Seahawks seem to get things wrong at two positions that matter

The Seahawks have been successful over the last decade. That is, in spite of them shooting themselves in the foot at two positions groups.

It is morbidly funny, right? NFL teams are pretty successful based on the strength of their offensive and defensive lines. The two groups matter. And yet, over the last decade, the Seahawks have won a ton of games with basically a bad offensive line and not a lot of recent depth at defensive line. How can this be?

General manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll have built Seattle into a nearly-annual winner. They have drafted a great quarterback in Russell Wilson, had quite a few very good to great defensive backs, good linebackers, very good receivers and got lucky with running back Chris Carson. But the offensive and defensive lines? Well, mostly messy, especially offensively.

The Seahawks won the Super Bowl for the 2013 season and went back in 2014. They had a defensive line that featured Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril, two free agents that Seattle signed prior to the 2013 season. Not until they drafted Frank Clark did they have a homegrown player that would make the Pro Bowl along the defensive line.

Jarran Reed, now a free agent himself, has played four years after being drafted by Seattle and had one really good year. Jadeveon Clowney was good this season for Seattle but might have simply been a one-year rental.

In the 2019 NFL draft, Seattle chose defensive end L.J. Collier and he was a complete bust in his rookie season. Since 2013, Seattle has drafted 16 defensive linemen. There is a very real chance that only two of those are Seahawks in 2020. One of those is Collier. The other is Rasheem Green, who did lead Seattle in sacks this year but with only 4! That was 97th in the NFL.

The offensive line is actually a bit better. Sort of. Two of the five presumed starters in 2019 were homegrown Seahawks: Justin Britt and Germain Ifedi. The other three were either free-agent signings or traded for (Duane Brown). But many of the key backups, George Fant, Jamarco Jones and Joey Hunt, were Seattle draftees.

Still, the Seahawks have drafted 13 offensive linemen since 2013. Six were on the 2019 roster, though Ifedi and Ethan Pocic might not be on the 2020 version. That is less than half of the draft collateral spent and that isn’t good. At least Justin Britt has made as an alternate in 2017 but he seems to have digressed since then.

My point in all this is that successful NFL teams are built on very good to great. While Seattle did make the playoffs again this year, they haven’t had the same level of success since Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett, those two 2013 signees, left.

The Seahawks are good but they are not truly Super Bowl level. To get to that level again, Seattle needs to make better long-term decisions on who plays on their lines and needs to make those decisions before Russell Wilson starts getting too old.