NFL has an Offensive Line Crisis

[Siouxhawk]

It was mentioned, what would the line look like if we had kept Unger, Sweezy, Capenter, and Okung. So I was curious what those guys are making now. So went looking on Spotrac at their current contracts. What are their cap hits this year and next. Added in Gilliam as well to round it out.

RT Gary Gilliam $2,162,500 -
RG JR Sweezy $4,687,500 - next year 5,875,000
C Max Unger $$7,400,000 - next year 8,000,000
LG James Carpenter $6,805,000 - next year 6,805,000
LT Russell Okung $6,000,000 - next year 15,000,000

That's about $27,055,000 cap hit for 2017

And let's say we had another 4 o-lineman making about $800,000 a year, rookie deals or minimums. Say our cap hit total is about $30 to 31,000,000 a year? So we'd be about 8th or 9th total spender in NFL for o-line this year.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/positional/offensive-line/

Next year though..... we'd sky rocket to the top 1 or 2 when Okung's contract balloons.

Good work twisted! Those numbers obviously wouldn't be doable.

 

[Mad Dog]

I've been saying that for a couple years. Many lines are bad. Few are good. And probably represent a bit of statistical luck as much as good coaching. Everyone is struggling to find good prospects, a few blind squirrel GM's get it right and voila, they look like geniuses. Schneider hasn't had his OL blind squirrel moment like he has with DB's, but hopefully soon.

The problem is, every good athlete wants to be DL. Every college offence recognizes they OL prospects are slugs and designs a spread offence to manage the problem of crappy prospects. Then the scouts have no good evaluation film and recognizes lots of these guys are slugs and its hard to know which ones will work out and which ones won't. So the draft becomes a crap shoot where some teams get lucky and some don't.

Thing is the Hawks really haven't got lucky yet with any of the 3-1st round OLine picks they've made with the present regime. In fact it seems like you could throw darts against the list of candidates and choose better in terms of retention at least. Perhaps their selection parameters need reassessment? They were patient with Britt and he seems to have rounded into a pro quality player. Regrettably some of the others look unready for prime time so far.

I suspect the honest answer is the point made clear by the league wide paucity of legitimate candidates. The college game is not producing pro ready offensive linemen. Rocks can be thrown in terms of assessment, coaching up, scheme, etc., etc.
In the end it's simply hard to make chicken salad with chicken manure.

We all need to hold our noses wait and hope the staff can fix this continuing comedy. It seems like such a waste to have quality parts to an O that aren't able to be used b/c the OLine can't pass protect.

Okung is currently the highest paid OT in the league FWIW. I think he would have been an above average starter if it weren't for some bad luck with ankle injuries affecting his lateral mobility. As it turns out he's an average OT. Carpenter similarly had a knee injury sap his already questionable footwork and moved to guard where he was certainly starter material. Ifedi is too early into his career to assess. I agree we haven't been lucky but id we'd have paid those guys I think our OL would be better (and our Defense worse as it would have cost us Kam, KJ and Avril).

I think the major flaw in the FO hasn't been drafting but rather their belief that Cable is a magician and can turn meatloaf into filet mignon. This has led to underspending and turnover on the OL ruining continuity and progress. To thier credit I think they see it know and are working at developing some continuity. Sadly the fans already want to run Odhiambo, Joekel and Ifedi out of town.

 

[Seahawkfan80]

A team that figures out a way to develop high potential candidates into serviceable players will quickly develop a significant advantage if they an acquire and keep the other pieces of a successful team.

Wonder if this would be like us drafting a Defensive Lineman and turning him into an offending lineman because is it easier to train him from scratch.

 

[keasley45]

While I think there's probably some truth to the articles and general assessment of our o-line, it does little to comfort me or to, in my opinion vindicate Cable in the situation. For me, it doesn't necessarily come down to how much we spend. If the plan is to invest x into the o-line and that means we're going to Have to make do with average to journeyman talent, with the occasional sweezey type home runs, I get it. But If that means lesser ability, both physically and intellectually in terms of being able to digest the complexity of a blocking scheme, then SIMPLIFY THE DAMN SYSTEM. Makes no sense that we continue to expect average players who in some cases have never played the position, to have to execute a complex scheme. We can run a simpler system and be more effectiive than we currently are. Sometimes I get the feeling that we won't ever change it though because Cable has bought into all of the hype around him being the great o-line whisperer and so the failure we experience is just our players not yet fully grasping the brilliance of his plan. Even that would be ok, if the players actually had the time to digest it during league restricted practice activities or we paid to retain them when they've been here long enough to exhibit a mastery of their position (which we all already know is contrary to our philosophy). Hubris is what it's called, I think... hubris, and a little bit of stupidity.