if he can’t go this season.

I can’t stand anymore O-line players with durability issues. It was bad enough that Womack was a member of the walking wounded, we don’t need a center, one of the most important positions on the line, manned by a guy who can’t find a way to stay healthy.

This is really disheartening what is happening with our O-line this year. It’s like our receiving corps last year. We have zero margin for injury at the moment. If Locklear is hurt, it will be open field on Matt and it’s already not looking great as Locklear is an average to below average LT at best who will get eaten up by top pass rushers.

I’m looking at our beautiful receiving assets, some of them just blooming like Deon Butler and Forsett with screen, and wondering if we’re going to be able to maximize them with a porous O-line that is going to leave Matt running for his life. They’re so bad they may even end his life.

I hope this defense gets the kinks worked out with the zones before the regular season. I also hope this lack of a pass rush is more due to the D-line holding back in the preseason than a harbinger that they lack pass rushing ability.

I know my expectations for the regular season have dropped quite a bit with the O-line situation. I’m pretty sure the defense will be better during the regular season, but the O-line is looking like a serious weakness once again. Run blocking is bad. Pass blocking is adequate at best. And they haven’t even faced a really good blitzing team yet that is game planning to bring the pressure. Soon they will have teams watching film on them and planning to attack them at their weakest point with a full on rush of their best pass rushers. I don’t want to think about such nightmares until we’re sure what this starting O-line is going to look like going into the season.

He’s been hurt every year in Seattle and has only played on full season for us in 2007. And he was hurt that year. He played hurt and he showed like he was playing hurt.

Spencer stepped in at guard in 2006 and then at center when Toebeck went down. He was hurt by the end of the season. Then he played all of 2007 witn inuries and needed offseason surgery again. Then he was IRed in 2008 near the end of the season and had offseason surgery again.

Spencer hasn’t had a fully healthy year in Seattle except for 2005 when he was riding the pine. His performance on the field seems to be regressing rather than progressing. It can’t overlook that this might be because of injuries.

Do you think a young guy like Spencer is going to last that much longer considering he can’t stay healthy during a regular season of football? Everyone suffers some injuries here and there, some bumps and bruises. But every player doesn’t need offsesaon surgery with serious rehabilitation every year.

The guy is breaking down. He is playing at an average to below average level. Do you think he is the long-term answer at center? I don’t. I think he has left us with a hole in the middle of our line that we are having a hard time filling.

What should a good center be doing? He should be at training camp every year. He should be learning the line calls, watching tons of film, working with Matt to coordinator line calls quite often, and coming into camp in shape and ready to go. Center is a hard position in the NFL, the hardest on the line mentally. That’s why a guy like Robbie Toebeck was such an asset. He wasn’t the biggest or strongest guy on the line, but he had the mental aspect of the game down and made everyone around him better.

Spencer is more of a physical beast than Toebeck. But his durability issues are hurting the physical part of his game, the greatest strength of his game. And the offseason injuries and rehabilitation are causing him to lose valuable learning the mental aspect of the game and I beginning to even doubt he has what it takes mentally to lead an NFL O-line because that’s what the center is in the NFL: the leader of the O-line. The center is not only the center, but the very heart of your O-line. You need a guy there that makes everyone around him better and Spencer doesn’t seem like that guy.

I think we can upgrade the position and maybe keep Spencer around as depth at best. But I’m tired of our starting center being such a question mark at the position. It seems to me it’s only a matter of time before he breaks down and starts missing time during the regular season. But we shall see how Spencer does and if he solidfies himself at the center position this year or continues to show that we need to upgrade that position badly.

we lost.