Seahawks 53-Man Roster Prediction: Take 1
By Justin Floor
OFFENSIVE LINE:
Contenders: Justin Britt, George Fant, Garry Gilliam, Mark Glowinski, Joey Hunt, Germain Ifedi, Patrick Lewis, Lene Maiava, Rees Odhiambo, Will Pericak, Terry Poole, Kona Schwenke, Kristjan Sokoli, Bradley Sowell, J’Marcus Webb
Winners: Webb, Glowinski, Gilliam, Lewis, Ifedi, Odhiambo, Britt, Sowell, Sokoli
Practice Squad: Hunt, Fant
The Skinny: Hoo boy. When you list “winners” from best player on down at a given position, it’s not encouraging when the first name is a journeyman named J’Marcus Webb. But that’s not the issue to discuss today. Competition for the O-Line spots has been ratcheted up by the addition of three draft picks and multiple UDFA’s. Let’s allow optimism to reign… for now.
I have Patrick Lewis winning the center job over Justin Britt and others. It is my belief that the team is giving Britt center reps in order to make him the primary backup lineman, not the starting pivot. Remember, on gameday the roster is only 46 players deep and typically 7 of those are O-linemen. Britt’s value will be as the versatile 6th man that can come in and provide experience at either LG, C or RT if a starter goes down in a game. This gives him an edge over one-position players like Joey Hunt.
Even though he is a strikingly bad player, Sowell is really the only guy with any experience of note at the premium position of left tackle and wins that backup job of new starter Garry Gilliam by default. Heaven help us if Sowell sees the field and is tasked with keeping Wilson vertical for any substantial length of time.
Mark Glowinski has looked like a bona fide player albeit in limited time at guard and he is the frontrunner to win the LG spot this summer. First round pick Germain Ifedi will start out at right guard and should be able to fend off the “competition” there. Webb fills out the starting lineup at right tackle in 2016.
Rookie 3rd rounder Rees Odhiambo is an intriguing option at guard and could give Glowinski a fight. A lineup in 2017 consisting of Odhiambo at LG, Glowinski at RG, and Ifedi at RT actually sounds somewhat encouraging at the moment. Let’s hope these guys quickly develop as hoped under the tutelege of offensive line coach Tom Cable.
Finally, the team doesn’t want to expose uber-athlete Kristjan Sokoli to waivers, so they will keep him active and hold their breath, hoping they can slip Hunt through the wire unclaimed and use 2016 to get him a little bigger and better able to handle NFL strength in 2017. Fant is a former basketball player trying to make the jump to the league and offers intriguing athletic traits to develop on the PS at the unstable left tackle position.
Next: Depth at D-Line