In 2008, the overall performance of the Seahawks offensive (aw-fen-siv) line was offensive (uh-fen-siv) at times. LG Rob Sims struggled during his first season as a starter, and Chris Spencer was less than stellar in his first full season at center, after moving around between guard and center in 2006. Chris Gray looked old, not a surprise given that he is (at least for a football player). Walter Jones and Sean Locklear performed adequately, but not anywhere near as well as they did in 2005 or even 2006. The problems on the interior certainly make things a lot more difficult on the tackles.
At first glance, it looks like the Seahawks didn't do much to address these issues. They are once again putting their faith in the two young guys on the interior, but the team has at least made a few minor moves to provide more stability. The types of moves that really should have been made as soon as Steve Hutchinson left town. It remains to be seen if Mike Solari will take a wise approach in putting together a plan that makes sense. All indications are that his coaching philosophy is exactly what the Seahawks need, from both a development and cohesive standpoint.
Bill Laveroni stumbled through the last two offseasons with no vision for the future, or plan for how the line would adjust to injury scenarios. In the NFL, that is the name of the game because an injury along the offensive line is inevitable. Laveroni is an easy scapegoat, but shouldn't the blame really be on Mike Holmgren. If coaching was a problem on the offensive line, then the head coach should be responsible. Especially when he was making the key (bad) decisions. It's hard to say how much input Laveroni really had.
The team made some serious errors with shuffling Chris Spencer around, wasted time trying Tom Ashworth at guard, tried to replace Steve Hutchinson with the oft-injured Floyd Womack, left Chris Gray in the starting line-up too long, and didn't capitalize on the ability of Ray Willis. It would be easy to say hindsight is 20/20, but the errors made were obvious at the time and pointed out on this blog and elsewhere.
The last two offseasons have been torturous as the Seahawks failed to put together or execute an offensive line strategy that made sense. Let's hope this offseason is different. Later today, we will turn our attention to the future and examine who the Seahawks have and how they can best utilize and capitalize on the skills and abilities of this unit in 2008.
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