Taking offense

Work and dad duties have made it challenge to catch up with watching the preseason games, but these are my impressions of the offense so far:

1. The O-Line is awful. DangeRuss is running for his life against vanilla preseason defenses. The offensive line needs to get it together fast, because our opponents already smell blood. Defensive coordinators will be sharpening their pencils to devise blitz packages to confound our raw linemen. Unfortunately, our zone blocking scheme depends on chemistry, so the waiver wire is unlikely to offer any quick fixes. Tom Cable has his work cut out for him.

2. Wilson is rusty. His throws are off target, and he's struggling to elude pass rushers. Every year, the team makes it a goal for DangeRuss to hang in and throw more from the pocket more. And every year, the experiment fails because our O-Line can't pass block well enough. Abort the experiment, Wilson, and go back to doing what you do best: running for your life and keeping plays alive.

3. Jimmy Graham is like Circle K: Always open. If you look at the tape, the Ginger Giant gets wide open almost every time he goes out for a pass. DangeRuss could throw to him on almost every down. Wilson has deliberately spread the ball around in the preseason, without much success. However, when start alternating between feeding the Beast and throwing to Golden Graham, that's when opportunities for other receivers will open up.

4. Our wideouts look better. It's hard to tell how much better because Wilson hasn't had much time to throw. Tyler Lockett and the other younglings show promise, and may push Baldwin and Kearse for playing time.

5. Christine Michael has improved. The backup running back answered critics of his pass blocking by blowing up KC linebacker Dee Ford. Michael hasn't had much daylight, but he capitalizes when it's there. When it's not there, he needs to stop dancing and hit it up in there like a Beast to push the pile. His development is timely because Robert Turbin's high ankle sprain just made Michael our #2 running back. The fact that Seattle is looking at 34-year-old Buffalo castoff Fred Jackson tells you how much confidence the coaches have in our depth at the position.

Bye, Lem

Seattle released Lemuel Jeanpierre. Lem had backed up Unger and began camp as the favorite to
replace him. It's sad that it didn't work out. I hope he catches on somewhere else.