Let's talk Nowak

gowazzu02 · Sep 24, 2015

He was completely outclassed in the GB game, and if the biggest reason the run game has been atrocious so far. I saw a few shots in the all 11 where a play was looking great but didn't get out of the back field cause Nowak got blown up.

Now i'm not hating on him or even really blaming him, he's a converted D player who has started 2 NFL games.

My real question is will it get better>? Those that are smarter then me, what exactly did he show in preseason that made the FO cut LJP a serviceable if not spectacular dude?

How long is the rope? If we struggle again Sunday cause he can't hold up do we look at Lewis? Do we look at signing LJP off the streets?

Cause it's all fine and dandy to get Kam back, he has no influence at all on our biggest weak link on the field and thats C.

MysterMatt · Sep 24, 2015

gowazzu02":2fg3xax0 said:
He was completely outclassed in the GB game, and if the biggest reason the run game has been atrocious so far. I saw a few shots in the all 11 where a play was looking great but didn't get out of the back field cause Nowak got blown up.

Now i'm not hating on him or even really blaming him, he's a converted D player who has started 2 NFL games.

My real question is will it get better>? Those that are smarter then me, what exactly did he show in preseason that made the FO cut LJP a serviceable if not spectacular dude?

How long is the rope? If we struggle again Sunday cause he can't hold up do we look at Lewis? Do we look at signing LJP off the streets?

Cause it's all fine and dandy to get Kam back, he has no influence at all on our biggest weak link on the field and thats C.

Nowak has a higher upside than LJP, but at the moment he sorta sucks. Our OL is significantly below average, but I'm hoping we'll get sort of OK by midseason.

kidhawk · Sep 24, 2015

Brock discussed the O-line a bit this week. He said that he believes that we would be better in the short term by playing Bailey at Left Guard and Britt at right tackle, but he also believes that long term, getting these guys up to speed now will pay dividends for the team down the road.

With that said, I was surprised they went with this look for the regular season. It's one thing to try it out in pre season, but I'm generally of the thinking that I want the best player today playing the position today. I know there's no way to make up for real game experience, but IMO there's also no way to make a W tomorrow from a L today. We have to losses that we can never get back. Could those have been wins had we played with Bailey and Britt out there instead of Gilliam and Britt? We will never know, but I think we would have had better line play today.

I do believe we have the best athletes out there, but that's not always translated into the best player for today.

Cartire · Sep 24, 2015

I started a topic about the same thing... viewtopic.php?f=2&t=114263

Lets just say, most people seem to be giving him a pass right now. He better improve soon or thats not gonna happen for much longer. Luckily, we've got a few home games in a row that should help him get off the line quicker.

gowazzu02 · Sep 24, 2015

Cartire":devucjd9 said:
I started a topic about the same thing... http://www.seahawks.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=114263

Lets just say, most people seem to be giving him a pass right now. He better improve soon or thats not gonna happen for much longer. Luckily, we've got a few home games in a row that should help him get off the line quicker.

Ah I didn't check that thread out. You fooled me with the title. I gave a look for "nowak sucks" or "why does our Center always get beat" or threads like that. lol

lukerguy · Sep 24, 2015

Great question. LJP and Pat Lewis both seemed much better to me. Center isn't a position you want to mess around with.

Doesn't really make sense to me to develop guys like that with the chance they could be good. Sweezy for example was horrible the first year, decent the second year, and now he's at a high level just in enough time to lose him to UFA or have to pay him way to much for a guy who would have been out of the league.

gowazzu02 · Sep 24, 2015

lukerguy":2sx2fk3z said:
Great question. LJP and Pat Lewis both seemed much better to me. Center isn't a position you want to mess around with.

Doesn't really make sense to me to develop guys like that with the chance they could be good. Sweezy for example was horrible the first year, decent the second year, and now he's at a high level just in enough time to lose him to UFA or have to pay him way to much for a guy who would have been out of the league.

Good point about losing them when they finally turn into something.

Tical21 · Sep 24, 2015

I ended up getting curious and watched his entire game. He got absolutely blown up 3-5 plays, but basically did just fine all the rest. The question is, how much of a game changer are those 3-5 plays? Almost all of them resulted in negative plays. Raji was highly motivated at times and just blew him up. Would he have done that to other centers as well on those plays?

SomersetHawk · Sep 24, 2015

I think Rawls needs to see more touches. Hits a hole harder than Marshawn; who isn't totally trusting his blocks at the moment, and often for good reason but he's still leaving yards out there with his tentativeness and looks to be getting tackled with more ease than we've become accustomed to.

cHawkPhan · Sep 24, 2015

I too, will give him a pass so far. All in all, being a conversion in his first two games he did all right. Yes, he has been blown up on a couple plays, but that Rams DL is stout, and raji is on of the best NT in the league.

MontanaHawk05 · Sep 24, 2015

Going up against BJ Raji and Aaron Donald would make any offensive lineman look bad. The inexperience of Nowak in our system (line calls and such) might also be playing into things. Give it some time.

ringless · Sep 24, 2015

I am sure when one of his low snaps result in a lost fumble things might change. Especially if it is against a better team and ends up being costly.

I forget which game I was watching but it seemed as if Wilson was literally getting every other snap at his ankles.

kearly · Sep 24, 2015

Sweezy showed us some kickass run blocks right away, and other than a rough first game against Darnell Dockett, had a surprisingly effective rookie season (that season was a career year for Lynch).

Britt struggled very badly in protection but showed you some good things in the run game.

Nowak is the opposite of those guys. Sweezy and Britt were good run blockers and awesome 2nd level blockers, but whiffed a lot in protection. Nowak is highly ineffective on the second level and has never looked like a good run blocker, but he does an admirable job in protection.

And Gilliam is more or less the same thing.

The problem with the line, as I see it, is categorical inconsistency. Two guys are extreme run blockers, and two guys are the opposite extreme. Nowak and Gilliam will improve with time but I don't ever see them changing their stripes.

If the team really wants to run the ball, start Glowinsky at LG, Patrick Lewis at C, Sweezy at LG and Britt at RT. The only problem with this line is that Britt will get us killed in pass pro, and Zach Miller isn't here anymore to be Britt's personal blocking assistant.

gowazzu02 · Sep 24, 2015

Im not so quick to give him a pass for Raji. Raji's a shell of his former self. Chicago ran all over the Raji lead gb defense the previous week. Sure i'll give you Donald, but Raji is about the caliber guy I would expect Nowak to see most days in the nfl.... there aren't easy days in this league.

Cartire · Sep 24, 2015

gowazzu02":25wm5drc said:
Im not so quick to give him a pass for Raji. Raji's a shell of his former self. Chicago ran all over the Raji lead gb defense the previous week. Sure i'll give you Donald, but Raji is about the caliber guy I would expect Nowak to see most days in the nfl.... there aren't easy days in this league.

I'll agree with this.

I'll add that on a few plays, it was Nowak completely missing assignment (especially on sweeps and power plays). When he had to go head to head with Raji, especially on passing downs, he held his ground well. But when he had to run a zone scheme or a shift, he just couldnt get there in time or didnt know which guy he was suppose to block.

lukerguy · Sep 24, 2015

Even if Nowak has a higher upside then LJP or Lewis, why wouldn't they have him learn by being the back up? Sure, he doesn't get the reps, but he's still in all of the meetings and gets practice reps.

Seems like they could still get his long term potential without sacrificing horrible play for the present.

Mojambo · Sep 24, 2015

He's early days JR Sweezy. It will continue to be pretty bad, but hopefully will pay off similarly.

I think things got a little better in the second half last week when Russell Wilson took control over the line calls. Of course, it did lead to a Delay penalty and a couple of burned timeouts, but I'll take that over free blitzers.

Largent80 · Sep 24, 2015

Anyone remember Spencer?

He never amounted to anything, we've seen 2 games from Nowak. Pretty hard to make an intelligent assessment right now, however, the o line can only get better because right now do you hear that giant sucking sound?

hawknation2015 · Sep 24, 2015

It's easy to mistakenly place the game on Nowak because he is the player people know the least about, and he did have a couple bad plays in the first couple drives against Green Bay. Nowak improved in the 2nd half and was making some really nice blocks. The reality is Britt and Sweezy each had worse games.

The thing that will improve the running game the most is running the ball more. Marshawn and the offensive line need time to get into a rhythm.

hawk45 · Sep 24, 2015

kearly":18muzwtv said:
Sweezy showed us some kickass run blocks right away, and other than a rough first game against Darnell Dockett, had a surprisingly effective rookie season (that season was a career year for Lynch).

Britt struggled very badly in protection but showed you some good things in the run game.

Nowak is the opposite of those guys. Sweezy and Britt were good run blockers and awesome 2nd level blockers, but whiffed a lot in protection. Nowak is highly ineffective on the second level and has never looked like a good run blocker, but he does an admirable job in protection.

And Gilliam is more or less the same thing.

The problem with the line, as I see it, is categorical inconsistency. Two guys are extreme run blockers, and two guys are the opposite extreme. Nowak and Gilliam will improve with time but I don't ever see them changing their stripes.

If the team really wants to run the ball, start Glowinsky at LG, Patrick Lewis at C, Sweezy at LG and Britt at RT. The only problem with this line is that Britt will get us killed in pass pro, and Zach Miller isn't here anymore to be Britt's personal blocking assistant.

The lack of run game has been frustrating, but this fan is okay, for once, to have guys who can protect the QB who need to improve their run blocking, and not the other way around. Especially if the guys who can protect are at C, RT, and LT (well Okung can run block as well).

There have been excuses on excuses for pass pro, but once you see actual protection you realize that yeah, no, what we saw before did in fact suck. What we saw in GB did not suck at all, even one bit. That's the kind of protection that leaves the QB no excuses if he can't operate.

I'd like to see where the tradeoff takes us.

Let's talk Nowak

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