Aside from digging into the various news stories, I’ve largely neglected talking about the Seahawks by design: 2017 was a bitter pill to swallow. After such a sustained stretch of brilliance, this team was a slog to cover last year; but, they’ve jettisoned a lot of aging veterans, brought in fresh blood throughout the organization, and I would argue there’s some reasons to be optimistic (even though my default prediction is that this team will win anywhere from 7-9 games; everything would have to go perfectly in our favor to get to 10 wins or more, and when does THAT ever happen?).
So, with precious few weeks remaining until the pre-season games kick things off, I’ve got a quickie series of posts where I’ll look at the 7 areas of this team as they’re set up right now:
- Passing Game (QB / WR / TE / RB)
- Running Game (RB / QB)
- Blocking Game (OL / TE)
- Special Teams (K / P / Coverage Units / Return Game)
- Pass Rush (DE / LB)
- Run Defense (DT / DE / LB)
- Pass Defense (DB / LB)
Without further ado, let’s talk about the Seahawks’ blocking game.
Offensive Line
Here we are. So much of what the Seahawks want to do hinges on this. Every year since Russell Wilson has proven himself to be a superstar quarterback in this league, I’ve been waiting for this offense to really bust out and start carrying the team; and every year, those hopes are dashed by an offensive line that couldn’t stop a pack of infants from wreaking havoc in our backfield.
And it’s not like the Seahawks haven’t tried! We hired Tom Cable, we used many multiple draft picks, in a variety of rounds from the first through the seventh. But, nothing worked, and indeed it got progressively worse over time, until last year when we has the worst running game in football. How Russell Wilson hasn’t been killed in a live NFL game is beyond me, because he’s taken a BEATING!
I wish I could walk those comments back and say, “Oh, it wasn’t as bad as we remember,” but actually I think it was worse. I mean, you’d expect a unit that was as healthy as our O-Line was last year to at least show SOME signs of improvement as the season went along, but I saw no evidence of that. Did you?
Who’s at fault? Well, how much time have you got? Obviously, Tom Cable had to go. I wouldn’t say his tenure was an utter failure – he did help take us to 2 Super Bowls, so it wasn’t ALWAYS this bad – but I’d say the last three years (2015-2017) were as bad as it gets. Instead of taking advantage of Russell Wilson’s absolute prime, he had to run for his life on almost every play, while battling constant nagging injuries for one of those seasons!
The front office certainly shares some of the blame, be it Pete Carroll, John Schneider, the scouts, all of ’em. Letting Tom Cable have so much power and direction over personnel, for starters. The collective, for just having the worst insight/intuition/whathaveyou when it comes to picking which players we ended up drafting and signing to free agent deals. The front office also for losing its way – to quote Richard Sherman – by trading away Max Unger for Jimmy Graham. One of the better blocking centers in the league for one of the worst blocking tight ends in the history of football.
Now, certainly there were factors outside of their control, in that so many other players on this team turned into All Pros and Pro Bowlers, and as we talk about all the time, you can’t pay everyone. But, the front office still made a choice in who they decided to pay; and ultimately they decided to make this offensive line the most under-funded in the entire league. It backfired, and they’ve since corrected for that, but now we’re years from our last Super Bowl and, I’m afraid, many more years away from our next one.
I mean, if they’d just signed ONE high-priced left tackle, instead of paying the likes of Percy Harvin or Jimmy Graham, just think of how different things might be. We might truly be talking about a Seahawks Dynasty, instead of a Seahawks What-If.
But, the past is the past and we can’t do anything about it now. Let’s take a look at who we’ve got.
Well, I’ll say this: the left side of the line looks VERY promising. There are still a tremendous amount of caveats and question marks even about these three guys, but it’s not hard to envision a scenario where Duane Brown (at left tackle), Ethan Pocic (at left guard) and Justin Britt (at center) truly anchor this offensive line and make it a halfway competent one. That having been said, Brown is going to be 33 in August and is heading into his 11th season; that’s a lot of mileage. He’s also coming off of a year where he held out for half the games, then suffered an ankle injury. He appears to be healthy now, but how long will that last? And, even when he was (supposedly) healthy last year, he didn’t look great. Maybe he needed time to get used to Russell Wilson’s style of play and scrambling and all that … or maybe he’s in his 30’s and is on the downside of his career. How many more years does he have left, realistically? 2? 3 at the MOST?
This thing falls apart in a hurry if Duane Brown isn’t The Man. I like Pocic as much as the next guy, but it’s still his second year in the league. He’s also on his second offensive line coach in as many seasons (well, third in as many seasons, I suppose, if you include his college coach), so what is that going to do to stunt his growth? And, as for Britt, again I like him, but he also pulled his share of boners last year, following his contract extension and the anointing of him as the leader of this unit. Maybe that was because he had to compensate for the dunderheads around him – and I really do hope that’s the case – but don’t forget who’s at fault for George Fant getting hurt in the first place. He took a blind dive into a guy and ended up landing on his own teammate’s knee; Britt isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.
I want to believe in this left side of the line – I HAVE to believe in them, for my own sanity – because the right side scares the everloving shit out of me.
The Seahawks brought back Mile Solari to coach up the offensive line. He hasn’t had a successful O-Line in more years than I can count, so right away we’re dealing with a huge red flag. Now, maybe there were other circumstances outside of his control, and it wasn’t necessarily all his fault that his lines have been terrible. Maybe, if he had more control over things, he would’ve gotten his type of guys and had more success. I certainly hope so, because it sounds like the Seahawks really took him to heart when he recommended signing D.J. Fluker to be this team’s right guard.
For starters, I think a lot of fans were clamoring for Germain Ifedi to move inside to guard. I wasn’t one of them – I think if we’re ever going to see our faith in Ifedi pay off, it’s going to have to be at one single position, and not by jerking him around from guard to tackle and back again – but I can certainly understand the thought process. Ifedi looks like a giant lunkhead over there at right tackle, and it might be easier to hide some of his flaws if you moved him inside and had Britt helping him out on double-teams and whatnot. But, I’m of the opinion that if Ifedi is the bust we all fear he is, then he’s going to be a HUGE GAPING LIABILITY wherever you put him. Sort of like Britt was, when we moved him from tackle to guard to finally center; unfortunately, you can only have one center on an offensive line, and Britt weaselled his way into the league first.
Getting back to Fluker for a minute, here’s a guy who was another former first rounder, as well as a guy who’s been considered a giant bust since entering the league. He’s also a guy who was injured for most of 2017, and who thus far through OTA’s and mini-camps, hasn’t seen any action that I can recall hearing about (again, due to injury). Even in an ideal world where Fluker was 100% healthy this off-season, he still was never going to be a guarantee. I like him because he’s cheap, and hungry, and huge, and is supposedly a quality run blocker if nothing else; but that still doesn’t mean he’s destined to be worth a damn in 2018!
I want to believe in these guys, 1-5, but I just can’t get it up for this right side. At this point, I’m done hoping Ifedi will be anything; I’m resigned to him being a bust and if I’m pleasantly surprised, then so be it. As for Fluker, I don’t think he has more than 5 games in him before some body part gives out. I’m mentally preparing myself for a revolving door on this side, with guys like Rees Odhiambo or Jordan Roos seeing some action at right guard, and with guys like George Fant or Isaiah Battle seeing some action at right tackle.
That having all been said, I think there’s an offensive line here we can use. It’s far from perfect, and it’s far from ideal, but 3/5 of a competent offensive line is better than the 0/5 we’ve had the last three years.
As I said before, it all hinges on Duane Brown. If he can return to even 80% of his former Pro Bowl self, we’ve got a shot. Hopefully he’ll get better acquainted with Wilson’s scrambling style, as well as stay healthy the full year. If he can do that, and help guide a beefed-up Pocic through any more growing pains he’s got left, then I don’t think Britt has to worry about helping out on that side, and can put his talents towards helping out his right guard, whoever that ends up being. At which point, I’m not even asking for a huge step forward out of our right tackle; just don’t get any WORSE and I’ll be ecstatic!
With how BIG this unit is, if we still have trouble running the ball, then I’m gonna go jump off a bridge. Also, it sounds like maybe there’ll be something of a scheme change, away from the strict zone blocking scheme we had under Cable? I think that could help an oaf like Ifedi, where he doesn’t have to use his brain as much. Maybe he can put those remaining brain cells into keeping track of the snap count, and not illegally hitting guys after the whistle and whatnot.
It’s the pass protection that’s my bigger concern, as it always is. Pocic is a great unknown at this point in his career (one would hope his pedigree, work ethic, and increased mass will help him going forward), but everyone to his right has their moments of utter, mind-blowing ineptitude when it comes to letting guys just get free runs at the quarterback. So, again, I turn to Duane Brown; he NEEDS to be our rock. If we just have that one guy doing his job, we’ve got a chance. Where it always breaks down is when both ends get to charge at Wilson and he has nowhere to go; but, if Brown is solid, then at least Wilson will be able to escape to the left side and try to make something happen.
I hate having to rely so much on one guy, but that’s the hand we’ve been dealt. If Duane Brown doesn’t earn his next contract with superb play, we’re fucked. There’s no other way around it.
As such, my grade is a C-. There’s room to take it as high as a B, and obviously as low as an F, but as a baseline, C- is still better than anything we’ve gotten in the previous three seasons, which I find really encouraging.
Tight Ends
Can’t talk about the blocking game without mentioning the VAST improvement we’ve established among our tight ends!
Swapping out Jimmy Graham and bringing in Ed Dickson is like an NBA team trading me for LeBron James; I’m so giddy I can’t even stand it!
I want you to close your eyes. I want you to picture the Seahawks lining up on offense, with 3 wide receivers, a running back, and Jimmy Graham. I want you to picture Jimmy Graham motioning out wide to the right, then turning around and motioning back towards the offensive line. I want you to picture just as Graham gets to the right tackle, we snap the ball, and Russell Wilson turns to hand it off to the running back, with the intention to go off-tackle. There’s a linebacker coming around the edge; he’s Graham’s responsibility. All Graham has to do is execute a wham block – blocking him down into the mass of bodies along the offensive and defensive lines – and if he does that, we have a considerable gain with the running back bouncing it around. Can you picture it? Can you picture Jimmy Graham standing fully upright, sort of half-heartedly (quarter-heartedly?) pushing on the linebacker with his forearms right before said linebacker blows up the play for a 3-yard loss? Is your blood now sufficiently boiling? Do you want to go out and murder 50 people?
I never thought I could hate someone more than I hated Percy Harvin, but I hate Jimmy Graham with the intensity of A FUCKING GOOGOLPLEX OF SUNS! I mean, at least Harvin has a mental condition to explain why he’s a worthless pile of shit; Jimmy Graham is just a soft asshole whose only skill is catching 1-yard touchdown passes against undersized cornerbacks (and even THEN he drops the ball half the time!).
So, yeah, I love the Ed Dickson signing. Is it sexy? HELL NO! But, I’m tired of going after sexy offensive weapons; where has it gotten us? Give me the guy willing to hunt for his meal. Give me the guy who will scrap and claw and fight for that inch.
Shit, give me a guy who can help out this poor excuse for an offensive line!
The Seahawks did it in spades. Not only did they let Graham go, but they let Luke Willson go as well. I like Willson, but he’s just a guy. Sure, he was a fighter, but you wouldn’t say blocking was his specialty. You know whose specialty that is? Will Dissly, 4th round draft pick out of the University of Washington. “Best blocking tight end in the draft” is what I’m told. Good enough for me. He could catch 0 balls this year and he’ll still be worth his weight in gold if he can live up to that moniker for this team.
Beyond that, it’ll be a fight between Nick Vannett and Tyrone Swoopes, the 3rd round pick from 2016 vs. the undrafted rookie from 2017. Vannett has largely been considered a disappointment, and you can see why. You pick a guy in the 3rd round, you expect more than 15 total receptions and 1 touchdown in his first 2 years. Beyond that, I really don’t remember him making any sort of special teams contributions, so what is he good for?
Well, I’d argue he was buried behind two very established veterans in Graham and Willson, and how often do you really see a team’s third tight end? It’s now or never for this kid, and you’d have to say his chances are never going to be better. I have to believe – heading into the pre-season – Vannett is probably the most gifted offensive, pass-catching weapon at tight end on this team. If he can’t stand out over a guy in Ed Dickson (who you know what you’ve got) and a rookie in Dissly not known as much of a pass-catching threat in college, then we’ve probably reached the end of the road with Vannett. From a blocking perspective, he doesn’t even need to be that great to make an impact, so long as he’s a catching machine. But, regardless, he HAS to be better than Graham, so we’re talking about a considerable improvement any way you slice it.
As for Swoopes, he more or less rode the Practice Squad all of 2017. He’s seen as more of a project, but with great potential as a pass-catcher, so again there’s probably only room for either him or Vannett. Unless he shows tremendous skills – and tremendous improvement over what was probably a pretty raw rookie campaign – then he’s going to need to be a force when it comes to blocking. I have no idea, but my hunch is that’s probably the biggest part of his game that’s lacking. We’ll see.
Regardless, when it comes to just blocking, I’m giving our tight ends an A+. I couldn’t be happier!
The question now is: when you factor in the combo of the O-Line and our Tight Ends, will we have the blocking to be successful? Assuming we scheme it up right, and take advantage of all of them, I think we do. Darrell Bevell liked to spend all his free time trying to out-think opposing defenses (hence why you always saw Graham on the field in obvious rushing situations, to try to “fool” defenses into thinking we’d throw to him; only problem with that is it never made up for the liability he was in actually trying to throw a block). It sounds like Brian Schottenheimer is more old school in that regard. I’d expect a lot of ground & pound. In which case, it’s our best guys against your best guys, and may the best team win. With the group of guys we’ve got, I think that suits us to a T. I could easily see our blocking unit end up with a grade of a B-, which is all we need with our skill position guys doing their things.
I really do believe there’s potential for greatness out of this offense. Of course, there’s also potential for utter ruin, but that’s what makes this season so exciting!