What do you think? O-Line Edition

Lat year pass protection, was at times more of a liability than a strength. The 44 sacks the Seahawks allowed were 10th most in the NFL, a ranking that looks worse when taking into account that Seattle attempted the second-fewest passes of any team.

Obviously, the injuries to both Okung and Breno contributed to this.

Now, we kind of have a similar "unknown" situation with the RT position, What do you think will be the final choice for the O-line?

Carpenter is in a contract year and has shown up working hard, I would think he nails down the LG spot.

For the RT, I am going to give Bowie the nod right now, but he could be pushed by Britt.

Sweezy at RG, and Unger @ center.

http://mynorthwest.com/292/2545849/Max- ... awks-Oline

LT-Okung
LG- Carp. This is do or die for him. Contract year, after an injury ridden start to his career, and sub par athleticism per conditioning. If he can't do it this year he can't do it at all. I believe he has it in him, and am very hopeful.
C- Maxumus Ungerus-
RG- Sweezy. Athletic beast, improving guard. He was vastly better at picking up blitzes last year, and I expect his abilities to improve even more this year.
RT- Britt. I am hopeful he can continue to show up and perform.

Sprfunk":27zl4lyg said:

LT-Okung
LG- Carp. This is do or die for him. Contract year, after an injury ridden start to his career, and sub par athleticism per conditioning. If he can't do it this year he can't do it at all. I believe he has it in him, and am very hopeful.
C- Maxumus Ungerus-
RG- Sweezy. Athletic beast, improving guard. He was vastly better at picking up blitzes last year, and I expect his abilities to improve even more this year.
RT- Britt. I am hopeful he can continue to show up and perform.

Click to expand...

That's your starting lineup based on everything Cable has to say.

RT will be the biggest question mark.

From all accounts Carp is having a great off-season, and the hawks simply have all kinds of faith in sweezy.

The real question is going to be do we pay Okung when he has a hard time staying healthy, and is britt the answer at RT? How do Bowie/Bailey fit in?

I'm gonna be honest here and say that unless Okung can play 16 games, I'd rather have a less talented guy there who can at least make it through a season if it means saving a lot of cap room.

All I know is this needs to be fixed asap. What good is having Sidney Rice, Richardson, and Harvin out there if your QB is running for his life every play.

Well, honestly what I think is that our OL will only ever be average at best at pass pro. If you want an elite run blocking line, you're probably not going to get a great pass blocking line and visa versa. Pete is committed to the run first approach, which is also why he likes a mobile, "point guard" QB. You can't have a Brady or Manning behind our line or they're going to get killed.

I said it in another thread, but as proof of this, look at SF's line. They're elite at run blocking, and have been for years, but we still manage to pressure whoever they put back there at QB. And we haven't always had the most elite DL's at rushing the passer until lately.

So I temper my expectations of our OL's pass blocking. There are a few things we could do to help Wilson out:

1. have some shorter, quick hitting routes in our route trees. most of our routes are longer developing PA passes, and they are getting Wilson hit. He also likes to hold onto the ball longer to hit those deep balls. This also entails getting WRs that are either good at getting separation right away, or physically winning a matchup. It looks like we have both of those healthy on the roster at this point.

2. become better at run blocking. If we're blasting people off the line even better than we were last year, we're wearing defenses out. Our OL has to pass protect less, and a tired DL is one that gets to the QB slower.

Against larger DL's like Carolina's, I've seen us use a lot more off tackle stuff to get the DL running side to side. Wilson scrambling around also helps out a lot. You want to get those bigs hogs tired.


As for the camp battle, I really can't speculate. I'm not familiar enough with Britt, although he sounds great, and Bowie most likely will improve from last year if he comes back fine from injury. As of right now, I'm comfortable with Britt if he gets all the 1st team snaps from OTA's through TC. Bowie might be better and more experienced but if he's out for the entire TC, he's going to lose his job by default as long as Britt isn't miserable.

I don't know who it was, but I read they want either Bailey or Bowie to lose some weight. Being too heavy on the edge won't help out a lot, especially against DE's like Long and Quinn.

I'm in this camp..

Okung (if not healthy I feel like Bailey can be much better than McQ if needed)
Carpenter (315 pounds and in great shape with a couple months to go is encouraging)
Unger (for continuity reasons alone Seahawks need a 16+ game season from him)
Sweezy (added 20 pounds in off-season, he added much needed bulk to his athleticism)
Britt (I think he's more athletic and technique savvy than Bowie)

It will also help the have to Percy Harvin in the short to intermediate passing game that will take tremendous pressure of Wilson being able to consistently throw quick passes and knowing that guy is going to get his seperation.

I'm fully expecting to see a ton of rotation @ O-Line in the four pre-season games.
I too believe that Britt will make a good showing, and I also think he's going to wind up at RT, I glean this from what Bevel has said about him and his athleticism.
The only fly in that ointment is, that both Baily & Bowie have a Year head start in experience, and sometimes that will sway Bevel's decision.
BUT all in all, I think we will see a marked improvement over last Year.

Cable said THIS yesterday.........http://blogs.seattletimes.com/seahawks/ ... ht-tackle/

"On the second day of mini-camp, though, Britt took every snap with the starting offense, as did rookie undrafted free agent Gary Gilliam at left tackle.

And if you thought maybe a message was being sent to Bowie, and to Alvin Bailey, who projects as Okung’s backup at left tackle and usually worked with the starters with Okung out, you may well have been right.

As mini-camp ended on Thursday, Cable said Bowie and Bailey each had proven not to be in quite the shape the team had hoped."

Cable, meanwhile, praised the play of Britt, the former Missouri standout who impressed with his quick grasp of the playbook and footwork, saying he was “really pleased” with his performance during OTAs and mini-camp.

“I think we have tremendous competition at right tackle,” Cable said. “And like I said, if we can get Alvin and Mike in the kind of shape we think it takes to play, then they give themselves the best chance, and that will make the whole group and the team that much better.”

Cable has therefore bought into the ALWAYS COMPETE mantra. It also tells the others that if they dont get up to snuff within the next month or so, they may be riding the pine that is on the train out of the 53man roster.

I think in all due respect to Giacomini that RT is going to be the strongest it's been in a long time. I would like/expect Bowie to win the RT spot because of his size/potential to knock lineman off the ball day 1 but his pass protection is suspect. Justin Britt had my attention before the draft as a Tom Cable guy and the only thing holding him back is we have not seen him in pads yet but I assume he lacks the ideal power. Power is the only reason Bowie would win over Britt because is a technician and should thrive in Cable's ZBS. Britt is a former wrestler so u know he has the grinders mentality so Bowie better not be day dreaming of last season or he could get beat out.


I'm predicting good play from our guards this year too. I expect Carpenter to make us wish we could keep him around by the end of the season. I seen Carpenter hold and take ground against Justin Smith one on one that was out of shape Carp. Now I want to see how a in shape Carpenter opens up holes in the run game.

I also expect Sweezy to improve the man knows its sink or swim in this division like no one else. So I expect him to be more technically sound and have a stronger anchor. He knows he has to go up against Calais Cambell so he should be training for that match up.

As for centers I think a healthy Unger will improve on last years play and we resigned a quality back up.

So I believe in Tom Cable and his system/ picks. So I think the O line will hold up well this season.

This is Cables way of calling guys out, it's OTA's and they have a month or so to get themselves in compete shape, remember many of these guys have not had to deal with the constant look over your shoulder mentality. Bailey and Bowie just got their wake up call. Took two seasons for Carpenter to get there since his out of shape caused his injuries as well.

I was a little critical of Tom Cable last season. I still think overall the o-line hasn't performed quite as well as expected. But I also have a greater appreciation for what Tom has had to work with after reading/hearing some of the recent player comments.

Obviously losing Big Russ and Breno for multiple games really hurt us last year. I also am more convinced than ever that Max was never fully healthy last season. Considering the talent and experience level (or lack thereof) that Cable had to work with for much of last season, he actually did a pretty remarkable job of coaching.

Carp recently said that his knee is just now fully healthy, which is a major reason why he's come into camp at a good weight and level of conditioning for the first time. He was able to do a lot of running in the last few months.

Sweezy is a physical freak and mentioned again recently how much his knowledge has jumped each year. He said that he finally feels like an o-lineman. I expect great things from him in the years to come.

Britt seems to have good potential, is being lauded as a quick learner and as a former wrestler likely has some of that same mauler mentality that Breno brought to the line.

Bowie and Bailey got valuable experience last season. They also just got a good wake up call that they can't sit back and expect playtime to come to them. I expect they'll be picking it back up in the next month.

LJP proved last season that he is a valuable and very capable backup at center.

Gilliam will probably end up on the PS or cut, but he has gotten some notice in OTAs and minicamp.

Last year's d-line to o-line convert, Smith, is still learning. We'll have to see if he ends up on PS or just gets jettisoned this season.

I think things will improve on the line, especially if we avoid the freak level of injuries experienced last year.

If Gilliam is manning the LT position, I think he is a valuable back up. Okung has proven over time that he can't be relied on to make it through 16 games.

In a word, flux. Every starter on the line has it in him to be an above average or elite starter, but every starter could also be bad or oft-injured.

When Seattle's OL turned things around in 2011, it all began when Gallery and Unger started opening huge holes between the tackles and Lynch clicking in the system. For most of 2013, Seattle lost that ability to open holes inside and I think it had a bit of a domino effect on the rest of the OL's play, since even the pass is built around the success of the run with Seattle's league high play action and bootleg percentages.

As far as individual players, I think Sweezy is the guy with the brightest outlook at the moment, and you know Okung is good when he's actually out there. Unger needs to prove last year's decline was because of injury and not because he started sucking. Carpenter and Bowie/Britt just need to be league average, anything else is icing on the cake.

sc85sis":zhdboett said:

LJP proved last season that he is a valuable and very capable backup at center.

Click to expand...

What is the story there? strictly a backup center? seems like a a baller who could play guard...

They haven't put on the pads yet. But, Garry Gilliam has emerged as an interesting possibility for development as a backside tackle.

He was the plan B alternative to 6th round pick Garrett Scott. Their athleticism is similar. And in fact, Garry Gilliam was reported to have had a 6th round grade on Seattle's draft board. Gilliam was given a big enough signing bonus to be considered a priority rookie free agent. He is likely further behind than what Garrett Scott would have been because of his late transition from a 262lb TE to a 306lb OT for his final year at Penn State. However, as a conversion project, he does have a 1 year head start compared to the JR Sweezy story.

Garry Gillian moved up a notch with the loss of Garrett Scott. Then, he moved up another notch when Alvin Bailey reported out of condition. He could surprise ... just have to wait till the pads go on to find out how bad he wants it. What we already do know about him is that he knows how to show up on time, in shape and ready to work.

Miy biggest concern is at center. Unger is a good center when healthy but even healthy he gave up to much ground, you can't have your center getting pushed back into your QB's space at the rate it was last year. Hopefully we see less of that this year.

My biggest concern is a starting LT that makes about $10 or $11 million yearly who is only able to play about 10 games each year.
IMO, cap management would indicate that is a poor investment.

I get the feeling that Okung might be off the team in a year or two if Bailey/Bowie/Gilliam shows marked improvement. I feel like Russ' replacement is already here. Gilliam im interested in in particular. He is a SPARQ athletes that really might turn into something, and that dude is BIG.

Michael Bowie is going to shock some people with how good he is.