OL v2019 : I am feeling good about our OL

Haha, another OL thread. With the signing of Lupati and pending signing of Fluker. Our OL is taking shape and I am feeling good about it.

Brown - Jones - Fant (placed behind for his TE duties)
Iupati - Pocic - Hunt
Britt - Hunt - Pocic
Fluker - Simmons - Pocic
Ifedi - Jones - Fant

Thoughts:

1. Fluker, Jones, Simmons, and Lupati all had injury in '18, hoping that they all come back "as new".
2. With Fluker's injury history, he and Simmons basically have to rotate some, luckily with minimum drop off.
3. Pocic didn't progress much in '18 under Solaris, and he didn't have much trade value.
4. If there's a good offer on Britt, is Pocic ready to take over? Hunt did alright when he was given the opportunity.
5. What about Roos, any hope there?
6. What do we know about Elijah Nkansah?
7. Fant could be ready for a breakout season?

Feeling very different from this time last year.

:irishdrinkers:

Now that he's a Seahawk you're gonna have to learn his name. It's iupati :irishdrinkers:

King Dog":bf8gszlf said:

Now that he's a Seahawk you're gonna have to learn his name. It's iupati :irishdrinkers:

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I stand corrected.

I'll feel better if Pocic isn't the primary back up at any position

I'm with you Toffee,firstly Cable is long gone,Solari is in his second year and now has 2 of his guys,Iupati has claimed to be over the injuries for over a month and wouldn't have passed the medical otherwise, Jones, Simmons and Fant have plenty of upside and its only midMarch. If Solari can produce that difference in 1 year ,what could be achieved in 2,maybe we could have an above average OL, think what Russ could do with that !! :irishdrinkers:

If everyone can stay healthy (big if) we are absolutely going to maul teams with the run game.

Absolutely. I'm loving the pound the rock and keep the scoring defense at nice clip type of team. Last year was really fun to watch imo. The year before, almost unwatchable a good portion of the season.

I agree. And it has to do with Solari more then anything else. While he has history with DJ and Iupati, he’s just a very good coach/teacher of the game.

Brown regressed playing for Cable but he regained his Pro Bowl form playing for Solari and he did this while changing blocking concepts from zone to power. They also ran Zone concepts at Houston.

And, Simmons was an UDFA signed by the Raiders, so he didn’t get a chance to learn Solari’s system during OTAs, TC, or preseason, yet he played at a very high level.

I don’t know if Pocic, Hunt or other back ups will make the 53, but I’m confident they will find players like Simmons who will fit right in because DJ and Iupati haven’t played 16 games for 2 consecutive years.

Looks good they can keep them on the field. Health is a big factor with this group.

daveyoung52":3ovdr4t9 said:

I'm with you Toffee,firstly Cable is long gone,Solari is in his second year and now has 2 of his guys,Iupati has claimed to be over the injuries for over a month and wouldn't have passed the medical otherwise, Jones, Simmons and Fant have plenty of upside and its only midMarch. If Solari can produce that difference in 1 year ,what could be achieved in 2,maybe we could have an above average OL, think what Russ could do with that !! :irishdrinkers:

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There is something else that hasn't been mentioned, and that is Schotty and the rest of the O will have another training camp to gel even more and this should take the offense to another level this year.

lukerguy":2iw98v9z said:

I'll feel better if Pocic isn't the primary back up at any position

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Jordan Simmons probably is the lead backup.

MontanaHawk05":3vaju564 said:

lukerguy":3vaju564 said:

I'll feel better if Pocic isn't the primary back up at any position

Click to expand...

Jordan Simmons probably is the lead backup.

Click to expand...

Brown - Jones - Fant (placed behind Jones for his TE duties)
Iupati - Simmons - Hunt - Pocic
Britt - Hunt - Pocic
Fluker - Simmons - Hunt - Pocic
Ifedi - Jones - Fant


Potential problems:
What if Jamarco Jones, after his injury, became even slower? He was the slowest lineman at the combine, if Jones doesn't workout, we are very thin at backup T.

I agree that based on Simmons' performance last season, he should be the primary backup at G. Feeling like Pocic's the odd man out, he can play lots of positions but none well, we suffered every time he's on the field. As is, Pocic is behind Simmons and Hunt, an undrafted a 6th rounder.

Hunt's a bit undersized in comparison to Iupati and Fluker, can he really be a candidate as backup G?

Simmons has an injury history, Fluker too, we may need another workhorse as backup G?

I think the starting line up looks pretty darn good, in fact better than last year on paper with the addition of Iupati. My one concern is the health. Fluker, and Iupati have extensive injury histories. We experienced some of it last season with Fluker. Brown is also getting up there in age, and with age usually comes the concern of drop off, and injury. I see three of our starting linemen as potential injury liabilities. I hope that we get some more depth via FA, and the draft. I would like to see one of our guard spots locked up in the near future long term.

Good point, health is going to be a big factor. The Hawks have a solid roster, but depth will be a big question mark if certain guys go down.

How's Iupati's pass pro compared to Sweezy?

I'm feeling pretty good about the line. Can't wait for the season to begin.

MontanaHawk05":dyjj1kpd said:

lukerguy":dyjj1kpd said:

I'll feel better if Pocic isn't the primary back up at any position

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Jordan Simmons probably is the lead backup.

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I think its him and as a wild card Jones. They seemed to really like him before he got hurt.

We need to sign one more passable veteran OG as injury insurance then I think we'll be pretty good shape - we don't want to be relying on Pocic for that. IMO Pocic's hope of making the roster is if he can beat out Hunt for #2 C. If J. Jones or Simmons regress or can't stay healthy through TC then we still have a bit of a problem with depth.

Me too, we got 4 out of 5 starters returning. And we still don't have Cable.

The state of the offensive line is well ahead of where it was last year.

In addition to the four returning starters, there are already 13 competitors scheduled to compete for a spot. Twelve of them were in the Seahawks system prior to the conclusion of the 2018 season plus the added veteran. The coaching staff is back and possesses some familiarity with all of them.

They carried 17 linemen into the team building process last year. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see one or two less than that this year.

Looks like a big thumbs up to me. :biggthumpup: