The Seahawks’ entire offensive line could wind up with a face lift in March. With several key linemen headed towards free agency, head coach Pete Carroll says he wants to keep the band together. 
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“I hope we can keep our guys connected here,” Carroll said (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Brady Henderson). “I think the whole group, it could be a really solid group coming back. I’d like to see the guys that have played for us stay with us.”
Carroll is aiming for continuity, because the unit “made good progress” in 2019. But, to keep the O-Line in tact, they’ll have to work out new deals with right tackle Germain Ifedi, left guard Mike Iupati, and backup left tackle George Fant, all of whom are set to be unrestricted free agents. Center Joey Hunt, meanwhile, will be a restricted free agent.
Seahawks coaches might have liked what they saw out of the offensive line, but the advanced metrics saw things differently. The Seahawks graded out 30th in pass blocking and 14th in run blocking, according to Pro Football Focus.
The individual rankings for the pending free agents weren’t so hot, either. Out of 214 qualified offensive linemen, PFF had Fant (No. 133), Iupati (No. 135), Ifedi (No. 150), and Hunt (No. 180) all positioned as below average players.
Meanwhile, the Seahawks have bigger fish to fry with six other key players headed towards the open market, including defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and defensive tackle Jarran Reed. On the plus side, they have upwards of $58MM in projected cap space this offseason, giving them the most flexibility they’ve had in seven years.
DJ FLUKER IS NO FLUKE BABY
It hurts to wonder what this team would have done with a 1st round OL instead of Penny.
Ifedi is trash though.
Time to spend the buckies…
You know intact is one word, right?
Seems no.
Ifedi needs to go I’m tired of watching the penalties and watching him get beat for a sack or a tackle for a loss every game
I agree I am over Ifedi he is so bad. Tough on Fant he was versatile don’t think the reading is fair for him. Hunt is another one he came in mid season after Britt tore his ACL. I think he played OK for the situation. He is a good back up.
I also hope they don’t waste another dime on Iupati. He and Ifedi were awful. In the GB game Ifedi had nobody to block and backed up in pass protection. There was a Blitzer coming in and he stood there and watched didn’t even try to hit him.
Brown Britt Fant and Hunt plus the other backups I am forgetting. The right side needs to be replaced. If we are going to be a running team get guys that can run block. I told my son OL is s definite need of upgrading. They seem to miss on them. At least we don’t have Cable turning DL into OL and failing. I liked the idea of it but the OL spent years on blocking you can’t teach that at the pro level at OTAs.
So what’s the solution here? Let the whole offensive line go and start with journeymen all over again…that’s a true disaster in the making. Keep the best of the bunch and add a couple more good ones in the draft. Good OL are simply not affordable in free agency and most of them come with issues (health, penalties, PED).
By all means keep the line together. But they need to be healthier and we need more talented backups. We also just need a head coach that figures out that he’s wasting Russell’s talent. This year was insanely frustrating to watch. Virtually none of our wins were guaranteed until the final whistle blew. Also just gimme a new OC and DC while we’re at it.
AK- Good point about the risk involved in changing out an entire OL. I’d rather the Hawks keep the line mostly intact but I doubt they’ll want to match the type of money Fant and Ifedi will get in FA. I’d prefer to keep Fant over Ifedi because of his flexibility but Ifedi is still only 25. Obviously Ifedi has drove Seattle fans mad with his costly penalties over the years but I feel like he made some progress this yr. I’d really like to see Justin Britt return- his leadership and his toughness is the glue that keeps our OL together.
It amazes me how the Hawks have managed to (barely) get away with piecing together OL’s over the past decade by spending pennies on the dollar. Phil253- I often wonder how good our offense would be if Russell had someone like Walter Jones or Hutch on our OL! I also wonder why we can’t run plays during the first half of games like we do after the half.
Tactless Seahawk O-Line. Who writes these headlines?