Position Battle - Guard

Written by William P. Tomisser | 30 July 2009

One of the positions that the Seahawks most need to upgrade by almost anyone’s reckoning is the interior of the offensive line. Both guard and center play has been considered to be mediocre over the last couple of years. Spencer at center and Wahle and Sims at guard have all been on the hot seat in their respective position battles and during the off-season, those positions were most often mentioned as the ones Seattle needed to fix if they were to come back and become a contender for the NFC West title and the NFC Championship once again.

Today, I want to focus on the guard position. I started out with the intent to produce an article of around 500 words but ended up quintupling that and then some as the topic just seemed to explode off the page in order to adequately explore the position and the problems Seattle has at the position. I think it ended up being sized proportionally to the problem the position represents.

Seattle had one of the best guard/center units in the NFL in 2005 when Steve Hutchison manned the left guard position and Chris Gray was at right guard with Robbie Tobeck at center. Hutch was the young fire breather who brought an attitude and Tobeck and Gray were the experienced veterans who brought stability and savvy to the interior of the offensive line. Then one by one, they disappeared from the Seahawks in short order. Hutch defected to Minnesota then Tobeck and Gray had to retire because of career ending injuries. Seattle’s interior offensive line play has never been the same since.

Ruskell drafted Spencer to replace Tobeck at center then Rob Sims and Mansfield Wrotto to play guard. He also brought in Mike Wahle from the Carolina Panthers last season to add veteran stability at the guard position. Ray Willis was drafted as a tackle but has also been played at the guard position over the last four years. Even Spencer was tried at guard. Sims has not developed as quickly as many though he would after an impressive rookie season. I wrote an article on Sims for Seahawk Addicts on Monday that you can review to see how Sims has fared with the Seahawks so far in his career.

Wrotto had little experience as an offensive lineman having played as a defensive tackle for three years at Georgia Tech until his senior season when he was moved to the offensive line as a tackle. Mike Wahle had mixed reviews from last season making many mental mistakes as well as being injured and finishing the year on injured reserve. Wrotto did get some much needed experience at guard due to injuries on the offensive line last season as did Willis who logged more games in 2008 than in his previous three years combined. It should be noted that the Seahawks have stated that the plan is for Willis to be the successor at right tackle when Walter Jones retirees and Locklear is moved to left tackle. It is presumed that if he plays at guard, it will be an interim assignment and the Seahawks will still need to find a suitable replacement at guard.

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Many fans were adamant that Seattle needed to completely gut the interior of the offensive line this season and draft or acquire free agents to replace them and start over. There were a lot of posts here at Seahawk Addicts advocating that Seattle draft a center and one of the top guard prospects in the just concluded 2009 draft (including many by yours truly). In a way, they did draft both but it was in the form of a single player. Max Unger was one of the top two center prospects as well as being one of the top guard prospects in the recently concluded draft.

At the current time, on Seattle’s depth chart, Mike Wahle is the starting left guard, Spencer’s the center, and Rob Sims is the starting right guard. Unger has been working behind Wahle in the OTA’s although he is listed on Seattle’s website as the third center behind Vallos on the depth chart and as a guard/center on their roster. Many analysts feel that he will become the starter at left guard before the season is over unless Spencer falters at center. Wrotto and Willis are listed as the backup guards although as noted previously, Willis is being groomed to play right tackle. Seattle will most likely carry 9 offensive linemen again this season. I think the depth chart will most likely shake out like this barring any last minute additions:

Tackles: Jones, Locklear, Willis

Guards: Wahle, Sims, Unger, Wrotto

Centers: Spencer, Unger

Unger will likely move up the depth chart fast once training camp begins at either the guard or center position. That leaves Vallos (guard/center), Williams, Goddard, Ramsey, and Robinson (tackles), and Washington (center) to battle for the last roster spot or a place on the practice squad. Williams filled in at left tackle last season and Vallos at center after the entire starting offensive line was moved to injured reserve and both showed promise so they probably have the inside track on any open roster spot or practice squad spot barring additions to the roster during training camp.

That puts Wahle, Unger, Sims, Wrotto, and Willis in competition for the two starting guard positions. Willis is listed as a guard on the Seattle roster and is seemingly a candidate to move inside and compete for a guard spot. It’s curious that they only have Jones and Locklear listed as tackles except for a bevy of younger players (Williams, Goddard, Ramsey, and Robinson) who all lack experience. Willis is also listed as a backup at tackle on the depth chart and he makes more sense to me as the third tackle. I can see the necessity of trying all possibilities at guard though given the unproven nature of the competitors for the guard positions. I think Seattle needs to leave no stone unturned in it’s search.

Let’s take a closer look at the players who will battle for the guard position.

Mike Wahle

Acquired from the Carolina Panthers prior to the 2008 season, he was released from Carolina before free agency even began in a surprise move. Seattle immediately brought him in and offered him a contract that he accepted without making any other visits. After the season was over, some analysts suggested that Carolina wanted to unload him because he was not getting along in the locker room and he was known to be damaged goods who had slowed considerable from his pro bowl years. Seattle, who had unsuccessfully made a run at Kris Dielman from San Diego prior to the 2007 season, desperately needed to acquire some veteran talent at the guard position and took a chance by signing the former Green Bay Packer whom Holmgren was familiar with from his Green Bay days. Wahle seemed to be a good signing initially but as the season wore on began to make mental errors jumping offside several times in critical situations. Finally, after the 10th game of the season, he was placed on injured reserve with a right shoulder injury that still has the potential of keeping him from playing in 2009. At best, he’s a one year stop gap solution at the position at this point. At worst, he never takes the field again. Murphy’s law says don’t count on Wahle this season.

Rob Sims

Rob Sims played well in his rookie season after making starts in the last three regular season games of his first year and the playoff games that followed. Considered an excellent technical pass blocker, Sims has allowed zero sacks in his 22 starts (including playoff games). Ray Roberts says that Sims compact body type should make him an effective cut blocker and Mike Solari has suggested that Sims should do better under the newly implemented zone blocking system. Fans have generally turned against Sims due to his poor showing in 2007 after being moved to the right side of the line in place of Chris Gray. Sims missed a lot of blocks mostly when run blocking and has definitely got to improve in that area to keep his starting job. He was injured in the first game of 2008 and sat out the season on injured reserve. Mike Clark says that Sims has been one of the most diligent weight room participants in the past off-season. Sims will become a free agent or restricted free agent in 2010 and needs to show marked improvement this season if he wants to be re-signed by the Seahawks. Sims is another interior line player who is an uncertainty for the Seahawks this season due to previous poor play. (See link referenced earlier in this article for a previous write-up on Seahawk Addicts referencing Sims being on the bubble).

Mansfield Wrotto

Wrotto played defensive tackle for three years at Georgia Tech and then was moved over to the offensive line at tackle in his senior year. Seattle drafted him in the fourth round with the pick they acquired from San Francisco for Darryl Jackson prior to the 2007 season. Entering his third season, Wrotto has all but been the unforgotten offensive guard on the Seahawks roster the last two seasons. Said to play with a mean streak, he has flashed moments of looking like a hot prospect intermittent with showing his inexperience at the position. Many fans were disappointed with his selection because they felt we should have gotten more from the Jackson trade and that Wrotto has been a bust. Last season, after the entire starting offensive line was placed on injured reserve by the last part of the season, Wrotto was given an opportunity to play and showed enough in his four starts that he will be considered in the competition for a starting guard position or first line backup this season. There’s not much information to be had on Wrotto since he only played one year in college at offensive tackle and hadn’t played the guard position until he was drafted by Seattle. He was injured in his rookie season so he’s pretty much a complete unknown except for his play last season. What has been said is that he’s a tenacious blocker and has demonstrated good footwork but still has much to learn. Coach Solari also mentioned Wrotto as another player who he thought could prosper in the zone blocking system. Being an unknown, Wrotto might hold one of the keys to Seattle fielding two respectable starting guards this season.

Max Unger

Tomorrow (Friday), I plan to present you with a player profile from our newest guard/center, Max Unger. Max should help alleviate some of the problems with one of the two positions for the Seahawks. Rather than do the same work twice, here is a couple of excerpts from that article that describe Unger’s abilities:

"Unger, who played tackle and center in college, will initially work at guard for the Seahawks. He was one of the top 50 guard prospects in the nation coming out of high school despite only playing organized football since the ninth grade. He recorded close to 100 pancake blocks as a junior for the 2002 BIIF champions. Although he hasn’t had experience playing guard in college, he projected as a guard/center with most NFL teams. Considered one of the two elite centers in this draft along with Alex Mack, Unger was expected by some scouts to go in either the bottom of the first round or early in the second. As Unger kept falling past the top of the second round, Ruskell kept trying to make a deal to get back in the round and nab him knowing he wouldn’t last long and he finally got his lineman with the 49th overall selection after making the trade. Seattle figures to have gotten very good value by acquiring Denver’s first rounder next year and drafting Unger too for which they would have gladly spent the high second round pick they traded to Denver if the draft had gone in a different direction."

"Seattle is installing the zone blocking system as its main run platform this season in its second year under Mike Solari, it’s offensive line coach emeritus. Unger projects to have the necessary skills to excel within that system because of his excellent cut blocking skills and ability to get to the second level downfield. He can handle linebackers and safeties in space once he gets past the first level of blocks. He has demonstrated an above average skill at pulling and getting outside the tackles from the center position with good foot speed. He’s also shown himself to be a leader in the locker room. Some scouts had Unger as the top center prospect in the 2009 draft instead of Alex Mack."

Ray Willis

Ray Willis was drafted from Florida State in the 2005 draft after playing offensive tackle for the Seminoles. Considered a good run blocker, Willis was drafted as an offensive tackle but has seen duty as much at guard as tackle in his career with the Seahawks. At 6’6 and 315 lbs, Willis has the long athletic body of a tackle and even though the Seahawks have toyed with the idea of playing him at guard, he seems more suited to playing an outside offensive line position. Up until 2008, he had only played in 11 games over 3 seasons and then last season due to the injury situation, he played in all 16 games starting 10 of them. Willis showed enough promise last season at both the right guard and right tackle position that he figured prominently in Seattle’s master plan to replace Walter Jones with Sean Locklear when he retires and moving Willis into the right tackle position to replace Locklear. Some observers thought that he played better than Locklear at right tackle last season at times but coaches have him penciled in as a guard this season on Seattle’s roster so far. With a shortage of tackles with any experience on the Seattle roster beyond starters Jones and Locklear, it would seem to make more sense for Locklear to backup the tackle positions and battle Locklear for the starting right tackle position rather than Wahle, Unger, Wrotto, and Sims for a guard spot.

Overall, Seattle would appear to be in dangerous waters with respect to their guard situation in 2009. Wahle could be gone before the season starts, Sims still has a lot to prove as a run blocker, Wrotto is still an almost complete unknown, and Willis could be tabbed to play right tackle if Walter Jones is injured or can’t answer the starting gun and Locklear moves to left tackle. Other than Wahle, Sims has only 22 starts, Willis 10, Wrotto 4 and Unger zero. That’s only 36 starts total among the four young guards who will compete for starting spots if Wahle can’t toe the line at the start of the season. Max Unger might be the best guard on Seattle’s roster as a rookie if he isn’t tabbed to play center because Spencer falters.

I see a huge potential for Seattle to be mortally wounded at the guard position this season if Sims and Wrotto can’t perform and Willis and Unger have to play tackle and center respectively due to health problems with Jones and/or Spencer. With Wahle’s injury highly uncertain to heal and the fact that Seattle has no proven performers at either guard spot or the center position coupled with only one good prospect to cover all three positions in Unger, a rookie, it is by far the weakest part of the team and the most likely to de-rail the plan for them to re-capture their prominence in the NFC West. A poor showing by the offensive line impacts Hasselbeck’s ability to perform, the running backs ability to get the ground game going, and greatly increases the chances that Hass will get hurt again this year. The guard positions will most likely dictate how well the offensive line performs so I think you can call them the most critical position on the roster at this point. It’s funny how the most unheralded position can become the most crucial when all the parts need to fit together seamlessly and function as a whole.

Seattle brought in two free agents at the guard/center position at the first of the week (Cory Withrow and Grey Ruegamer) which I think demonstrates that the precariousness of the position hasn’t been lost on the front office. I think clearly, it is the most vulnerable position on Seattle’s team in 2009 and will require some serious attention next off-season regardless of how well they patch it up and douse it in rose water this season. I think everyone’s hope is that it doesn’t come back to haunt them this season and cause them to have an unfixable weakness. Quality guards are hard to come by at this time of the season and only get harder to find once the season starts. It’s even harder to work a new offensive lineman into your offense as the team is fighting its weekly battles even with the friendlier zone blocking system employed. Let’s hope that our young players can show the needed improvement under the zone blocking system and that injuries leave the offensive line untouched this season.

Hasta,

BillT

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