POLL RESULTS: Seahawks should target offensive line in draft

Oh, Seattle Seahawks fans, sometimes you can be so predictable.

This week’s Seattle Sidelines poll was about the Seahawks and the NFL draft. The draft takes place Thursday through Saturday, and this week’s poll asked readers which position they thought Seattle should prioritize in this year’s draft.

What did the voters stump for? The answer isn’t a surprise. Take a look:

POLL: Which position should the Seahawks prioritize in the NFL draft? Full context here: https://t.co/vSHpizihST

— Nick Patterson (@NickHPatterson) April 23, 2018

Add it all up and more than half the votes (51 percent) were for the offensive line. The defensive line received 27 percent, the secondary 16 percent, and other positions drew 6 percent.

So yes, Seahawks fans’ obsession with the offensive line, which has been a source of extreme angst for three seasons, remains alive and well, and the fans believe addressing that problem should be priority No. 1 in the draft.

This despite Seattle having a new offensive coordinator in Brian Schottenheimer, a new offensive line coach in Mike Solari, having four returning starters in center Justin Britt, guard Ethan Pocic and tackles Duane Brown and Germain Ifedi, having a starter from 2016 returning from season-long injury in George Fant, and having signed free-agent guard D.J. Fluker. If we go by these poll results, the blame for Seattle’s struggles on the offensive line is less attributable to coaching (even though former offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and former offensive line coach Tom Cable were the subjects of much vitriol) and more about the players.

This despite the Seahawks’ legendary Legion of Boom secondary perhaps evaporating, with cornerback Richard Sherman released and signing with NFC West rival San Francisco, strong safety Kam Chancellor’s career perhaps over because of a neck injury, and free safety Earl Thomas continuing to be the subject of trade rumors as he heads into the final year of his contract.

This despite Seattle having no idea where its pass rush is coming from, with defensive end Michael Bennett traded to Philadelphia and fellow defensive end Cliff Avril also perhaps having to hang up the spikes because of a neck injury.

This despite the Seahawks having no running back on the roster who had more than 240 yards rushing last season, or even has more than 348 rushing yards in his NFL career.

Maybe with Seattle’s defense going through so much turnover the hope for 2018 is to put the team fully on quarterback Russell Wilson’s shoulders. It certainly would be interesting to see what Wilson could do with a little more protection, and it would be especially interesting to see what the offense could do if it was able to get a consistent running game back.

The first round of the draft is Thursday night starting at 5 p.m PDT, rounds 2 and 3 are Friday starting at 4 p.m., and rounds 4 through 7 are Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. As of now Seattle is scheduled to select 18th in the first round, has no picks in the second or third rounds, has one fourth rounder, four fifth rounders and two seventh rounders. But given general manager John Schneider’s history, there’s a good chance the Seahawks move down in the first round to acquire more picks.