Seattle Seahawks

Seahawks game film: Offensive line was even worse than you thought

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Seahawks game film: The offensive line of the Seattle Seahawks goes under the microscope, and nothing about it is pretty.

The Seattle Seahawks offensive line was a massive disappointment on Sunday against the Rams. They were completely dominated, and Seattle’s offense managed to score just 3 points.

I’ve been doing my best to stay positive and look for reasons to be optimistic that the line will get better. Re-watching Sunday’s game from all all-22 and end zone angles though has me doubting that this will get fixed without personnel changes.

First, it is difficult to describe how poorly J’Marcus Webb played. He was individually responsible for ruining play after play throughout the game. (Note: Despite the caption, that isn’t Sowell. It’s Glow.)

Here’s Webb blowing up a run by being pushed 3 yards into the backfield. Also Sowell standing there watching so no cutback lane. pic.twitter.com/vHEuErXLdK

— Keith Myers (@MyersNFL) September 20, 2016

The worst part of this is that Webb was supposed to be another JR Sweezy type – a guy who might be terrible in pass protection but was good as a run blocker. Just how incorrect that belief is was on display Sunday.

Webb is an offensive tackle playing out of position. Our expectations should have never been all that high for him, but even that doesn’t excuse this performance. Luckily, Germain Ifedi will be back soon to help fix this problem, because Webb offers zero hope for improvement.

Hopefully having a solid RG next to him will help Garry Gilliam as well. Gilliam also struggled Sunday. We know from last year that he can be better than this, but he should absolutely not be immune to criticism from this game.

No one should ever get beat this quickly. The entire right side of the line is a travesty here:

Unfortunately, Webb wasn’t even the worst of the group. Left tackle Bradley Sowell gets that distinction. On top of being a penalty machine, Sowell struggled to redirect the defensive end even slightly on many plays.

Sowell simply isn’t an NFL left tackle. His “fail rate” is way too high. He even struggled to get his assignments right when the Seahawks were trying to set up a screen.

The quality of the Rams defensive front shouldn’t be ignored here. Robert Quinn and Aaron Donald are both insanely good players. They’re going to make anyone look on a few plays every game.

Sadly, this wasn’t just “a few plays.” Webb and Sowell were beaten over and over throughout the game. Neither could be counted on to complete any assignment they were given, and the offense ground to a halt.

Until the Seahawks move on and find upgrades for those two spots, the offense will continue to struggle.