Remember when the Seahawks had a good offensive line? Hint: not in John Schneider era

I can remember the first time I wrote about a concern along Seattle's offensive line.

It was 2005, and I was in my first month covering the Seahawks. Seattle had just played a preseason game in Kansas City where Floyd Womack had suffered what turned out to be a season-ending injury. I thought this could be a serious problem given that Womack – who was known to everyone as Pork Chop – was the team's starting right tackle, and I remember writing a story that asked whether this injury might compromise the whole season.

Silly me. All Seattle did that year was win a franchise-record 12 straight games behind the best offensive line in football as Walter Jones and Steve Hutchinson cleared the way for Seattle to reach its first Super Bowl.

In retrospect, I believe that was also the last season anyone was truly satisfied with the Seahawks' performance up front.

I turn 50 later this month, and it feels like I have spent most of the past 20 years either trying to diagnose what is wrong with Seattle's offensive line or to explain what the Seahawks should do about it. As sick as you may be of reading about this, I am certain that I am more tired of writing about it, and if there was a way to explain what is currently going on with this football team without mentioning those five guys up front, believe me, I'd do it.

But there's not.

I have never a seen a Seahawks season more thoroughly undermined by its offensive line than this one. In fact, I spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with one statistic that will demonstrate just how big of a hole the Seahawks are in because of that line.

I started with sacks. The Seahawks gave up seven of them to the Rams in their latest game, and the 28 sacks that Seattle has allowed so far this season is tied with the Giants for sixth-most in the league.

Then I went to penalties as Seattle has been flagged 17 times for offensive holding, which turns out to be the second-most of any team in the league. They've also been penalized a league-high 17 times for false starts.

But in order to see how truly ineffectual this offensive line has been, you need to put a microscope on its performance down near the goal line where yards are at a premium and every inch is a battle.

Over the past two weeks, the Seahawks have driven inside the opponent's 20-yard line seven times. On those seven red-zone possessions, they have run the ball 11 times for a net of -1 yards.

Of those 11 rushes, seven have failed to gain any yardage and they've been stopped on fourth-and-1 twice.

Just to make it clear I'm not cherry-picking, I'm not including the shotgun snap that sailed over Geno Smith's head against Buffalo, which has become an issue unto itself. Three times over the past two games, the snap has sailed past Seattle's quarterback, resulting in a net loss of 63 yards. Someone more cynical than myself would harp on the fact that this constitutes 45 percent of the 139 rushing yards the Seahawks have gained in those two games, but being the optimist I am, I'll just keep it moving.

I know that a lot of people are pointing to Smith's pair of fourth-quarter interceptions on Sunday as proof of his limitations as a quarterback, but I have no idea how you can accurately critique Smith's performance given the constant state of siege he's operating under.

Same goes for both the structure of Ryan Grubb's offense and his play calls. I don't think he's doing a particularly good job, but I also have no idea how he could given the state of things.

The only one of the past six games the Seahawks have won came against an Atlanta team that has the very worst pass rush in the NFL.

It would be a mistake to distill Seattle's difficulties along the offensive line to any one player, though. This isn't about whether center Connor Williams was worth the $6 million Seattle signed him for back in August or why neither Allen Bradford nor Christian Haynes have played better at right guard. It's not necessarily about injuries, either, though the fact that Abe Lucas has yet to play at right tackle this season and George Fant hasn't been able to finish a game at that spot aren't helping matters.

The problem is much more systemic: Under John Schneider, the Seahawks have been habitually unwilling to invest in continuity along the offensive line.

They've been willing to draft guys, having used 25 picks on offensive linemen in Schneider's 15 drafts as GM. They just haven't been willing to pay to keep them. Justin Britt, a second-round pick in 2014, is the only offensive lineman drafted by Schneider who the team signed to a multi-year extension to stay.

Usually, they wind up going somewhere else and Seattle fills that spot with either a veteran who's on the back nine of his career or another young player working to get a foothold.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

Given what's happening this season, it's time for the Seahawks to alter that formula. The Seahawks need to start paying to keep their linemen because the current approach is costing them any chance at success.