Whose line is it anyway?

RENTON, Wash. – The improv act along Seattle’s offensive line is in its second season.

The Seahawks signed guard Mike Gibson on Wednesday, adding him from Philadelphia’s practice squad to fill the roster spot vacated when tackle Kyle Williams was shuttled back to the Seattle practice squad.

Williams, you may recall, was the starting left tackle last week, replacing Brandon Frye, who suffered a neck injury while filling in for Sean Locklear, who hurt his ankle while subbing for Walter Jones, who has yet to come back from knee surgery.

Got all that? Good, because it might change before the Seahawks play at Dallas on Nov. 1. Actually, it probably will change given the recent trends along Seattle’s offensive line.

Seattle has started 12 different combinations on its offensive line in the past 22 games. Compare that to Arizona, which has used the same offensive line combination for all of those games. Or look back just a few years ago in Seattle. From 2003 through 2005, the Seahawks started a grand total of five different offensive-line combinations in 48 regular-season games.

What impact has that lack of continuity had on Seattle’s offensive line?

“It’s a problem,” offensive line coach Mike Solari said. “Your offense doesn’t have any consistency. The guys that are stepping up and going in there, they’re battling, they’re working hard, they do a nice job in the classroom and so forth, but it is a problem because you just don’t have that consistency as an offensive line. You don’t have that communication. You don’t have that sense or that feel of the lineman next to you. You just don’t.”

You also don’t have any choice but to adjust once injuries strike.

“It’s one of those things that’s part of football,” center Chris Spencer said. “You have no control over it. All we can do is when a new guy is put in is try to help him out and give him all the communication and how we do things so we can move on and try and get some wins.”