Inside the Film: Will losing Garry Gilliam hurt the Seahawks or help the 49ers?

In this new video series from Coleman Crawford, with video one being seen above, we’ll take a closer look “Inside the Film” at some current, past, and potentially future Hawks

After three years with the Seattle Seahawks, tackle Garry Gilliam signed with the San Francisco 49ers to compete for a job as their starting right tackle. His career with the Seahawks included 29 starts on the offensive line and a memorable touchdown against the Green Bay Packers. During his 2015 campaign, Gilliam was a consistent starter at the right tackle position for Seattle, but after a tumultuous 2016 season in which he was benched the Seahawks placed only an original round tender on Gilliam, which meant that as a former undrafted free agent anyone could sign him; Seattle’s only leverage was that they could match any offer, and in this case they quickly decided not to.

The 49ers decided that Gilliam could be valuable to them, possibly because of his familiarity with the zone blocking scheme employed by Seahawks line coach Tom Cable and San Francisco’s new head coach Kyle Shanahan. Gilliam is an adept zone blocker who spent three years under Cable, so he knows how the system should operate and can function within it. The zone blocking scheme requires more athletic linemen to make it function, something that the Niners don’t have with current right tackle Trent Brown. Gilliam’s best shot to beat out Brown will hinge on his athletic ability, which is a major advantage as Brown comes in at 6’ 8”, 360 lbs, and Gilliam is a former tight end convert.

Seattle is now left with second-year pro Germain Ifedi and second round rookie Ethan Pocic to compete for the right tackle position. Ifedi had an extremely underwhelming rookie year plagued by over-aggressiveness and being in the wrong position, while Pocic has never played a down in the NFL. If the Seahawks can’t properly address the offensive line as a whole, and the right tackle position in particular, then losing Gilliam may prove to be a substantial loss in their 2017 run.

Here are some previous videos I made on Ifedi and Pocic: