Seahawks hope adding more variety will improve offensive line after sordid 2017

By one measure — the number of players returning from last season — the Seahawks’ offensive line is as stable as any position group on the team.

As Seattle goes through OTAs (organized team activities) the No. 1 unit currently features five players who were all on the roster at the end of last season — left tackle Duane Brown, left guard Ethan Pocic, center Justin Britt, right guard Jordan Ross and right tackle Germain Ifedi (Roos filling in for the team’s most notable offseason acquisition, free agent signee D.J. Fluker, who is out with a knee issue the team is being cautious with).

Instead of throwing out all the players following a season in which Seattle had just one rushing touchdown from someone other than Russell Wilson, among a litany of dubious running game stats,, the Seahawks this offseason decided to change the coaching.

That meant out with Tom Cable — the OL coach from 2011-17 — who was fired and is now with the Raiders, and in with 63-year-old Mike Solari, whose NFL career dates to 1987 and whose resume includes a stint with the Seahawks in 2008-09.

And the biggest change Solari will make?

That was a topic Solari tried to evade when he met the media for the first time as a Seahawk coach on Monday, saying the scheme will largely be dictated by the talents of the players.

“It’s just a matter of having a little bit more variety,” Solari said.

It’s clear, tough, that a “little bit more variety” will consist of more man and power blocking schemes rather than the zone schemes that the Seahawks predominantly favored under Cable _ in a breakdown of NFL teams at midseason last year, Seattle ranked fifth in using the most zone blocking, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Seahawks are thought to think that man and power schemes may be a better fit for young players such as Ifedi (in his third year) and Pocic (in his second).

If Solari wanted to downplay the switch, Brown said there’s no question the Seahawks will do less zone blocking (in which players block in groups) than last season.

“I think in the running schemes, we ran a lot of zone last year, and I think we’ll continue to run some zone but we also want to get more downhill,” Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of big bodies up front and you want to utilize that power. We’re also being big on pad level and playing with great leverage in order to run downhill, so power schemes, double teams — thinks like that I think we’ll implement. But like I said, zone scheme is still around as well, so just a mixture of different running schemes to throw defenses off.”

Brown said it’s the mix of and the ability to do both well that will be key for the Seahawks.

“I love the zone scheme as well,” Brown said. “It gets defenses moving sideways but when you have the ability to switch it up and run downhill when they might be expecting that and you get them on their heels and you can knock them off the ball, there’s no greater feeling for an offensive lineman, when you can put your guy five yards, six yards off the line of scrimmage and if you can do that repeatedly, it demoralizes a team. That’s the mentality we have going into this year. We definitely want to be better in the run game to take pressure off of Russ and having to drop back a lot. Last year we weren’t as good as we wanted to be so we’re taking that upon our shoulders.”

Brown volunteering that the Seahawks need to be better up front is also the kind of leadership the team hopes he may be able to add now that he will be with the team for a full season — a four-time Pro Bowler, he was acquired in a trade with Houston last October — that could also make a significant difference.

“You can lean on him as an example of how to do things properly,” Solari said.

And judging by what Brown said Monday, accountability is something he will expect out of the line.

“You know, everyone sees everything that’s said about the run game and lack of it,” he said. “As a competitor, you don’t want to see that, you want to improve on it. So we all individually looked at ourselves this offseason to see what we could do.”

Brown also said the line noticed other moves the team made in the offseason, such as drafting running back Rashaad Penny in the first round and Will Dissly _ who arrives with a rep of being the best blocking tight end available in the draft — and understands that “just shows a commitment to wanting to improve the run game, improve the offense as a whole. So we’re very excited.”

Seahawks fans, meanwhile, will be understandably skeptical until they see a transformation on the field in the fall.

But Brown promised there will be a difference.

Asked about Ifedi — a first-round pick in 2016 who struggled with penalties and inconsistency last season — Brown said. “I think just in the short time I’ve been here, he’s matured a lot and I expect a big season from him. He’s a guy that is going to benefit a great deal from Mike (Solari). Just polishing up his technique more. He has all the tools _ big, athletic guy, you know, great length — so just trusting things and having good technique, I think he’s going to be great. I really do feel that.”

And asked about Solari, Brown similarly raved.

“I’m learning a ton from him,” Brown said. “Mike is a great football mind. He’s very big on attention to detail, very big on technique. Me, being going into my 11th year, I feel like there’s some things that I need to sharpen up to continue to play at a high level and he’s definitely hammering points down for me.

“I think he’s going to be very great for the younger guys,” Brown said. “He coaches everyone the same. No one’s a favorite. If you mess up a rep, you’re doing it over. If you mess it up again, you’re doing it over. I’ve got a lot of respect for that. I think we’re going to be a very sharp O-line, very technically sound, and play with a lot of aggression.”