Keeping the O-line

So we are seeing huge improvements by the O-line. I think feelings are mixed about what is behind the improvement. Is it better players (Fluker, Sweezy and Fant back from injury) or changing out he who shall not be named with a new coach

Reality is that Fluker , Sweezy are both unrestricted FA next season

Fant is RFA

Britt, Brown and Ifedi is here for at least one more year.

So who do we keep? How much do we spend vs saying it is coaching and we can plug in anyone (think we tried that)?

While I am trying to enjoy watching RW not be under siege, and work on using the pocket instead of escaping it, I also feel bitter sweet with finding the right guys and three of them could be gone after this season....

Thoughts?

They seem to have found a combination that works well. Time to invest a few more dollars and keep them all.

Keep none of them. Fluker is always hurt, Brown is old and JR has a bad back. build olines with 2-7 round draft picks and develop them. Now that the smoldering pile of garbage is destroying the raiders the Seahawks can go back to the plan that works for other elite teams. Young cheap Olines.

Wilson may have a bit of a opinion on it now that he isn't running for his life and knows better, Fluker and Sweezy both were shown the door from their last team so should be able to be signed to reasonable amount contracts. Fant has shown promise but little else yet so also could be kept at a reasonable price.


Have Wilson throw in free Ciara concert tickets

We did draft an O-lineman out of OSU last draft. He is currently injured.

Brown just signed a 3 year extension. He isn't being cut.

Fant will be tendered. So he will be back.

I would try to keep Sweezy & Fluker in the fold. The O-Line has just gone through 5 years of hell, and I wouldn't want to start over so quickly.

If the market stays cool on Sweezy he should be brought back, if not you have to let him go.

Fluker is the key guy to re-sign, and I can see teams willing to spend a lot more money on him than Sweezy. He is younger, and has a 1st rd pedigree. I would try and get Fluker done in DEC to keep him from hitting the open market.

What Fluker is doing right now is so hard to find. So to me he is the imperative signing.

It would be awesome to return all 5 starters for once.

They have depth as well now. Fant, Pocic, Hunt, & a rookie tackle Jamarco Jones who I like quite a bit.

Do not forget that we have a guard named Simmons that will be good. Most people are not familiar with him. We poached him from the Raiders. He is big, long arms, can move people and is good at pass pro.

Bring them all back! Sweezy and Fluker know what it is like with new teams and chemistry. In Seattle they have something going. I also think Jamarco(?) can be a good find. At least until Solari gets more suitable pieces at back up that can actually CHALLENGE FOR ROSTER SPOTS.

Fade":1pqkmody said:

Brown just signed a 3 year extension. He isn't being cut.

Fant will be tendered. So he will be back.

I would try to keep Sweezy & Fluker in the fold. The O-Line has just gone through 5 years of hell, and I wouldn't want to start over so quickly.

If the market stays cool on Sweezy he should be brought back, if not you have to let him go.

Fluker is the key guy to re-sign, and I can see teams willing to spend a lot more money on him than Sweezy. He is younger, and has a 1st rd pedigree. I would try and get Fluker done in DEC to keep him from hitting the open market.

What Fluker is doing right now is so hard to find. So to me he is the imperative signing.

It would be awesome to return all 5 starters for once.

They have depth as well now. Fant, Pocic, Hunt, & a rookie tackle Jamarco Jones who I like quite a bit.

Click to expand...

So much this. I'd love to keep all 5, but realisitically that might not be in the cards. If we could keep 4, or even 3 of them it would be a plus. Britt has been really solid since we bookended him with two real guards. He has good rapport with Russ, and I'm not totally sold on Hunt or even Procic at center. Not sure of Britt's contract status, but IIRC he's on his second contract already, right?

Anyway, it's kind of nice to see some stability on the O-line. Hasn't been there for so long. Would like to see it continue.

I'm not quite as fearful as I was with Cable that we can't identify actual OL players, and I know we cannot pay every player in the unit. I would pay Fluker, Brown and/or future-to-be-named LT if we identify, mayyybe Britt again unless they really think Pocic can be the guy there. I'm okay with making do at 2/5 positions. More if we hit some crazy market bubble.

I know it doesn't work this way, but speaking in terms of what I value, I would absolutely sacrifice Doug Baldwin's production and put every penny of his salary towards the OL unit. I would probably sacrifice the production of any skill player except Wilson and Carson if I had to in order to keep an OL core of 2-3 players.

Should be obvious now (was obvious for most) that Pete's brand of offense - which he will not change when the OL sucks - of running it right at opponents and hitting play action will not operate at all without a decent-to-good OL. When Pete's brand of offense does get a decent-to-good OL, it is an awesome, effective brand of offense to watch and to win games. And one that fits his chosen QB to a tee.

If Solari can do that on the cheap, fine. If not, then spend the money you need to at that position. Behind QB and RB it's the most important element of the Pete Carroll offensive vision.

overthecap.com states that Seattle currently has $63.2M in cap space in 2019. Fluker and Sweezy should not cost that much. I believe that the team can afford to extend them, plus Frank Clark, Justin Coleman, Mychal Kendricks, and maybe KJ Wright.

The reasons for success are as follows, and listed in order.

1) Solari in Cable out.
2) Improved play calling, design (power blocking) and running attack.
3) Fluker then Sweezy.
4) Ifedi finally getting it and not killing drives. (vastly helped by 1,2)
5) Graham out and Dissly, Dickson in.

If we can just sign Fluker to a 3-4 year deal we'll be good. Getting Sweezy to sign too would be a nice bonus. We have $62M in cap next year at this point, and neither of those guys should be expensive.

sdog1981":1qjzexc5 said:

Keep none of them. Fluker is always hurt, Brown is old and JR has a bad back. build olines with 2-7 round draft picks and develop them. Now that the smoldering pile of garbage is destroying the raiders the Seahawks can go back to the plan that works for other elite teams. Young cheap Olines.

Click to expand...

Thank God you don't make any decisions for this team. I hear the Browns are looking for some help?

lukerguy":31q7dlvk said:

sdog1981":31q7dlvk said:

Keep none of them. Fluker is always hurt, Brown is old and JR has a bad back. build olines with 2-7 round draft picks and develop them. Now that the smoldering pile of garbage is destroying the raiders the Seahawks can go back to the plan that works for other elite teams. Young cheap Olines.

Click to expand...

Thank God you don't make any decisions for this team. I hear the Browns are looking for some help?

Click to expand...

Pretty sure he just forgot to add this at the end: :sarcasm_off:

Ha. Phew.

I need to tune in my sarcasm radar a bit better.

The OLine is playing so much better this year BUT we are comparing it to the last few years which was absolutely terrible so I would be careful giving out 3 year contracts to the 2 guys who have had a problem staying healthy the last few years. It sounds too easy to say that Sweezy and Fluker are the answers we have been looking for the last 2 years especially since we found them on the scrap heap. I would like to see them sign at least one of the 2 and only both of them if they come at a bargain price. The problem is that they won't be a bargain if the Oline keeps playing this way all season because it won't be a secret at that point. I think they have to spend more draft capital on the Oline since they won't have the cap money to buy one of the best free agents available. They have to keep drafting more offensive linemen in rounds 1 to 4 and hopefully the better coaching (and less "Cable" overall) should help too.
Z.

sutz":20h7i65z said:

Fade":20h7i65z said:

Brown just signed a 3 year extension. He isn't being cut.

Fant will be tendered. So he will be back.

I would try to keep Sweezy & Fluker in the fold. The O-Line has just gone through 5 years of, and I wouldn't want to start over so quickly.

If the market stays cool on Sweezy he should be brought back, if not you have to let him go.

Fluker is the key guy to re-sign, and I can see teams willing to spend a lot more money on him than Sweezy. He is younger, and has a 1st rd pedigree. I would try and get Fluker done in DEC to keep him from hitting the open market.

What Fluker is doing right now is so hard to find. So to me he is the imperative signing.

It would be awesome to return all 5 starters for once.

They have depth as well now. Fant, Pocic, Hunt, & a rookie tackle Jamarco Jones who I like quite a bit.

Click to expand...

So much this. I'd love to keep all 5, but realisitically that might not be in the cards. If we could keep 4, or even 3 of them it would be a plus. Britt has been really solid since we bookended him with two real guards. He has good rapport with Russ, and I'm not totally sold on Hunt or even Procic at center. Not sure of Britt's contract status, but IIRC he's on his second contract already, right?

Anyway, it's kind of nice to see some stability on the O-line. Hasn't been there for so long. Would like to see it continue.

Click to expand...

Britt has 2-3 years left with us, Brown has 3 years with us, we can have Ifedi for the 5th year option that will give us 2 more years, we just need to keep Fluker and Sweezy.

If Jamarco Jones could come back strong, he could be an additional backup tackle to Fant. That way, Fant can play even more 6th linemen on some lineups, or as Pete calls it TE. Having Fant play with out regular OL is invaluable, he is real hard for LBs, SS, or CBs to dealt with on pass protection. totally overpowering on running plays.

Jamarco is the forgotten man.

SkyHawks16":3s2nw5sd said:

sutz":3s2nw5sd said:

Fade":3s2nw5sd said:

Brown just signed a 3 year extension. He isn't being cut.

Fant will be tendered. So he will be back.

I would try to keep Sweezy & Fluker in the fold. The O-Line has just gone through 5 years of, and I wouldn't want to start over so quickly.

If the market stays cool on Sweezy he should be brought back, if not you have to let him go.

Fluker is the key guy to re-sign, and I can see teams willing to spend a lot more money on him than Sweezy. He is younger, and has a 1st rd pedigree. I would try and get Fluker done in DEC to keep him from hitting the open market.

What Fluker is doing right now is so hard to find. So to me he is the imperative signing.

It would be awesome to return all 5 starters for once.

They have depth as well now. Fant, Pocic, Hunt, & a rookie tackle Jamarco Jones who I like quite a bit.

Click to expand...

So much this. I'd love to keep all 5, but realisitically that might not be in the cards. If we could keep 4, or even 3 of them it would be a plus. Britt has been really solid since we bookended him with two real guards. He has good rapport with Russ, and I'm not totally sold on Hunt or even Procic at center. Not sure of Britt's contract status, but IIRC he's on his second contract already, right?

Anyway, it's kind of nice to see some stability on the O-line. Hasn't been there for so long. Would like to see it continue.

Click to expand...

Britt has 2-3 years left with us, Brown has 3 years with us, we can have Ifedi for the 5th year option that will give us 2 more years, we just need to keep Fluker and Sweezy.

Click to expand...

Yep. The Seahawks are in a potentially unique situation where they can keep all 5 starters for a time. Sweezy again would be the one I would balk at if he got Tampa Bay money again, otherwise re-sign Fluker & Sweezy and you have all 5 back for 2019, 2020, & 2021. Include 2018 and you're looking at 4 years straight of rolling out the same 5 starters, amazing. If guys get hurt or underperform they will have guys developed and ready to step in. Mainly Pocic & Jones.

The O-Line is in a really healthy situation right now.

Brown - UFA 2022
Jones - UFA 2022

Ifedi - UFA 2021 (5th year option in 20, otherwise UFA in 20)
Britt - UFA 2021
Pocic - UFA 2021
Simmons UFA 2021 (ERFA in 19, RFA 20)

Hunt - UFA 2020 (RFA tender in 19)
Fant - UFA 2020 (RFA tender in 19)

Sweezy & Fluker - UFA 2019

Thanks, Skyhawk and Fade for clarifying the contract situation. Sounds like worst case we get 3 of our current starters plus Fant back next year in any case.

:2thumbs: