Seahawks postgame musings; Offensive line appears set
By Dan Viens
In the aftermath of the Seahawks 27-17 preseason win over Dallas, we look at some of the potential ramifications of how the team performed.
Like it or not, it appears we know who will be starting up front on offense when the Seahawks take on Miami to start the regular season September 11th.
The group of Bradley Sowell, Mark Glowinski, Justin Britt, Germain Ifedi and Garry Gilliam answered the bell tonight, and it would appear there won’t be any changes to that lineup.
The interior guys, with Glowinski and Ifedi at guard and Britt at center, have been a strong point for the team all preseason. They weren’t able to generate as much room in the rushing attack early on, although some of that may be attributed to Christine Michael’s inability to gain any yards after contact.
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The big difference tonight were the tackles. Gilliam appeared much more comfortable on the right side where he started all 16 games in 2015. He spent the offseason preparing for a shift to LT, but a minor knee injury limited his practice time there in mini camps, and the team shifted him back to the right side after free agent signee J’Marcus Webb went down with an injury of his own at the beginning of camp.
Meanwhile Sowell looked solid tonight, and a number of times Russell Wilson had a perfect pocket to throw from. (Whether he chose to take advantage of said pocket notwithstanding.)
The line play certainly wasn’t perfect, but it appears to be light years ahead of where it was a year ago at this time, when the team was trying out defensive line convert Drew Nowak at center, and stuck with the experiment way too long.
Justin Britt has been a revelation, and looks every bit the part of solid NFL center. Meanwhile, first round pick Ifedi and 2015 4th rounder Glowinski might just be the strength of the unit.
Next: Predicting the Hawks first 15 cuts
How well they hold up against a very good Miami front 7 when the bullet’s start to fly for real in two weeks remains to be seen. But there are encouraging signs for a position group that has taken a lot of much-deserved flack the last two seasons.