Pete Carroll isn’t worried about the offensive line? He should be

Pete Carroll says that the offensive line is “in good shape,” which is a sign that the team lacks any plan whatsoever to fix to their biggest weakness. 

Every time Pete Carroll has been interviewed recently the bulk of the questions have been about the offensive line, and for good reason. The team no longer has any of the five starters from the 2013 Super Bowl team, and has lost four out of five from the 2014 Super Bowl team. They’ve also yet to adequately replace any of them.

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Pete Carroll isn’t worried about it though, at least he said that when

speaking with ESPN

this week.  The exactly quote was “We’re in good shape on the offensive line.” If you say so coach, but I doubt anyone believes you.

Apparently the Seahawks let Russell Okung walk because they’re so optimistic about Gary Gilliam as the new left tackle. That’s the story at least.

Too bad that in the same interview Carroll said that Gilliam will compete with free agent signee Bradley Sowell for the starting job. That is the same Bradley Sowell that was a mediocre backup in Arizona and was so highly sought after in free agency that he signed a 1-year deal with almost nothing guaranteed.

Let’s face it: If the team fought so highly of Gilliam, they wouldn’t be making him compete with a mediocre player for a chance to even get on the field. The logic here just doesn’t make sense.

I actually have high hopes for Gilliam, and was discussing him as a potential Okung replacement as far back as a year ago. So it isn’t much of a surprise to see the Seahawks pencil him in at the position, but there is still no way of knowing if he’ll rise to the challenge.

Gilliam was “ok” as a starter at RT last season. Will he develop further? Probably, but what if he doesn’t? This is the same belief in player development that the team had in Nowak and Bailey last offseason.

Neither of those worked out, and the team was left scrambling to find a combination of players that worked. It took until mid-season before they finally got everything figured out, and it cost the team a chance at the division and playing playoff games at home.

Don’t be fooled, this year’s line is much more “up in the air” than it was last year. All five positions are questionable at best.

Is it possible for the line to be competent? Sure it is, but a lot of things have to break in just the right way for it to happen:

• Gilliam must continue to develop and take major step forwards while moving to the left side
• Britt has to prove that he’s not a bust, and that his 2 awful seasons aren’t who he’s going to be
• Lewis must improve, and  cannot remain a slightly below average center like the last 2 seasons
• Glowinski has to be as good as we all think he will be
• Webb has to become a completely different player, because he’s been terrible every year he’s been in the NFL.

Can all of those things happen? Except for the J’Marcus Webb one, they are all possible. It is also possible that we have a reoccurrence of last year and multiple players disappoint. What then?

Next: Gilliam set to take over at LT

Sadly, the answer to that question is silence. The Seahawks don’t have a plan for if/when that happens. They’ll be stuck throwing at the problem and hoping something sticks.

The entire 2016 season will then hinge on the team finding some… stuff… that is sticky enough.