Seahawks could stand to spend more money on offensive line

John Michael Schmitz in the draft? Not very likely and here's why: Seaside Joe 1446

I’ve learned quite a lot about fans over the past 15 years of writing articles and then seeing the reaction and reading comments, replies. NFL fans say that they hate it when media overrates quarterbacks, but then click on articles, videos, and podcasts about quarterbacks at a pace that eclipses every other football subject combined.

Posts about Xs and Os, while fascinating to its demo and important to exist, are wildly unpopular. Perhaps only Brett Kollman has figured out a good formula for it and that’s only in video form with a lot of production value with years of trial and error.

Anything about compensatory picks, it doesn’t matter if it’s a seventh rounder in 2046, is the most important thing that’s ever happened in the history of an organization.

And fans are obsessed with their team having five—not four, not three, and definitely not one or two—perfect road-grading/pass blocking offensive linemen. Plus an outstanding offensive line coach who is anyone, literally anyone, other than Tom Cable.

Uh oh. As is always the case in the NFL, the bloodlines mean that coaches never leave.

I don’t want to say that Pete Carroll doesn’t give a shit about building the offensive line, but we may get a clue as to how he values those positions based on the Seahawks’ line when Seattle was peaking: In 2013, the Seahawks survived a major injury to Russell Okung by playing Paul McQuistan at left tackle for eight games in the regular season.

McQuistan started six games at left guard; James Carpenter started the other 10; J.R. Sweezy was the starter at right guard; Breno Giacomini and Michael Bowie split the season at right tackle; Max Unger was a Pro Bowl center, inherited by the Carroll regime.

In 2014, the Seahawks played the majority or all of the season with Okung, Carpenter, and Sweezy, with rookie late second round pick Justin Britt at right tackle; though Seattle knew Britt would probably struggle (and he did), the Seahawks managed the situation and went 12-4, reaching the Super Bowl for a second straight season. Unger missed 10 games, leading to a nightmare rotation that included Patrick Lewis and Lemuel Jeanpierre, but given Seattle’s survival that year, perhaps that’s also what led to the trade.