Chris Spencer, Sean Locklear Finished in Seattle?

A PFW article had this to say today:

Word out of Seattle is that free-agent O-linemen Sean Locklear and Chris Spencer have, in effect, been told to look elsewhere. First-round draft pick James Carpenter, who already has been handed the starting RT role that Locklear filled the majority of last season, apparently has been given Locklear's number (No. 75). Spencer, a former first-round draft pick who has had as many downs as ups as the team's starting center, has been replaced by third-year pro Max Unger, who suffered a season-ending toe injury in Week One last season as the starting right guard.

Nobody's going to miss Locklear. The last relic of Seattle's historic offensive line from 2005 was never the same after his Pro Bowl cohorts disappeared. His last two years have been defined by red-zone penalties and getting wiped out by basic bull rushes.

Spencer is an interesting case. Some will remember his constant injuries and his overblown struggles with line calls and hail the departure of one of Tim Ruskell's first-round "busts". Others will cite his steady improvement in 2007 and see just another hole being opened on the line.

Top Ten Great Mistakes of Tim Ruskell, Part 2

5. The Hiring of Jim Mora

Jim L. Mora, Seattle's head coach for one brief year that wasn't brief enough, was a loose-lipped PR embarrassment before his Seattle tenure, a vacant, reactionary excuse-maker during his tenure, and a facepalm-inducing fop after he's left. He had never created anything but a mediocre defense before Ruskell tapped him to succeed Mike Holmgren as Seahawks head coach. You could rank his hiring anywhere on this list of Ruskell's greatest failures.

I don't know which is worse - that the players quit on Mora before the season was half over, or that he was trying to make grandiose, larger-than-life big-shot gestures before the season even began. T.J. Houshmandzadeh and the watch, really? Did you think we'd completely forgotten about the Huskies comments? Before he'd had any chance to (re)build credibility and trust with the Seahawks or their fans, he was already flexing for the Super Bowl pregame shows. Ugh.

From his thousand-yard-stare to his reflex of publicly hanging struggling players out to dry, Mora did one thing right: he taught us how much of the dignified, responsible, patient Mike Holmgren we'd taken for granted all those years. He also gave us a frame for new coach Pete Carroll, who defends his players as a coach should. It's pretty bad when your biggest accomplishment as an NFL head coach is to make both your predecessor and your successor look better than you.


4. The Left Tackle Situation