Seahawks hope to strengthen O-line through free agency

If you found yourself surprised that the Seahawks finished the 2016 season starting at left tackle an undrafted rookie free agent who had been primarily a basketball player in college you weren’t alone.

In his first meeting with the media at large since before the 2016 season, Seahawks general manager John Schneider acknowledged that while the team knew it would be young on the offensive line, it didn’t necessarily plan on being as green as it turned out to be.

“Look at George Fant last year,” Schneider said, referring to the rookie who took over as the team’s full-time left tackle seven games into the season. “God Bless him, but Holy Cow. The guy was playing basketball (in college) you know what I mean? And he’s out there playing against (Rams’ standout defensive end) Robert Quinn. So good luck.”

Fant actually never played directly against Quinn last season. But he did face a fair number of other prolific pass rushers in a stunning emergence to a starting role that maybe best exemplified Seattle’s youth as the Seahawks ended the season with an offensive line that featured two rookies, another second-year player in his first year as a starter and two third-year players. It was a group whose struggles many pointed to as the biggest reason the team was bounced out of the playoffs in the divisional round for a second straight year.

Schneider didn’t deny that all the youth took its toll.

“I think we got in a position where we probably got a little bit too young,” he said, adding a few moments later “I think we’d like to add some experience to that position.”

Which means expect Seattle to dip its toes into the free agent waters when the signing period begins March 9, and maybe a little bit deeper than in the past. One player who could be particularly intriguing is former Seahawk Russell Okung, whose contract option was not picked up by Denver. It’s expected that the Seahawks will talk to Okung – who plans to again serve as his own agent – with indications that nothing that happened a year ago when Okung decided to sign with the Broncos would preclude a Seattle reunion.

Schneider, though, also cautioned not to expect the Seahawks to necessarily break form and completely break the bank.

Schneider said that while every year requires some tweaking in philosophy, nothing happened in 2016 to make the team want to stray from its big-picture goals.

“It doesn’t really,” he said. “Because you are constantly trying to make smart decisions. You are trying to look out for not just 2017 but looking out for 2018 and 19. You want to be a consistent championship-caliber team. We don’t want to just cruise in for it like ‘hey, they are going to make a run.’ We want to be there every single year.”

Also, while Seattle has roughly $25 million in cap space, that ranks just 21st among NFL teams, with 16 teams having at least $10 million or more to spend than do the Seahawks – and that’s with a free agent offensive line crops that isn’t overly deep, meaning there will be stiff competition for the players who are available. In other words, there’s not a lot of guarantees the Seahawks can land exactly who they want.

“You have to make the hard decisions and try to be wise in terms of who you go after in free agency, and knowing where your threshold level is,” Schneider said.

If there’s a decision from last season Schneider said he might like to have back, though, it was releasing veteran Jahri Evans on Sept. 2, less than a month after he had been signed as a free agent following a long career with the Saints, who had released him earlier.

Evans was set to enter the season as a backup at right guard behind rookie Germain Ifedi and the Seahawks decided instead to keep rookies such as Fant, Joey Hunt and Rees Odhiambo, who they worried would be picked up by other teams if waived, as well as veteran J’Marcus Webb, who had been signed to a two-year contract and who the team felt could back up at multiple spots as opposed to Evans, whose experience was solely at guard.

Evans then re-signed with the Saints where he returned to a starter’s role and was regarded as having a solid season – with the Seahawks taking an added hit when Ifedi suffered a high ankle sprain a few days after Evans was cut, an injury that held him out of the first three games of the season.

“Yeah, I’d be lying to you if I said differently,” Schneider said when asked if he had any regrets about releasing Webb. “I think that his leadership would have been outstanding for us.”

Schneider hinted the Seahawks were hoping Evans, who turned 33 last August, wouldn’t have been signed by another team and could have been brought back by Seattle after the first week, when his contract would not have been guaranteed.

“The guy came to camp with us, he did a great job helping train some of the younger guys while he was here,” Schneider said. “But we were a little concerned about his durability (Evans had missed five games in 2015 with knee and ankle injuries) being an older guy. So we were just going to see how it went getting through that first week of the season. But he went right back there (to New Orleans) right away and did a great job.”

The experience void grew when Webb was unable to hold down a starting spot, leading the team to release him in November, and that the other free agent signee, Bradley Sowell, was injured at midseason (opening the door for Fant to take over at left tackle) and then lost the right tackle job to Gilliam.

Schneider said the Seahawks weren’t necessarily anticipating both Webb and Sowell – who were the two highest-paid linemen on a group that spent the season as the lowest-paid in the NFL – having to start.

“I think you are constantly self-scouting, so you are evaluating how you approach things,” he said. “Last year signing a couple of guys in free agency who were not highly-priced guys just kind of covered us in case we got to the draft and all the offensive linemen got pushed up, like they usually do. Yeah, there are always things you would do differently but I don’t think we say ‘this is the way we are doing it and we are sticking to it. We have different plans and are constantly moving them around.”

And a few second-guessed decisions doesn’t mean Schneider is rethinking everything about how the Seahawks do business.

Ultimately, he said the goal is to assemble a solid group of offensive linemen who can stay, and grow, together. That’s something Seattle has the ability to do this season for the first time in a while as it can retain every key player from last year if it wants – of the five players who ended last season as starters, four are under contract through at least 2017 and right tackle Garry Gilliam is a restricted free agent.

“That offensive line thing is all about acquisition, and the mix in the room between veteran leadership and talent,” he said. “That cohesion that goes along with it. Some of the best offensive lines I’ve been around, and the best teams, frankly, are the ones that have the core group of offensive linemen. We have to have that mentality. We need to bring those young guys along – rookies, second-year guys, moving (Justin) Britt to center and all of that. But they have to have that cohesion.”