What Will Happen to Sims?

31 March 2010

The past few weeks all of us who follow the Seahawks actively, have known that guard Rob Sims is not a guard that is preferred in Alex Gibbs Zone Blocking Scheme. Why? Here is a few quotes below of what Alex wants in his Guards: (Key areas of topic in bold)

"GUARDS & CENTERS: height and length doesn't mean anything. Marginal height, but plays with great leverage. 'LOW WAISTED' (long torso short legs), with leverage under our bodies. Healthier by not being heavy. RARE for them to play early. Nobody over 6'3". My center must be football brilliant.

Very intelligent on the inside. The 'test score limit would SCARE YOU.' We make calls from the inside out (centers call guards, guards tell tackles what to do, tackles tell tight ends what to do. Thus, there's a chain of decreasing responsibility)

All of them must have the ability to step laterally while keeping their shoulders square to the line of scrimmage (or risk allowing penetration).

Injury history is very important. don't want guys who miss games, because of the importance of continuity. 4 of the 5 usually get off season surgery. NO EGO. INSIDE 3 must be brilliant. Huge amount of time is spent on these guys making decisions. Guards must be able to decipher intricate details from the opponent's stance.

But, there is a minimum threshold of strength that a guy must have. Cannot have guys who get driven back."

To read the rest of the article click the read more below.

I have watched a lot of video on Sims, and read a lot of different columns regarding what kind of player he is. The following below is my "opinion" on what I believe is the reason why the Seahawks are trying to trade him. I could be wrong, and I invite any body's opinion in the comments below:

Rob Sims is 6'3" and weighs 312 lbs. He seems like a good fit there. He has struggles with excessive weight for a guard which is a negative for the ZBS. He seems to be beaten a lot by speed rushers. He needs to be more explosive with his blocking coming off the line of scrimmage. When I have seen Speed Rushers get by Sims, he tends to lack speed to catch up. He is beaten more than usual, again, "Guards must be able to decipher intricate details from the opponent's stance. Cannot have guys who get driven back". Sims tends to look slow getting out of his stance, not all of the time, but more than he should. Another negative for the ZBS is that Sims has been injured numerous times over the past 4 years.

I am only pointing out some of the negatives I see on Sims. The positives to me, since I actually love Sims, seem to out weigh the negatives. I could see getting rid of Spencer way before I got rid of Sims, if I was a Hawk.

The examples above are some of the reasons I believe the Seahawks want to trade Sims. Who will trade for him though? Detroit? Chicago? Detroit has one 4th round pick at #100, and I don't see them giving that pick up for Sims. I would expect some sort of trade for a later pick, a Detroit player, a next year pick, or a couple of those options together. Chicago has 5 picks in the whole entire draft. Their 4th round pick is at #109. No wonder they wanted to trade an older DE to the Hawks instead of the draft pick. I think that Chicago is now completely out of the mix.

We all should know within the next few weeks where, who, and when Sims will be traded. He will not be cut! I guarantee that.

What do you all think about what I wrote? Am I nuts? Do you have things to add? Should we keep him? (I want to)

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