Last season the Seattle Seahawks’ biggest weakness was their offensive line. After this offseason, their line has gotten worse due to free agency. They addressed this need in the draft but even one of their draft picks on the offensive line didn’t pass his physical and had to be let go already. This unit is one that will take some manipulating throughout the season by the coaches to get the most out of them and will also be relying on unexpected players to step up when called upon.
Out of all their projected starters for the 2014 season, only one of them had a positive Pro Football Focus (subscription) rating. That one player was rookie Michael Bowie, who only played 486 snaps. Bowie will be going into his second year and will most likely show even more improvement. The biggest thing he needs to improve on is his pass blocking. Having fairly short arms compared to your prototypical tackle, pass rushers can get into Bowie’s rather quickly.
Their best lineman, Russell Okung, who had a -0.8 PFF rating last season, will be back at left tackle hopefully for the whole season. If he can stay healthy all season that will be an improvement right off the bat. With a whole offseason of training and getting completely healthy, I fully expect him to have a bounce back year. After he came back last season his biggest problem was in pass protection, and considering he had a toe injury, that was most likely had a lot to do with his struggles. He should bounce back in 2014 and become one of the premier left tackles in the NFL again.
Max Unger, the Seahawks’ two-time Pro Bowl center, was another one that had a down year last year with a PFF rating of -1.2. Unger also had problems in pass protection because his feet sometimes get a little caught up. Although quicker defensive tackles can give him problems, he’s a great fit for the Seahawks’ zone running scheme.
Their two starting guards, James Carpenter (-13.0 PFF rating) and J.R. Sweezy (-6.1 PFF rating), need to improve the most. The guard position was the weakest spot on a weak offensive line last season. Carpenter is very big, especially for a guard, but just hasn’t figured out how to use his size. He constantly gets beat by guys beating him in the leverage battle. Sweezy is less of a liability as Carpenter, but Sweezy needs to improve on his strength and run blocking.
Overall their offensive line needs the most improvement in their pass blocking. As it stands right now, they will probably allow a lot of sacks, hurries, and knock downs of their quarterback. If that doesn’t happen it’s only because Russell Wilson does a good job running for his life back there. They also lack depth because they lost a few linemen to free agency and didn’t add much. I also expected them to draft heavy on the offensive line but they didn’t take any linemen until the later rounds. This unit will most likely end the 2014 season near the bottom of the league just like they did in 2013.