The Super Bowl window for Russell Wilson and his team hasn’t closed yet but their offensive line needs to get up to speed before their defensive stars fade

One yard. One yard is all that stood between the Seattle Seahawks becoming the first NFL team to win back-to-back Super Bowl since the 2003-2004 New England Patriots. One yard is all the Seahawks needed to launch a mini-dynasty.

Two years later, after some combination of Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll and Darrell Bevell conspired to throw Super Bowl XLIX away and into the hands of Malcolm Butler, the Seahawks are a lot further than one-yard from greatness. Last season’s attempt to get back to the Super Bowl for a third year in a row ended two rounds short in Carolina with a 31-24 defeat that featured a furious comeback from a 31-0 deficit. This year’s effort also ended in the divisional round, but in a 16-point defeat that saw the Seahawks get thoroughly outplayed by the Falcons – a team coached by Dan Quinn, Seattle’s defensive coordinator during their two Super Bowl seasons.

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By any measure, there has been some serious regression in Seattle from the 2013 championship season. The Seahawks did not live up to Carroll’s catchphrase and “Win Forever.” They win sometimes. Usually. But they’ve not become the dynasty many predicted after Super Bowl XLVIII. Starting with that ill-fated pass attempt to Ricardo Lockette two years ago, Seattle’s slide has been self-inflicted. Or as their truther head coach might say: it’s been an inside job.

While conventional wisdom is that the 2014 Seahawks should have handed the ball to Marshawn Lynch to win the Super Bowl and save the world from another Patriots Super Bowl title, it’s true that the 2016 Seahawks might not gain a single yard running the ball on one, two or 20 cracks at it. Lynch literally hung up his cleats after last season, but even in his beastiest mode would have struggled for yards behind Seattle’s current line. The unit was was ranked worst in the NFL by Pro Football Focus and Seattle’s running attack was 25th in the NFL this season. Wilson is one of the league’s more mobile quarterbacks, but ideally his mobility would be utilized to extend and make plays, not to save his life every time he drops back to pass.

That Seattle’s offensive line disaster is not a huge surprise considering they’ve drafted a total of one offensive lineman earlier than the third-round since stumbling upon their franchise QB in the 2012 draft. Carroll’s philosophy is to build a line out of good athletes with big frames. Right tackle Garry Gilliam was a tight end at Penn State who went undrafted after playing his final collegiate season on the offensive line. Seattle’s left tackle, the man tasked with protecting Wilson’s blindside when God is busy doing other stuff, is George Fant: another undrafted project who played four years of basketball at Western Kentucky and one year of tight end. Carroll says the Seahawks have no intention to spend big on blockers this offseason and, considering his experiment of a line has an average age of 24, maybe they’ll show significant progress in 2017 and beyond. But that thought probably was of little comfort to Wilson when he was getting drilled in the chest.

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While the Seahawks are hoping their line will develop with time, time is not on the side of the defense. Seattle gave up 231 points in their Super Bowl season, 254 a year later, 277 last year and 292 in 2016. That was still good for third-best in the league, but anyone who saw Matt Ryan pick apart the vaunted Seattle secondary on Sunday knows the unit is not what it once was. Safety Earl Thomas missed the last month of the season with a broken tibia and has hinted at retirement. That’s unlikely, but his return won’t slow Richard Sherman’s decline or make Kam Chancellor less prone to injury from his bruising style. Thomas’ return also won’t help Seattle sign Chancellor or any of their other veterans in line for salary bumps.

Losing linebacker Bruce Irvin to free agency last offseason was a blow to the defense, but keeping Irvin wasn’t much of a possibility with Chancellor wanting a new deal, Seattle choosing to invest in third cornerback Jeremy Lane, defensive end Michael Bennett in line for a new contract and tight end Jimmy Graham commanding big money.

As great as Lynch and Wilson and the defense were during Seattle’s Super Bowl title run, the true MVP of that team was Wilson’s contract. Seattle could load up across their roster thanks to paying their star quarterback like a practice squad punter. But now that Wilson gets market rate for his position and accomplishments, the Seahawks are forced to make the same tough choices as every other team – and their choices haven’t always panned out. Lane struggled this year and while Graham finally put up the numbers Seattle expected from him, the Seahawks could decide to cut their big tight end by March and save $10m against the salary cap.

It’s not that Seattle’s championship window is closed. And if we’re doing the window analogy, look at Seattle as having two windows that have to be open a crack at the same time for them to get another Lombardi Trophy into the house: the young line needs to get up to speed before the long-time core of Bennett, Sherman, Thomas, Chancellor, Cliff Avril, Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse and friends get too old. Maybe they have next year or the the next three years to go after a Super Bowl before they’ll need a full-scale rebuild. Or maybe the three-year decline will continue next year with a wildcard round exit or no playoffs at all if the defense gets worse and the offensive line gets no better.

Earl Thomas (@Earl_Thomas) Tom Brady has the easiest route... put his ass in our division and see what he does!!! #salty!!

The former is more likely thanks to having a top-flight quarterback and a defense that is still one of the better units in the league. But Seattle’s best shot at getting back to the playoffs is their easy division. Don’t tell Thomas this, of course. He’s better at tackling than self-awareness. But the Seahawks shouldn’t have much trouble next year against a 2-14 49ers team with no head coach, a 4-12 Rams team with a toddler head coach and a 7-8-1 Cardinals team with no better options than Carson Palmer at quarterback. Even a struggling Seattle team should take that group with ease. Carroll began his rise in Seattle by winning the division at 7-9. The question is whether he completes his fall there by doing the same.