The Seattle Seahawks’ Plan B for their offensive line
By jonfox
Two seasons ago, the Seattle Seahawks were riding high. They had two offensive linemen generally considered among the best at their position(Okung and Unger) and were seeing potential in their pick of Justin Britt. Despite the pundits being critical of the Britt pick as a reach, Britt quickly proved that he was worthy of the investment and showed potential to be Okung’s linemate for years.
Fast forward to this March and their offensive line is now in shambles. Unger was dealt for Jimmy Graham, in retrospect this probably was an overreaction to the final play against the Patriots in the Super Bowl. A number of the players that the Seahawks relied on for depth on the line have left via free agency as well. And now this past week, Russell Okung signed with the Denver Broncos for an extremely undervalued contract that the Hawks almost certainly could have surpassed.
With Russell Wilson coming off a season where he took 160 hits behind the line of scrimmage and where the rushing yards per attempt dropped 10%, the Seahawks need get their act together and find a competent offensive line or their performance will only keep declining in 2016. Let’s explore three scenarios for the Seahawks to rebuild their line with.
Scenario 1: Go big.
*The Seahawks trade their first round pick to Cleveland for Joe Thomas.
*The Seahawks sign Louis Vasquez to play right guard.
*The Seahawks draft Le’Raven Clark in the 2nd round to play right tackle.
This would have the instant effect of solidifying the entire offensive line. Britt stays at left guard, Vasquez starts for them on the right, Clark allows them to bench Gilliam and Joe Thomas finally gets to play for a contender. This is probably fairly unlikely to happen since the NFL is still risk averse to big moves. However, this would give them credibility on the line. If they can find a decent Center to go with this line, it’s hard not to describe their line as one of the 10 best in the NFL.
Scenario 2: Go less big.
*The Seahawks trades their 2nd round pick to Denver for Ryan Clady and Denver’s 4th round pick.
*The Seahawks draft Jack Conklin in round 1.
*The Seahawks draft Landon Turner in round 3.
This is a less exciting version of scenario 1. The Seahawks get an established left tackle in Clady and hope that they can fix the right side of their line with rookies. What makes this scenario potentially more attractive to the Seahawks’ front office is that they don’t give up their 1st round pick and it doesn’t look as jarring to the team as scenario one could be characterized as being. Conklin and Turner on the right hand side of the line would represent a lot of pure power for a team that likes to use their offensive line to bully opposing defenses.
Scenario 3: Do it on the cheap.
*The Seahawks sign Will Beatty to play left tackle
*The Seahawks draft Jason Spriggs in Round 1 to play right tackle if Beatty plays well or left if Beatty struggles.
*The Seahawks trade Kam Chancellor to the Redskins for Shawn Lauvao(the play right guard) and a 4th round pick.
This is far less exciting and effective that either scenario one or two. They’re risking a lot on Beatty and Spriggs, both far from sure things. Shawn Lauvao looked halfway decent for a few games before getting hurt for the season in 2015 but he’s been an inconsistent player for the vast majority of his career.
The essential problem for the Seahawks’ front office is that left tackles are always in high demand and carry an expensive price. And with 8.2 million in cap space, any move is going to have to be cap friendly if they don’t want to start shedding pieces to afford it.
If they could use Cliff Avril and/or Kam Chancellor(who is on the market-sort of) as trade bait, then a move for a Joe Thomas or Ryan Clady is very possible. Barring that, they can only really afford low level free agents or taking their chances with rookies.