Seahawks had to let Tom Cable go for two big reasons
By Lee Vowell
Reason 2: Cable had a big say in who Seattle drafted along the line and he failed to develop those players
Sure, the Seahawks failed to spend much money in 2016 on the offensive line. But they did spend more in draft capital over the last seven seasons than any other team. And at the end of the 2017 season, Seattle was starting all first-round and second-round linemen. (I realize Duane Brown and Luke Joeckel weren’t drafted by Seattle, but that doesn’t really help Cable’s argument.)
But Seattle did have all those draft picks on linemen. While it’s true that John Schneider and Pete Carroll are firmly in charge of who gets chosen at nearly every position group in Seattle, this is less so along the line. Cable was able to give more input than any other assistant coach on their respective units.
And it didn’t work out. The Seahawks didn’t give a second contract to any other lineman other than Justin Britt. And that wasn’t because Seattle didn’t really want to pay their own players; It was because very few of the 16 lineman chosen since 2010 were worth re-signing. Possibly Russell Okung, but he may have been better after he left Seattle than when he was with the team.
It seems awfully strange that hardly any players developed into solid pros under Cable. Even accidentally, one would think a couple of the linemen would be good. Even Britt only worked out after moving positions a couple of times. He was a guard to begin with. No one really expected him to become a good center, which he has.
Whether that is just Britt working hard or Cable’s coaching is up for debate. Because no one else in the last seven years has been as good as Britt has become.
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Moving forward Seattle might have an issue, though. Because of Cable’s devotion to the zone blocking scheme, all of Seattle’s linemen only really know how to play that way. Let’s hope whoever becomes the next offensive line coach in Seattle is a better teacher than Cable was because the Seahawks future success relies on it.