Seahawks: Finding hope for the offensive line in 2016

The offensive line for the Seattle Seahawks has been even worse than expected, but there’s still reason to believe they’ll improve this season.

To say that the Seahawks offensive line is struggling would be a massive understatement. They’ve been terrible as a unit. There simply isn’t any reason to sugar coat it at this point.

According to ESPN’s Sheil Kapedia, the Seahawks were hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on 62% of their offensive snaps. The Rams were living in Seattle’s backfield on Sunday.

As bad as it was (and it was really bad), there are reasons to hope that it will get better. This doesn’t have to be a lost season. There are plenty of reasons to believe that the Seahawks will get this turned around.

Glowinski and Britt will continue to improve

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Mark Glowinski and Justin Britt have been the lone bright spots for Seattle’s offensive line. Neither has been perfect by any means, but both have been above average players. The same cannot be said for the rest of the line.

Glow only has only made 3 NFL starts in his career. Britt is in his 3rd year as a starter, but this is the first time he’s played center.

Both will continue to improve as they get experience at their current positions. Neither is a finished product, so the fact that they’ve been competent thus far is a very good sign.

Germain Ifedi should return soon

Seattle’s first-round draft pick suffered a high ankle sprain in the preseason. Pete Carroll downplayed the injury, but he’s now missed three weeks. It is safe to assume that those reports were probably true.

That means that Ifedi could be back for Week 4’s game against the Jets. The latest that he’ll return is probably Week 6, after the bye week. That means that the team will be without Ifedi for only 1 or 2 more games.

Ifedi’s presence at RG will be a massive improvement. J’Marcus Webb has been terrible in that spot. Even if Ifedi is prone to making rookie mistakes, he’ll still be a major upgrade for the interior of the offensive line.

Gilliam isn’t beyond hope

Fans are justifiably down on Gary Gilliam right now. That’s completely understandable given his problems in the first two games this season.

Try and keep in mind that this is the same player who was around a league-average tackle last season. The Seahawks were so impressed by his potential that they wanted to make him the LT.

Sadly, an off-season injury scrapped those plans. The Seahawks didn’t want to rush Gilliam in his attempt to change positions, and they knew he’d be alright on the right side. He hasn’t been “alright” thus far, but last season’s performance suggests that he’ll get better in the next few weeks.

Getting Ifedi back will also help Gilliam in the run game. Zone blocking requires guys to work together. You’ll often see a guard hand-off a defensive linemen to the tackle before moving up onto a linebacker. Webb is getting beat so quickly right now that those exchanges aren’t happening.

Nick Vannett will be a major help

The best friend of a struggling offensive tackle is help from a tight end. Sadly, it has been a while since the Seahawks have had a competent blocker at TE. For all his talents, Jimmy Graham doesn’t fit that description; neither does Luke Willson.

Vannett is a tremendous blocker. He might not be able to block a DE 1-on-1 like Zach Miller used to for Seattle, but he isn’t going to get driven into the backfield like Graham and Willson often do.

Next: 5 takeaways from Seattle's ugly loss to LA

When Vannett finally returns from his ankle injury in the next few weeks, Seattle will finally be able to start putting Graham almost exclusively in the slot where he belongs. Vannett will be able to handle the in-line blocking. Only good things will come from that transition.

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