2016 Team Needs: NFC West
By jonfox
Left tackle and interior offensive line. Russell Wilson took 160 hits(sacks+official hits) in 2016, most in the league of any quarterback in the league. Through a lot of luck and quality defensive play, the Hawks were still able to make the 2nd round of the NFC playoffs. Only now they have Russell Okung and JR Sweezy set to become unrestricted free agents.
Okung is a bit of an enigma. He’s been a good left tackle when healthy but he never looks like he’s going to develop like Trent Williams-who was taken in the same draft class-will. So far he’s showing that he’ll never become a truly great tackle. Do the Seahawks, with some cap issues, want to commit 10+ million a year to him? It doesn’t look likely but Okung could come back on a more cap friendly extension.
The interior of the line has been a mess since they dealt away Max Unger(one of the best centers in football) for Jimmy Graham. Justin Britt has been a perfectly fine left guard for them but they need to upgrade here as well. With only 19 million in salary cap space(which sounds good but they have other places to find starters for), they’re going to have to look to the draft to fix this problem.
Three names to consider(left tackle): Russell Okung(resigning), Kelvin Beachum(free agency), Shon Coleman(day 1 of the draft).
Three names to consider(Interior line): Nick Martin(day 2 of the draft), Graham Glasgow(day 3 of the draft), Joshua Garnett(day 2 of the draft).
Defensive tackle. The Hawks also have 4 of their 6 defensive tackles hitting free agency, including the very underrated Brandon Mebane and Ahtyba Rubin. These are critical players for the Hawks: without a consistent push in front, their entire defensive concept starts falling apart and their secondary can’t conceal those issues.
The Seahawks like to have a lot of matchup talent on the defensive line, often using two similar styled tackles to create mismatches and confusion for opposing offenses. Rubin and Mebane are usually 1 gap tackles and both try to penetrate with quickness instead of using size and strength to tie up blockers for edge attacker to make the play.
The Hawks will need to keep one of Rubin or Mebane(probably Mebane) and find another 1 gap tackle to go with him.
Three names to consider: Ian Williams(free agency), Sheldon Day(day 3 of the draft), Chris Jones(day 2 of the draft).
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