Fieldgulls: Bad O-Lines a league-wide problem

[Seahawk Sailor]

Dallas seems to have the right formula

Have they won any NFC championships with it?

Be extremely honest with yourself here. If Seattles D is on the Cowboys, Dallas wins the bowl.

We've won in spite of our line. Dallas does have a great O-line.

if Seattles D was in Dallas... they'd be winning Bowls for years on end probably

And if Dallas's O-line was in Seattle, we'd be discussing the proper nomenclature for "five-peat".

 

[bmorepunk]

Cable and Pete need to be held accountable.

How? Electrical shocks?

 

[jammerhawk]

If Dallas' OLine was on the Hawks the Hawks would soon be way over the the cap or unable to keep their D, not that it appears the Hawks cap is in great shape to allow for free agent change. Three rookies at their respective positions are the reason and weak play by the two vets is not helping.

The Hawks OLine is a hot mess. Improvement needs to start to happen fast b/c 1/4 of the season is over. To me it appears Britt is worse as a G than as a T and he is not that good as a T. Novak is slowly improving but has a very long way to go. Gilliam appears to be athletic enough to play at RT but so raw looks like a 2nd string replacement. Three development projects are clearly a huge part of the problem. To me it now appears that Okung is so slow footed that he is regularly beaten badly by speed rushers, perhaps he was made to look better by having the at least positionally competent Carpenter on his right side, the team will need to carefully assess the need to replace him going forward. Sweezy seems to be dealing poorly with weak play on both sides he has moment where his play is not as strong as last year.

Added to this is poor health of our exceptional RB who isn't getting competent run blocking from the interior OLine and an OC who apparently has no ability to scheme to punish blitzes. The OLine is now a drag on the whole team and the coach dealing with it seems to believe it will all be better soon. The proof of his plan needs to happen soon or at the pace of QB sacks hits and hurries it will just stay ugly and get really ugly after RW is hurt b/c the OLine is for sure exposing him to injury.

I recall a season about 8 years or so ago when Pitt. had an awful OLine and the rapist still made the O go at a championship level, perhaps RW can do the same but it won't be pretty.

Doing the same thing again and again, that fails; and expecting a different result is considered to be a sign of mental illness.

 

[justafan]

I think the biggest challenge to building Olines is free agency.By the time you develop players and build a solid unit you have to start replacing players.

To a degree, yes. Nobody wants to lock up average talent using the same tools via extentions and 4 to 5 year contract but...

It's obvious that a lack of continuity hurts a lot.

But somebody did want to pay 4.5 for Carp and Breno and 1.5 for Mcq.The FO didnt want to pay for them.Without the Cap they would have I am sure,
In all fairness I was bitching about them so its total 20 20 hindsight.I thought they would be easier to replace than they are.But so did the FO

Do you pay 10 mil for Harvin or Graham or 10 mil for two average Olineman?These are the tough decisions the FO has to make with FA.I think the answer is obvious but I understand why they made the decision.

Even keeping or adding 2 or 3 average olineman to this group would have been huge.

 

[Laloosh]

Was a good read. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Largent80]

Our best o line was 2005 and we haven't even come close to that in ten years. And to me saying it's a league wide problem doesn't fix this steaming pile of Hank that the Seahawks trot out there every game.

 

[purpleneer]

Between this and the shortage of competent QBs, that's a couple major illustrations of why the league needs to expand rosters and by more than a couple. Players at these positions need development time and continuity, which are lost even more by the contact limitations on practices. Thursday games need to be scrapped (with the exception of Thanksgiving), along with any notion of an 18-game schedule and the idea of a team in London. College teams at least have the ability to make sure they are off the week before if they play on a non-Saturday. It is utterly ridiculous that a 3-day break between games is possible.