"Released by the Jets", "No interest in free agency", and "Torn ACL", the Seahawks first offensive line of the year is not what we expected: Seaside Joe 2012
I am in a “don’t worry, be happy” frame of mind (inevitable link below) when it come to the OL for these reasons:
LT—barring injury Cross is a beast.
LG—Tomlinson is at least as good as Lewis, so no loss. Plus Haynes can back up.
C—Williams could be a significant upgrade. If he has injury issues I am confident Olu Olu can step in and be more than good enough,
RG—ok Bradford got the vet nod over the rookie Haynes to start but Haynes will be at least close if has to step in for Bradford.
Beyond the 5 who start vs Denver this week, there is Grubb’s scheme that should give Geno viable options if pass pro breaks down and/or scheming WR help on running plays (I keep seeing Laviska’s block to spring Kenny Mac on his long TD run, and we know Bobo can do that too, not to mention Pharoh Brown and Barrett who are both plus blockers.)
Tomlinson hopefully will be better- But He Sucked in the first half , and barely got by the rest of the game- He was missing assignments and seemed lost on a variety of plays . I am assuming he will quickly remedy that or be sat down!
Yeah I haven’t seen a breakdown of what changed in the second half that the OL played so much better than the first half—at a competent level really vs horrible in the first half.
Whatever it was I and hoping Huff/Grubb can replicate it tomorrow.
The more Seahawks content the better. So thanks, on that account. I don't dispute a thing you say about the OL. We CAN hope that these coaches are better than the previous coaches.
If their inspiration was the 2024 iteration of the Seahawks then we should all be very happy! (Can you even imagine what these guys could do singing the anthem pregame? It would be beyond awesome!)
Contemplating my mood swing from before last season started to how I felt after Game 1 ended is not something I want to do. But Seaside Joe would not be doing its' job if I am not cautioned to temper my enthusiasm, which this article is certainly doing. The effective word I search for in calming any resultant turmoil is ADJUSTMENT. The one thing I see when reviewing MacDonald and Grubb is they both adjust well, which Pete did not do. No doubt the Bronco's coach has aimed all his ammo at exploiting these concerns, expecting similar historic responses. This year I expect to see our vulnerable realities fully addressed and adjustments for any weaknesses accomodated. Yesterday, Tyler Lockett spoke on his new skills at blocking. If Tyler, skinny and small as he is, is expected to block, I'm thinking the whole team is aware that help will be needed until our Big Guys can find their inner wrecking balls. A failure of One is a failure of All. Truth is, that Musketeer shit actually works. Eyes open. No fear.
It's a good challenge for Grubb/Huff. You shouldn't get to come to the NFL and have a solid veteran QB, great WRs, awesome RBs, and versatile TEs without some adversity.
It would be hard to say that this offensive line is improved from last year, IMO. with any sort of degree of confidence from a skill standpoint.
Losing Lewis who the market valued his services at $13.2M and replacing with Laken for $1.2M does not inspire confidence for me.
However, I believe that Cross was more injured last year than he led on, and he is a good pass blocker regardless, IMO. Williams could be an upgrade as we got him through a weird FA. And Bradford at least has some NFL experience now.
Part of coaching improvement could just be the line making less assignment errors. It's one thing to get beat on lack of skill, but last year the amount of times the line ran into each other or blocked the wrong person seemed far too high for the NFL. Just simply cutting down on errors could help.
Lastly, Geno Smith was incredible over the last month of the season even with a terrible line. He was second in EPA/Play putting up great performances on the road at Dallas, Tenn, Cards, and at home against Pitt.
If Geno can play at that level at the end of a tough year when the D already quit ... What can he do even with the same bad line but a potentially great OC and good defense?
All that is to say ... because Geno has already played at a high level behind a really bad line and an OC that was fired. He still might be very good even if the line doesn't get better. Lot for him to shoulder but we've already seen he can do it.
Go Hawks ... Will be at the game Sunday and cannot wait to see what happens.
Thanks for saving me the keystrokes. OL can't be much worse than last year. With a tick of improvement from performance, health, or coaching, Geno can lift them like last year.
NOW, if MikeMac shapes this defense into a barbed wire version, we're onto something
The salary distorts the NFL market, though. What we know about Lewis is that a team with a perceived need and salary cap room threw a lot of money at him. I’m skeptical that a truly undistorted market would say that Lewis has eleven times the value of Tomlinson.
I don’t disagree. And obviously I am much higher on Geno than the market so I don’t want to be hypocritical and think there are inefficiencies. Also, there is age at play here as Lewis is signed for multiple seasons.
I am just saying, right now, it is hard for me to believe that Laken is an upgrade. And not sure if he is equal.
But, in general, I don’t know or have an opinion other than looking at what the market it saying.
Give me all the Parks and Rec references you have... I'm worried what you heard there was "give me lots of Parks and Rec references", what I said was "give me ALL the Parks and rec references you have". Do you understand?
As for the OL, it seems evident that Tomlinson's best ability is availability and the team is just looking for a guy who they can leave in next to Cross to provide adequate play. We know what we are getting with Fant: decent pass pro with positional blocking in the run game. Not exciting but fine. Williams obviously is the wildcard in here, a full season at his normal level of play would give us the best centre since Max Unger. In all, the OL has all the makings of a bottom 10 unit, so that quick passing game needs to be on point.
Unrelated: just seen a headline that the Hawks are hosting Kadarius Toney. No thanks, we just got rid of an injury-prone gadget player who can't block and has inconsistent hands.
I think the key word is 'adjustments', and I'm confident that if one or more of the o-linemen are struggling, Grubb will make the adjustments. Coaching them up, adjusting play calling, or switching out the struggling player for someone else. Haynes will play, so if Bradford struggles at all, I fully expect to see him out there. If Tomlinson struggles, same deal. Grubb/Huff will find the best 5, and then we'll see how good they can get.
I think that's what gives me slightly more confidence than last year, where the line was clearly struggling, but Waldron just didn't make the adjustments. 'Having answers' was one of Mike Mac's mantra's this offseason, so I hope when the team does struggle, they'll get to those answers. And quickly. We had no answers last year on defense. Like, literally none.
I can't believe that Grubb's offense is so magical that it can compensate for an offensive line busy doing its best impression of a seive. Last year, UW had a dominant O-line. The positive effect that had on Grubb's offense cannot be ignored.
I'm very excited for the season, and I hope that Williams and Cross remain consistently available and are able to act as leaders of the line so that others can step up to carve out roles. Maybe then we can begin working toward some continuity.
Barring that, I fear we're in for a long and frustrating season.
First of all, I would say that this offensive line is exactly what expected. Why I expected is because I read Seaside Joe and Kenneth has repeatedly pointed out the Seahawks don’t spend money on the offensive line, and they absolutely don’t spend money or high draft picks on the interior offensive. Doing those things doesn’t guarantee that you’ll have a good off supply, but it does make it more likely. The fact that Seahawks don’t do those things doesn’t necessarily mean the offensive line will be at the bottom of the league. It just means that they are more likely to again be at the bottom of the league. If the coaching Staff hadn’t changed then my expectations for this team would be somewhere in the middle of the pack 8 to 10 wins because There are some above average players in the offensive , skill positions and defense. But the Seahawks have a new coaching staff and so I don’t really have expectations. In my mind, I can see them being much better. I can also see them being much worse. I can’t wait to see them play football whatever happens it won’t be boring.
Since we're comparing the old and new rosters, I took a cut a lining that up by individual players as a way to judge: Is the new player a plus over the old one, a minus, or a push?
I am in a “don’t worry, be happy” frame of mind (inevitable link below) when it come to the OL for these reasons:
LT—barring injury Cross is a beast.
LG—Tomlinson is at least as good as Lewis, so no loss. Plus Haynes can back up.
C—Williams could be a significant upgrade. If he has injury issues I am confident Olu Olu can step in and be more than good enough,
RG—ok Bradford got the vet nod over the rookie Haynes to start but Haynes will be at least close if has to step in for Bradford.
Beyond the 5 who start vs Denver this week, there is Grubb’s scheme that should give Geno viable options if pass pro breaks down and/or scheming WR help on running plays (I keep seeing Laviska’s block to spring Kenny Mac on his long TD run, and we know Bobo can do that too, not to mention Pharoh Brown and Barrett who are both plus blockers.)
https://youtu.be/d-diB65scQU?si=FgFvFA69O5uxTg_V
Ha! I just noticed that I didn’t address RT lol… well Fant is “good enough” until we hopefully get Lucas back.
Fant is almost certainly better than Curhan or Forsythe, so there's that.
Word
Or Breno, whom played RG when they won a SB.
Tomlinson hopefully will be better- But He Sucked in the first half , and barely got by the rest of the game- He was missing assignments and seemed lost on a variety of plays . I am assuming he will quickly remedy that or be sat down!
Yeah I haven’t seen a breakdown of what changed in the second half that the OL played so much better than the first half—at a competent level really vs horrible in the first half.
Whatever it was I and hoping Huff/Grubb can replicate it tomorrow.
With the fire power the Hawks have an average Oline will do plus they can always trade for an upgrade if needed .
The new Hawks offense under Grubb will look much like the 2023 Husky offense or any offense running the Mike Leach Air Raid with better players !
Should be fun to watch.
We can’t trade for an upgrade this year cause we have no money. Next off season will be very similar. We need draft picks to work out.
If Geno isn’t upright our offense won’t work. If they can’t open holes for K9 we are one dimensional like last year
The more Seahawks content the better. So thanks, on that account. I don't dispute a thing you say about the OL. We CAN hope that these coaches are better than the previous coaches.
OT: These vocals have haunted me, and I want to share it: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ydpTZ6lKwSg
If their inspiration was the 2024 iteration of the Seahawks then we should all be very happy! (Can you even imagine what these guys could do singing the anthem pregame? It would be beyond awesome!)
Their culture first came into contact with the rest of the world 35 years ago. I'm not sure they are ready for a crowd of 60,000 screaming fans.
Contemplating my mood swing from before last season started to how I felt after Game 1 ended is not something I want to do. But Seaside Joe would not be doing its' job if I am not cautioned to temper my enthusiasm, which this article is certainly doing. The effective word I search for in calming any resultant turmoil is ADJUSTMENT. The one thing I see when reviewing MacDonald and Grubb is they both adjust well, which Pete did not do. No doubt the Bronco's coach has aimed all his ammo at exploiting these concerns, expecting similar historic responses. This year I expect to see our vulnerable realities fully addressed and adjustments for any weaknesses accomodated. Yesterday, Tyler Lockett spoke on his new skills at blocking. If Tyler, skinny and small as he is, is expected to block, I'm thinking the whole team is aware that help will be needed until our Big Guys can find their inner wrecking balls. A failure of One is a failure of All. Truth is, that Musketeer shit actually works. Eyes open. No fear.
It's a good challenge for Grubb/Huff. You shouldn't get to come to the NFL and have a solid veteran QB, great WRs, awesome RBs, and versatile TEs without some adversity.
It would be hard to say that this offensive line is improved from last year, IMO. with any sort of degree of confidence from a skill standpoint.
Losing Lewis who the market valued his services at $13.2M and replacing with Laken for $1.2M does not inspire confidence for me.
However, I believe that Cross was more injured last year than he led on, and he is a good pass blocker regardless, IMO. Williams could be an upgrade as we got him through a weird FA. And Bradford at least has some NFL experience now.
Part of coaching improvement could just be the line making less assignment errors. It's one thing to get beat on lack of skill, but last year the amount of times the line ran into each other or blocked the wrong person seemed far too high for the NFL. Just simply cutting down on errors could help.
Lastly, Geno Smith was incredible over the last month of the season even with a terrible line. He was second in EPA/Play putting up great performances on the road at Dallas, Tenn, Cards, and at home against Pitt.
If Geno can play at that level at the end of a tough year when the D already quit ... What can he do even with the same bad line but a potentially great OC and good defense?
All that is to say ... because Geno has already played at a high level behind a really bad line and an OC that was fired. He still might be very good even if the line doesn't get better. Lot for him to shoulder but we've already seen he can do it.
Go Hawks ... Will be at the game Sunday and cannot wait to see what happens.
Nobody will expect 33 year-old Geno to have set designed scramble plays.
Thanks for saving me the keystrokes. OL can't be much worse than last year. With a tick of improvement from performance, health, or coaching, Geno can lift them like last year.
NOW, if MikeMac shapes this defense into a barbed wire version, we're onto something
Thanks for reading through my garble ... That is exactly what I wanted to say!
Well said.
The salary distorts the NFL market, though. What we know about Lewis is that a team with a perceived need and salary cap room threw a lot of money at him. I’m skeptical that a truly undistorted market would say that Lewis has eleven times the value of Tomlinson.
I don’t disagree. And obviously I am much higher on Geno than the market so I don’t want to be hypocritical and think there are inefficiencies. Also, there is age at play here as Lewis is signed for multiple seasons.
I am just saying, right now, it is hard for me to believe that Laken is an upgrade. And not sure if he is equal.
But, in general, I don’t know or have an opinion other than looking at what the market it saying.
Give me all the Parks and Rec references you have... I'm worried what you heard there was "give me lots of Parks and Rec references", what I said was "give me ALL the Parks and rec references you have". Do you understand?
As for the OL, it seems evident that Tomlinson's best ability is availability and the team is just looking for a guy who they can leave in next to Cross to provide adequate play. We know what we are getting with Fant: decent pass pro with positional blocking in the run game. Not exciting but fine. Williams obviously is the wildcard in here, a full season at his normal level of play would give us the best centre since Max Unger. In all, the OL has all the makings of a bottom 10 unit, so that quick passing game needs to be on point.
Unrelated: just seen a headline that the Hawks are hosting Kadarius Toney. No thanks, we just got rid of an injury-prone gadget player who can't block and has inconsistent hands.
I think the key word is 'adjustments', and I'm confident that if one or more of the o-linemen are struggling, Grubb will make the adjustments. Coaching them up, adjusting play calling, or switching out the struggling player for someone else. Haynes will play, so if Bradford struggles at all, I fully expect to see him out there. If Tomlinson struggles, same deal. Grubb/Huff will find the best 5, and then we'll see how good they can get.
I think that's what gives me slightly more confidence than last year, where the line was clearly struggling, but Waldron just didn't make the adjustments. 'Having answers' was one of Mike Mac's mantra's this offseason, so I hope when the team does struggle, they'll get to those answers. And quickly. We had no answers last year on defense. Like, literally none.
I can't believe that Grubb's offense is so magical that it can compensate for an offensive line busy doing its best impression of a seive. Last year, UW had a dominant O-line. The positive effect that had on Grubb's offense cannot be ignored.
I'm very excited for the season, and I hope that Williams and Cross remain consistently available and are able to act as leaders of the line so that others can step up to carve out roles. Maybe then we can begin working toward some continuity.
Barring that, I fear we're in for a long and frustrating season.
I wonder if any of us has made a group for SeaSide Joe members in the ESPN PigSkin Pick'um contest?
I like that weekly game, I'm pretty good at it, and would like to compete within this group.
First of all, I would say that this offensive line is exactly what expected. Why I expected is because I read Seaside Joe and Kenneth has repeatedly pointed out the Seahawks don’t spend money on the offensive line, and they absolutely don’t spend money or high draft picks on the interior offensive. Doing those things doesn’t guarantee that you’ll have a good off supply, but it does make it more likely. The fact that Seahawks don’t do those things doesn’t necessarily mean the offensive line will be at the bottom of the league. It just means that they are more likely to again be at the bottom of the league. If the coaching Staff hadn’t changed then my expectations for this team would be somewhere in the middle of the pack 8 to 10 wins because There are some above average players in the offensive , skill positions and defense. But the Seahawks have a new coaching staff and so I don’t really have expectations. In my mind, I can see them being much better. I can also see them being much worse. I can’t wait to see them play football whatever happens it won’t be boring.
Since we're comparing the old and new rosters, I took a cut a lining that up by individual players as a way to judge: Is the new player a plus over the old one, a minus, or a push?
Frank Clark Mike Morris plus?
Darrell Taylor Trevis Gipson push?
Bobby Wagner Tyrel Dodson plus?
Jordyn Brooks Jerome Baker push?
Jon Rhattigan Tyrice Knight plus?
Devin Bush plus?
Nick Bellore Dee Williams plus?
Quandre Diggs Rayshawn Jenkins minus?
Jamal Adams K'Von Wallace plus?
Mike Jackosn Nehemiaah Pritchett minus?
Mario Edwards Byron Murphy plus?
Brian Mone Johnathan Hankins plus?
Will Dissly A.J. Barner push?
Colby Parkinson Pharaoh Brown minus?
Damien Lewis Laken Tomlinson minus?
Evan Brown C. Williams plus?
McClendon Curtis Jalen Sundell push?
Jake Curhan Sataoua Laumea push?
Jason Peters George Fant plus?
Raiqwon O'Neal Michael Jerrell push?
Phil Haynes Christian Haynes plus?
Dee Eskridge L. Shenault plus?
Drew Lock Sam Howell plus?
DeeJay Dallas push?