Seahawks oline per ESPN.

[NorthDallas40oz]

There's not going to be any continuity in that offensive line so long as he's our LT. We really need to start drafting his replacement.

I don't know if I'd go that far just yet, but his injury-prone nature is certainly a legitimate concern moving forward, particularly in light of how much salary cap space he occupies. Another season of multiple missed games by Okung could certainly trigger some serious decision-making by the FO.

 

[Hawks46]

Also, we have to ding Russell Wilson for holding onto the ball and taking some inexplicable sacks. There was one he took early in the ATL game that was particularly noticeably awful.

This. Not EVERY sack can be attributed to the oline. Wilson holds onto the ball too long, which I don't have an issue with as he pulls out some amazing plays. But he also has some "doh's!" and he needs to learn when to pull the trigger and get rid of the ball before he takes unnecessary punishment.

 

[Seafan]

As long as Wilson is QB he will get more than the average amount of sacks. The OL played bad for the season due to injuries mostly. Those stats aren't extremely important. The important thing is the team had enough depth to survive the injuries, make the playoffs and really started putting it all together in those last few weeks. IMO the team will likely find at least one gem in this college class to help out the line. I expect Bowie or Carpenter to settle in as a solid starter at LG. Part of the sack problem can also be attributed to the WRs. Without faster separation on obvious passing downs RW doesn't have the ability to get the ball away. He is forced to eat it since gambling is a strict no no. It would have been nice to have had a healthy Rice and Harvin for most of the season.

 

[nwgamer]

Translation? Russell Wilson is MAN.

THIS! My exact first thought.

 

[Penman96]

Agreed Seafan - there were plenty of coverage sacks last year, and we played against some extremely talented pass rush attacks. Our O-Line can only do so much if / when we don't get rid of the ball fast enough.

RW is a second year QB too, as promising as he is there is still sometimes a degree of hesitation and a lack of rhythm in his play. Loosing Rice (and never having Harvin) was an issue for the passing game, and by the end of the season Russ was having a bad run.

 

[sam1313]

I totally think our line play sucked this year. We won the super bowl because of Russell and Lynch being more than extraordinary. Hell, in the super bowl Unger was letting people right past him in numerous plays I really, really hope hehe can bounce backnect season.

 

[themunn]

neither left tackle Russell Okung nor left guard James Carpenter has yet to play a full season in their NFL career, and they've had seven combined shots to do so. Meanwhile, one of the starters who has been able to play a full season at some point, right tackle Breno Giacomini, is an unrestricted free agent, likely to leave for greener pastures.

except of course Carpenter played every game in 2013. Sure, he didn't start 6 of them, but he was suited up and played in 16 regular season games, which last time I checked, counts as playing a "full season".

He DID miss the New Orleans playoff game (in odd circumstances), but it was a non-injury scratch

 

[onanygivensunday]

For posterity and for potentially rebutting opposing teams fans' ridiculous claims in chat forums like ours, we should create the Hawks Oline injury situation this year... game by game... but just for the starters. No need to know which back-ups played in which games.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

[onanygivensunday]

Okay... I've done a fair amount of data reaping from various websites for the past couple of hours and have some very interesting data/statistics to share with you. I'll start at a high level and work my way down.

First and foremost, our Oline back-ups (McQ, Bowie, Bailey and Jeanpierre) were on the field for 1/3 of all offensive snaps (special teams snaps not included). The raw numbers are: Total starter snaps... 3424, Total back-up snaps... 1651.

There were four (4) games when Okung, Unger and Giacomini were all out... weeks 4, 5, 9 and 10. In those four games, the Hawks went 3-1...

... beating the Texans in Houston in OT, 23-20. Marshawn rushed for 98 yards but the Oline gave up 5 sack and 5 TFLs (tackles for loss).

... losing to the Colts at Indianapolis, 28-34. Marshawn rushed for 102 but the Oline gave up 2 sacks and 3 TFLs.

... beating Tampa Bay at home, 27-24. Marshawn rushed for 125 (as did RW) and the Oline did not allow a sack but had 1 TFL.

... beating the Falcons in Atlanta, 33-10. Marshawn rushed for 145 yards and the Oline gave up 1 sack and 5 TFLs.

My conclusion... How many NFL team could go 3-1 without both starting tackles and their center?

And...... could also go 9-1 with their starting LT being out 8.75 games, with their starting RT being out 7.5 games and with their starting center out 3.3 games???

And it's no wonder that many of us here think that Unger did not play well this year. He missed weeks 4 and 5 with an arm injury, he was concussed in week 9 and missed week 10, and he missed week 14 with a pec injury. Personally, I believe that we need to give him a break.

And here's on last stat to consider... during an 8-game stretch (weeks 3 - 10), our back-ups were on the field for a average of 49% of the total offensive snaps.

I believe that Tom Cable should get a lot of praise for what he has done.

For those wanting to look at the raw data, send me a PM with your email addy and I will send you the Excel file that I created. For the Oline starters and back-ups, it includes all of the snaps by player by game and the injuries by player by game.

 

[plyka]

This offensive line gets bashed so much. And I'm not one to defend them. I consider them average. But dead last or just garbage as they have been described by Seahawk fans is simply not true in my opinion.

I think Hawkblogger had a great post on this some months ago using the anology of stealing bases in the MLB. Giving up stolen bases was being hung around the necks of catchers. Until they realized that there are two major parts to this. One is how long it takes the catcher to throw to 2nd or 3rd, and one is how long it takes the ball to get to the catcher. They shortened up the pitchers delivery, and started getting much better at catching stealers.

In the same vein, it's not all about the offensive line. It's also about Russell Wilson and how long he holds the ball. The longer he holds the ball, the more chance the defense has to hurry/rush/sack/hit the QB. And Russell Wilson is DEAD LAST in holding the ball. QBs like Peyton get the ball out in an average of 2.3 seconds while Russell takes 3.5 seconds. Do you really think that the Denver offensive line is so much better? Of course not.

This Seahawk offensive line gets a lot of flack, but they simply are not as bad as they are made out to be.

PS: I'm not saying that Wilson needs to change anything, just bringing light to the factors.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Somebody needs to invent a new O-line pass protection stat. Percentage of passing plays where the pocket collapses within 2.0 seconds. Don't track whether the QB even gets sacked, or whether they move out of the pocket. I'm talking about the number of times a defender or O-lineman winds up where the QB is supposed to be standing after dropping back.

I can pretty much guarantee we'd be bottom five in the league based on 2012/2013 for such a stat. The number of times our pocket collapsed almost right away throughout those two years is bad. Sure, sometimes Russell rolls out early, or hangs onto the ball too long; but every QB does that to an extent. It's also not reasonable to expect an O-line to hold up in pass protection for six seconds, but for crying out loud, we've had to cringe at watching someone get immediately blown back off the line too often recently.

Also, this includes the full starting O-line more than most people would think; but they did do a good job in the Super Bowl, no question there.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

Translation? Russell Wilson is MAN.

This. Imagine him behind an OL that could pass block even to league average. They've great at run blocking so just be average at Pass Pro and Wilson will post games like the Superbowl on his bad days.