a lot of pass rushers in Russell Wilson's face most of the season. Poole and Gilliam will be significant upgrades as will Glowinski at RG, once Sweezy heads to Free Agency.
Okung is the wild card here, but with tackles not in high abundance, he'll land a contract at 13M to 14M a year somewhere with 2 SB rings and 3 straight SB appearances on his resume. Seattle will replace him for another year with a player under 1M in Gilliam and Poole.
Green Bay has mastered this as has New England....it's called great management and it doesn't mean it's perfect on every draft pick, but anyone complaining about Bitonio as if he'd Joe Thomas is really silly.....if Clark, Lockett, Poole, Glowinski and ultimately robbing the Saints of Graham for a nicked up Unger isn't good management, tell me what other 2 players would you have drafted after watching Clark and Lockett on Friday night. They are huge upgrades at positions of bigger need other than the OL.
My only concern is how do we manage to shed Tharold Simon because Tye Smith is already a better player than he is and he can ultimately play Sherman's position and perhaps the slot. Simon cannot play slot and I don't know when Lane gets back or is Seysei going to heal up fast enough to allow Schnieder to shed Simon by the opener. At best Simon starts on the PUP list, but isn't going to play significant minutes any more in Seattle. If you are going to complain, at least be accurate on what's needed and it's CB, not the OL.....the trading for Burley last year and Seasei this year, clearly show that's where their fears lie.....adding Tye Smith was a brilliant pickup for the roster and he'll become another valuable starter.
