Unger to replace Spencer at Center…Finally

Seahawks rookie Max Unger will finally get a chance to start at center. Will other young players soon get similar opportunities?

Spencer, who isn’t that good to begin with had been struggling even more lately, as he played with a cast on his broken right hand.  Since he is right-handed, it naturally made it hard to snap the ball, as evidenced by the fumbled exchange between him and backup QB Seneca Wallace last week.  He had been snapping the ball with his left hand and to give him credit for one thing, actually doing a decent job considering.  The question is, why did it take this long for this move?  Spencer is in his fifth year and has never reached the potential that made him such a high pick.  A great athlete, he’s struggled with technique, making proper line calls, and most of all with staying healthy.  Why would you be starting a guy who touches the ball on every offensive play when he has a broken hand?  Why wasn’t he benched or moved to guard four or five weeks ago?  I don’t think he’s a quality starting center to begin with, so this long of a delay baffles me.  He’s a free agent at the end of the year and I highly doubt he’s part of the Hawks future plans, so what was the point?  Unger is the center of the future and has outplayed Spencer on the line most of the year.  I would have liked to see this switch take place to start the year.  The fact that Spencer is moving to guard and has to now split time with a guy who’s been inactive all year for two different teams shows that Seattle doesn’t have too much faith in him anyway.  Center has more responsablity than any offensive position other than quarterback.  For a great article on it check this out and ask yourself if you think Chris Spencer can do the job.  The Hawks need to see if Unger can handle all the duties that come with being a starting center.

This also leads to a bigger concern for me and that’s the general indecision and poor lack of vision when defining roles and starters for this team.  This is a prime example of one that was taken way to late, but there are others still occurring.  Why is Julius Jones still getting so many carries when Justin Forsett is clearly better?  Jones is an average veteran back with no future on this team.  Forsett has a future, what is not known is to what degree.  He should be getting all the carries right now, so coaches and management can evaluate whether he has any chance of being a feature back in this league or if he’s just a good change of pace/third down back.  The same can be said for Deion Branch and Deon Butler.  With Nate Burleson hurt and now out this week, it’s Branch getting the start opposite TJ Houshmandzadeh, not Butler.  Why is Branch, a seemingly selfish, underperforming player, who appears to have checked out for this season and will most likely be cut taking time from a promising young thrid round pick.  Aside from their prospective futures on the team, Butler has made the most of his limited opportunities and provides a much-needed speed and play making element to the offense.  What has Branch done this year aside from boast to TV cameras after scoring meaningless touchdowns while we get blown out?  Can we please see a little more of defensive end Nick Reed?  He is undersized, but was the star of the preseason, making more plays than anyone else on the team.  No one else on that line is making plays, so give him a chance.  Lastly, and not everyone may agree with me on this, for the love of God, bench Marcus Trufant.  He looks absolutely horrible.  I don’t know if he’s out of shape still, hasn’t adjusted to the new schemes, or is still hampered by his back injury, but he’s embarrassing himself out there and killing our defense.  He leads the league in pass interference calls against, and has only played in seven games.  He doesn’t look like he should even be in the NFL right now.  If I’m watching the game and wanting Kelly Jennings in there, then you know things are bad.

And yes, things are bad.  This coaching staff seems confused and so do the players.  Seattle has no direction and no identity on either side of the ball.  This season is lost, but it’s not pointless.  let’s see what some of these players can do.  Some of them should have been out there a while ago, but it’s not too late.  We need to dump our excess baggage and see if what little talent the Seahawks have can have an impact this year or for the future.