The Seahawks’ bad offensive line can be summed up in this one photo

The Seattle Seahawks have an offensive line. This fact is indisputable. There are five players who wear fully padded uniforms and hold down jobs as guards, tackles, and the center. Many of these players have even played as offensive linemen before, reportedly.

The nominal job these five players do when it comes to blocking poses a direct threat to Russell Wilson’s well being, and it’s a big reason why the team is off to a putrid 1-2 start.

As for why this group is so bad and why the team’s brass can’t seem to acknowledge that this is a thing to fix someday, I do not know.

What I can do is show you an example of just how bad things are when it comes to blocking, or lack thereof, for the Seahawks, and a much bigger problem of perception about how bad they are.

Again, I am not an offensive line expert (neither is Seattle OL coach Tom Cable, apparently), but I am pretty sure that these five gentle people are not supposed to be lying on the ground like this.

Watch how it happened in real time, when ALL FIVE LINEMEN whiffed on their cut blocks.

A little bit about this play. It’s a screen, and the linemen are supposed to cut block the defender in their immediate vicinity. They have to do it right away so as not to get too far down the field and draw a flag as an illegal receiver.

This brings the defensive linemen up the field while the QB gets the ball out quickly to a waiting receiver behind them.

If this play looks familiar, that’s because we’ve seen something similar recently in college football when Kansas did it. Unfortunately, the Jayhawks made it look kinda bad too because the QB failed to get the ball out of his hands and got sacked.

Here’s another look at it. You can see Paul Richardson, No. 10, on the bottom of the screen waiting and Jimmy Graham on the other side running a quick slant.

The play is doomed from the start because of a bad snap, just one more basic task the Seahawks offensive line is currently struggling with.

This isn’t even the first time the Seahawks have run a play like this. Which might be part of the bigger problem in Seattle, the play calling contributing to the offensive line’s failure.

It doesn’t work as well in the NFL, according to an actual NFL offensive line expert.

This is less about the whiffed blocks, which is more a function of the a poorly designed play.

Wilson was able to save the whole thing from turning into a total disaster, as he’s done so many times over the last few seasons, but there’s an unacceptable level of risk involved in that approach.

And all the context in the world isn’t going to change the fact that an image of five large men sprawled out across the field while oncoming rushers weave their way around those helpless speed bumps almost perfectly sums up the ongoing struggle of Seattle’s offensive line.