29th, 20th, 27th, 19th, 30th, 32nd.

These are the rankings given to the Seattle Seahawks offensive line by ProFootballFocus (PFF) from 2011 through 2016. These are bad. Over the course of the last six years, the Seahawks offensive line performance has gone from bad to worse. There are 32 teams in the National Football league, and last year, the Seahawks offensive line was the worst out of them all.

A couple games into the 2017 season and the Seahawks line actually looks WORSE than last year. That’s right. You know that saying about reaching rock bottom? How you can only go up from there?

Well apparently, the Seahawks offensive line don’t, because two games into the 2017 season they looked so much worse than they did last year when they were the worst line in the league.

In the first game of the season, Russell Wilson spent the majority of his playing time under duress. The Packers defense isn’t anything special. In fact, last year they were bad.

In 2016, the Packers defense ranked 21st in points allowed, while the Seahawks ranked third. But despite their mediocrity, the Green Bay Packers defense looked like studs because of how awful the Seahawks offensive line performance was. But that was just one game! They probably had first game jitters and would settle in by game 2, right? Besides, game 2 is against the San Francisco 49ers, who are in the midst of a full-scale rebuild and have one of the worst rosters in the league. AND it’s at CenturyLink Field, home for the Seahawks, where they tend to dominate crappy teams.

So confident was everyone that the Seahawks would win that they were determined to be 14 point favorites. Honestly, I thought the Seahawks would win by more than that. But they didn’t. They won by 3. A win is a win, but...wow. It took a miraculous touchdown drive by Russell Wilson, where he had to rush for 27 yards and scramble at the virtual instant the ball reached his hands, in order for the Seahawks to squeak out a victory over a significantly worse team.

So what’s going on here? Why have the Seahawks been so bad across the line from 2011-2016?

Tom Cable is why.

Tom Cable is the Seahawks offensive line coach. Tom Cable started in 2011. And under Tom Cable, the Seahawks have struggled to perform across the offensive line.

So why hasn’t he been fired? I’m not entirely sure. One common defense of his performance as a coach has been that he hasn’t been given much to work with. The Seahawks don’t like to invest heavily in their offensive line, opting to pay a premium for their defensive stars. But that defense of Tom Cable doesn’t hold up that well to scrutiny.

Starting in 2010, the Seahawks have invested significant draft capital toward the offensive line, using 3 first round picks, 2 second round picks, 2 third round picks, 2 fourth round picks, 3 six round picks, and 2 seventh round picks on offensive linemen.

They’ve also drafted at least 2 defensive linemen that they then converted to offensive linemen. That’s 16 offensive linemen who have been coached up by Tom Cable, and they’ve basically all been busts. The few who haven’t are either with a different team now, or are playing a completely different position (Justin Britt), after failing horribly at the position they were drafted to play.

All the evidence shows that Tom Cable is bad at evaluating talent along the offensive line, and overwhelmingly unsuccessful at developing the talent that the Seahawks end up drafting.

All of this is ignoring Cable’s history of off-the-field issues. In 2009, ESPN interviewed Cable’s former wife and a recent girlfriend, both of whom reported being hit by Cable during their relationships. While coaching the Raiders, Cable also assaulted an assistant coach, breaking his jaw.

Cable should have never been hired in the first place. His failures as a coach reflect his poor decision making in life. It’s time to fire Tom Cable.