Seahawks offensive line observations and why I keep worrying about Germain Ifedi

The focus of this piece is a clip, not even two minutes long, that shows most of the pass blocking snaps that either Germain Ifedi or Ethan Pocic took at right tackle. I omitted a few snaps with things like play-action passes or bootlegs away from the right side where the plays didn’t tell us much.

(I also skipped a few where my replay file kept stuttering.)

I’ve focused mostly on the right tackle position because I think that’s the biggest question mark, and focused on the passing game because in the NFL quarterback play is what wins games.

Without access to coaches film in the preseason, a limited number of snaps, and preseason games themselves only being a small set of the information that coaches will use to set depth charts, it’s hard to know how much to read into any of these games. But with every game and every play analyzed and re-analyzed, it’s helpful to have them all in one place:

I slowed every play down to 80% speed to make it easier to see what is going on. Each play is labeled in sequential order for easy reference.

• Play 1: Justin Britt and Luke Joeckel double-team Brandon Mebane. Everyone wins their battles
• 2: Oday Aboushi allows instant pressure from Corey Liuget
• 3: Ifedi allows instant pressure
• 4: Ifedi (and to a lesser extent Fant) allow pressure around the edge, forcing Russell Wilson to step up
• 5: [Trevone Boykin in at QB. Mark Glowinski at RG. Joeckel LT. Rees Odhiambo LG. Joey Hunt at C] Pressure allowed by Rees
• 6: Glow looks clueless handling stunt. Hunt late to help
• 7: Good protection
• 8: Good protection
• 9: Glow gets destroyed resulting in a sack
• 10: Good protection
• 11: George Fant gets beat but Rees helps out by shoving the defender
• 12: Good protection
• 13: Ifedi gets beat
• 14: [2nd half. Pocic in at RT. Rees LT. Roos LG.] Good protection
• 15: Good protection
• 16: Good protection
• 17: Roos allows late pressure but otherwise good
• 18: Roos struggles to pick up stunt
• 19: Good protection
• 20: Rees asked to block two defenders
• 21: An eternity in the pocket

Obviously the quality of defenders faced isn’t necessarily the same since Ifedi played in the 1st half and Pocic in the 2nd half, but I have Ifedi allowing 3 pressures in 13 snaps here (with plays 3 and 13 being especially bad). That’s not even counting play 9, where his man got the sack but the initial pressure was allowed by Glowinski. Pocic didn’t come anywhere near allowing a pressure, although he did have some help from running backs chipping on a couple plays.

Some other assorted things that I noticed:

There were some issues with cut blocking the second level, which shouldn’t be surprising since this is the first time they’ve been allowed to do this all year, but still looks funny.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you have an unblocked defender if you have a chiseled train of a running back carrying the ball:

This article doesn’t have a unified message (except, perhaps, being terrified of the idea of Ifedi starting at RT) so hopefully will serve as fodder for discussion. For further offensive line observations, check out Coleman Crawford’s Inside the Film from this week that also breaks down how they did against the Chargers.

As always, let me know what you think in the comments section or on twitter.