Injury Concern: Chris Spencer

I think there's a decent chance that Chris Spencer won't play a single down for the Seahawks this year.

It's reasonable to say I'm panicking a bit with that statement, but I think it's a reasonable time to panic, as Spencer's injury and Chris Gray's retirement have left the Seahawks with Steve Vallos, a player who had not played center before this training camp, as the first team center. The next backup, Mansfield Wrotto, is equally experienced. That's a huge hole in the (literal) center of the line.

So, what's so bad with Spencer right now? Well, at the start of the off-season - pre-OTAs and all - Spencer and Sims were both understood to need a lot of work to compensate for their regressions during the 2007 seasons. Unfortunately, both underwent offseason surgeries and their participation in minicamps and OTAs were limited. While Sims was recovered by the start of camp, Spencer suffered a new injury - the out-of-nowhere vague back problem - which has prevented him from learning from the new line coaches. Word on Sims is that he's made remarkable progress in camp. Spencer needed that same work, if not more, what with his line call duties as center. So, at this point, Spencer at best has watched a lot of film, but has spent zero time in physical drills. Still, if Spencer were ready go by the end of camp he could at least rely on his athleticism to get by early on while learning during the season.

That's a big 'if' though, and when Holmgren says Spencer's back is so bad that he can't even bend down to tie his shoes, and that Spencer is well past his initial expected-back date and no new date has been given, I'm lead to think that (a) the Seahawks don't know how bad Spencer's back is, and (b) it's hurt bad. Like Chris Williams bad. At best, I would expect Spencer's back to be a nagging injury all year.

Enter Steve Vallos. It's certainly not fair to ask a second year, undrafted, college-tackle-turned-nfl-guard to step in as the starting center for a team that has Super Bowl hopes. But Holmgren said that may well be what transpires and, largely thanks to Solari and DeBorg, Vallos may turn out to be serviceable. Serviceable is probably the best case scenario for Vallos, but with the rest of the line playing at a fairly high level this far, I'd take that. Maybe I'm placing too much faith in the new line coaches, but I think Vallos could be coached up to be a contributing member of a Super Bowl offensive line. Worst case, Vallos gets run over all year. Yikes. I don't even want to think about that scenario. I'll just hope Vallos plays like he did in the Vikings game.