How good is Tom Cable, really?

[Smellyman]

Make sure that you factor in the cost of the Cable O-line... said cost allows the Hawks to keep all the OTHER high-priced talent. Add up the All-Pro's and Pro Bowlers.
Check out the comparative starting O-Line costs for this year between the Seahawks and the Cowboys.
We can't have 50+ All Pro's.

As was posted above too. As long as you factor in his high draft picks have been hot garbage.

 

[Rocket]

Being wrong on a few doesn't mean you're wrong on all of 'em.
Duh

 

[Smellyman]

Being wrong on a few doesn't mean you're wrong on all of 'em.
Duh

Point being it's not an OL that is cheap by defualt or cheap to save money, it's cheap because the draft picks havent worked out.

 

[kearly]

Honestly I like Cable's philosophy. He's trying to exploit a new type of OL profile to find effective players who are cheap to acquire. It is the closest thing in the NFL today to what Alex Gibbs tried to do (with more success) 20 years ago.

It's worth noting that Cable HAS had some successes. In 2011 and 2012, our OL was more effective than a lot of people gave it credit for, thanks to him developing guys like Unger, Sweezy, and Breno.

My only real beef with Cable is how he always seems to have a favorite lineman who stinks in actual games and a decent talent that he doesn't hold in as high of esteem as that player's on field performance merits.

But if Cable didn't have that kind of mindset, he probably would have rolled the dice less often for players like Breno, Sweezy, and Gilliam. So it's a bit of a trade-off thing.

At some point though, Cable is going to need some help from the front office. We can't just keep changing out two starters on the OL every year to save bucks and expect Cable to make an ever-shifting OL look like a veteran group.

 

[justafan]

Honestly I like Cable's philosophy. He's trying to exploit a new type of OL profile to find effective players who are cheap to acquire. It is the closest thing in the NFL today to what Alex Gibbs tried to do (with more success) 20 years ago.

It's worth noting that Cable HAS had some successes. In 2011 and 2012, our OL was more effective than a lot of people gave it credit for, thanks to him developing guys like Unger, Sweezy, and Breno.

My only real beef with Cable is how he always seems to have a favorite lineman who stinks in actual games and a decent talent that he doesn't hold in as high of esteem as that player's on field performance merits.

But if Cable didn't have that kind of mindset, he probably would have rolled the dice less often for players like Breno, Sweezy, and Gilliam. So it's a bit of a trade-off thing.

At some point though, Cable is going to need some help from the front office. We can't just keep changing out two starters on the OL every year to save bucks and expect Cable to make an ever-shifting OL look like a veteran group.

Your last statement is so true,and its a problem with every team.That is my biggest problem with the whole salary cap system.Teams dont have the time to develop and keep Olineman like they did in the past.Even a passable Olineman will be in demand come free agent time.
Seems like its every game you see at the start of the year.Teams are having to replace 2 or 3 olineman

I dont know how much input Cable has when he wants to keep players from hitting FA.I am sure JS at least considers his advice.
I get a sense he would rather struggle with no names at times whether its ego or philosophy im not sure.

 

[Thepeelsessions]

Hmm, so I guess I don't understand the OP.

On one hand, you say Cable gets a pass on a lot of stuff, then you say "forget Sweezy", so in the interest of staying objective, we're just going to throw out his greatest success ? yeaaah, ok.

Cable has taken UDFA's and very low round draft picks and made them serviceable, and at a higher rate than anyone else in the league. Don't get me wrong, I don't like his philosophy. He completely ignores pass protection.

But the Rams' DL is going to make a lot of OL's look bad this year. They're super talented and deep.

Then again, same as with us.......they spent a lot of draft capital on that front 7. Which means they don't have as much in a lot of other places on that roster.

My last couple sentences got mixed up. I meant to say that Sweezy is average. It's true though. He is the Austin Jackson of O-linemen. The epitome of average. Nothing more. Nothing less. And i never said Cable gets a pass. He absolutely doesn't. He completely whiffed on his boys, Moffitt and Carpenter, he can't develop his hand picked mid to late round talent. It's a mess. He's a mess. If he has such a great ¨philosophy¨, then he needs to actually be good at it. He needs to quit fooling around and make a concerted effort to coach up a decent product to put on the field. Again, I don't care that it was the best line in football. More often than not, even mediocre d lines push the Hawks o line around. It's embarrassing.

And why in the world didn't the Hawks sign Jake Long? A former first overall pick who was a beast before injuries took their toll. He can't be any worse than Okung. And it definitely couldn't be any worse than Gary Gilliam. It makes no sense. Whatever. Rant over.

 

[jammerhawk]

.

And why in the world didn't the Hawks sign Jake Long? A former first overall pick who was a beast before injuries took their toll. He can't be any worse than Okung. And it definitely couldn't be any worse than Gary Gilliam. It makes no sense. Whatever. Rant over.

Short answer, lack of available cap room.

Question is: is Long really all that good?

Seems to me the real problems have been inside so far, or that Britt has not shown any 2nd year growth.

Having a barely adequate Oline has worked somewhat for the team up to now but occasionally bites the team in the rear.

 

[hawkfan68]

Okung is the only guy playing the position he played in college. The rest of the line has 2 DL converts, 1 OL playing a new position, and former college TE converted into an OL. Therein the problem too many projects on the starting line. In 2013, only Sweezy was a conversion project. Okung/Bailey/Bowie were OL in college, Unger was a veteran OL, and Breno was a vet OL. So 4 of the 5 guys were experienced OL or had exp playing the position in college. That was probably the best year for the OL. Last season, Okung/Bailey, Carp, Unger/Lewis/LJP, Sweezy and Britt. Sweezy was still the only conversion project. Britt was RT but he played tackle in college. So not many projects. This season...multiple changes and project players on the starting line. It's too bad that the Rams game was so early in the season, they may get better as it progresses but I don't think they would have been able to stop the 49ers or Jags DL with the current OL.

The Rams penetration from just a 4 man pass rush was hard to handle. Games are won in the trenches and the Seahawks only win that battle on the defensive side. They get mauled from an offensive perspective. Wilson and Lynch cover up a lot of OL deficiencies but against a terrific, speedy line like the Rams they faltered. Wilson had no time and Lynch got stopped for rare losses (usually he's able to power forward for gains but yesterday he had no chance).

 

[BullHawk33]

Okung, Mebane and Irvin all have contracts expiring after this year. We will low ball Okung based on his performance and chances are, he will move on.

We're going to have to get more linemen next year as a result of that and performance. That will have to come from the draft and I hope John gets some talent evaluation help because their performance is not good. It might be time for John/Pete to tell Cable who he is going to have to make due with rather than letting him take the person he selects. His talent evaluation skills are questionable.

 

[LickMyNuts]

The biggest problem with the O-Line at present is consistency or a lack of it.

You can't trust them.

This makes play calling difficult.

If they stay healthy they will settle in by mid season.

Hopefully we are in contention at that time.