After Rotating Kyle Fuller and Ethan Pocic on Sunday, Seahawks Need to Pick a Lane at Center
For much of the offseason, the center position was a great point of emphasis in debates about the Seahawks' roster construction. Fans and pundits alike clamored for the team to address what was considered to be a massive hole after 2020 starter Ethan Pocic struggled in the team's wild-card loss to the Rams and subsequently headed to free agency.
But Seattle instead stood pat, re-signing Pocic to a one-year contract and tendering exclusive rights free agent Kyle Fuller this spring. There was an opportunity to snag one of the top centers in the 2021 NFL Draft—a potentially fruitful endeavor given the position was widely considered one of the deepest in the event—but general manager John Schneider and company opted for Western Michigan receiver Dee Eskridge with the first of their league-low three picks.
Fast forward to the summertime and it was presumed that Pocic would be the guy once again. But after the fifth-year man out of LSU came into training camp with a hamstring injury and later reaggravated it, the Seahawks shifted their focus to Fuller—a player head coach Pete Carroll has become particularly fond of over the last three years.
Fuller, however, had just one start in a Seahawks uniform under his belt and it did not go well. Of course, it's hard to blame him for his struggles after filling in for a concussed Pocic against Aaron Donald and the Rams' daunting defensive line. But allowing five interior pressures alone, no matter who the opponent is, is not going to inspire a ton of confidence and Fuller didn't necessarily "wow" in training camp either.
In speaking with the media, Carroll often raved about Fuller's progress this summer but danced around any form of public commitment to him being the starting center. Nevertheless, Fuller took the majority of first-team snaps in practice, as well as in pregame warmups prior to the start of the Seahawks' Week 1 battle with the Colts.
He made the start and Seattle got into the end zone on its very first drive of the afternoon. Then, things got weird as Pocic and Fuller started alternating drives at the position.
In the end, Pocic only saw 14 snaps while Fuller played the remaining 40. That's a pretty big divide and there's a simple explanation as to why that was the case: the Seahawks' offense was simply more efficient with Fuller snapping to quarterback Russell Wilson.
For three of the team's four scoring drives on Sunday, Fuller was the center—the lone exception being the game-clinching, fourth quarter drive that ended in a 15-yard touchdown reception by DK Metcalf. But even then, Pocic wasn't on the field for Metcalf's score, going down with a knee injury two plays earlier.
Overall, Pocic looked like someone who missed the majority of training camp and the entire preseason. That especially rung true on a blitz by Colts linebacker Darius Leonard in the third quarter, which freed up defensive lineman DeForest Buckner to blow right by a slow-reacting Pocic for a sack of Wilson on a key 3rd and 5 at midfield.
While Fuller wasn't particularly stellar either, there's no denying who outshined the other. It's clear who is, for now, deserving of the starting job, hopefully ending any further rotations from here on out.
The Seahawks need consistency up front—not just in the play of their linemen, but the personnel that makes up the unit. Swapping out players every other drive kills any chance of securing that consistency, especially at such a critical position like center. They need to pick a lane and stick to it; for now, that's Fuller.
That decision, of course, may have been taken out of their hands. Depending on the severity of Pocic's knee sprain, Fuller and waiver pickup Dakoda Shepley will be the lone healthy centers on Seattle's roster. Starting left guard Damien Lewis can also play center in a pinch, but this could open the door for undrafted rookie Pier-Olivier Lestage to be elevated—or even promoted—from the practice squad ahead of Sunday's game against the Titans.
Whatever the case may be, one thing is for certain: it's time to let someone have sole possession of the keys at center. If not, the offensive line as a whole could struggle to find a rhythm as the season progresses—the antithesis of Wilson's demands in the offseason.
