More Than a Mauler: Seahawks Excited About Well-Rounded Anthony Bradford
RENTON, Wash. - Weighing north of 330 pounds with a thick, powerful frame, Seattle Seahawks fourth-round pick Anthony Bradford compares physically to several of the massive body movers who have occupied the guard positions for the franchise over the past decade and change.
Watching him go to work at LSU on film, Bradford's ability to knock defenders off the football and drive them downfield conjures up memories of D.J. Fluker in 2018 and 2019. His penchant for dominating at the point of attack in the run game as an angle blocker mirrors that of his new (and former) teammate Damien Lewis, who has started each of his first three seasons at both guard spots since being selected by Seattle in the third round of the 2020 NFL draft.
But while Bradford checks off the boxes as a prototypical road grader in the interior offensive line similar to Fluker, Lewis, and recently departed starter Gabe Jackson, who all tipped the scales at 325-plus pounds, there's more than meets the eye upon first glance with the Muskegon, Michigan native.
Putting in the work watching Bradford's tape, digging into his athletic testing, and getting to know the player off the field, senior director of player personnel Matt Berry and the Seahawks were able to identify a unique talent who coaches, scouts, and the analytics department all thought highly of. Even though he played in a different offense than the one coordinator Shane Waldron deploys, everyone involved in the draft decision-making process was unified in viewing him as a strong prospect, putting him high on their big board.
"We brought him out on top-30 visit and got to spend time with him," Berry said of Bradford. "Their scheme at LSU is a little bit different than what we do here. They're more gap, inside zone, power and we want to be a mid zone, outside zone team. So between between Andy [Dickerson] and his staff, our analytic staff, which really dug into the athletic profile, and then our scouting staff, we really came to get consensus on him as a player."
Pulling back the curtain on each and every one of the team's 10 selections in this year's draft on a recent episode of the Locked On Seahawks podcast, Berry dove into the scouting and evaluation process on Bradford, who flew out to meet with offensive line coach Andy Dickerson and other staffers on an official visit in April.
Given coach Pete Carroll's desire to establish a balanced offense with a quality rushing attack, Bradford's excellence as a run blocker jumped out first to Seattle and for good reason. According to Pro Football Focus, he scored favorably both in gap and zone blocking schemes in 2022, finishing with at least a 69.5 grade in both categories and ranking 38th out of 316 qualified guards in the country for overall grade.
Taking a big step forward in his first season as a starter for the Tigers, Bradford further enhanced his draft stock with an impressive performance at the NFL combine in February. Posting an elite 1.66-second 10-yard split in the 40 and a 30-inch vertical at 332 pounds, his workout received an outstanding 9.81 Relative Athletic Score, the highest mark for all guards in the 2023 class.
What ultimately sold the Seahawks on Bradford's potential, however, wasn't his run blocking or outstanding athleticism for a player of his size. As Berry pointed out, though PFF dogged him with 49.3 grade and he did surrender four sacks, film and overall numbers painted a different picture for Dickerson and other coaches as well as the scouting and analytics staffs.
"He's a 2.5 percent pressure guy," Berry remarked. "He gave up 12 pressures last year in the SEC, which he's playing a bunch of good players. I know he comes across as a run blocking mauler of a dude and he is powerful and he's got a ton of athletic ability, but he really stood out as a pass protector. He can win at the line of scrimmage, he doesn't get pushed."
Statistically, Bradford's 12 pressures allowed on 423 pass blocking snaps tied for a respectable 10th-fewest in the country. Compared to Lewis, who he played with for one season in Baton Rouge, he yielded only one more pressure and one more sack than his mentor did during his senior season in 2019.
Of course, critics could point to the fact that LSU's offense ran a lot of screens and quick concepts as part of the reason Bradford's numbers looked as strong as they did. When eliminating screens, play action, and quick concepts with less than two seconds to throw as part of their "true pass set" metric, his efficiency dropped nearly two full percent to 96.4, which tied for 95th in the country.
But on the contrary, Bradford only gave up six pressures on such tracked plays, which tied with Florida standout O'Cyrus Torrence, a decorated second-round pick for the Bills. His final total was also only one fewer than TCU standout Steve Avila, who the Rams selected early in the second round.
As the Seahawks would certainly argue, that's excellent company to keep heading to the next level comparing favorably to two highly touted prospects who were selected two rounds before him. In even better news, after playing fewer than 300 combined snaps in his first three seasons at LSU before becoming a starter last year, Bradford should have a ton of room for growth given his lack of experience, feisty demeanor, and tantalizing athletic profile.
The onus will fall on Dickerson and the coaching staff to bring out the best in Bradford, who may need some seasoning before he's ready to start. Technique wise, he will need some refinement with hand placement and his footwork can be spotty at times, making him look like more of a plodder moving laterally than his testing would suggest.
At the same time, Berry expects him to push incumbent Phil Haynes, who only has a handful of NFL starts under his belt, right away in his first training camp. After the team fell in love with his all-around game in the evaluation process, he wouldn't rule out the possibility of the youngster latching onto coaching quickly and contributing in the trenches for Seattle earlier than anticipated.
"We felt like he'd a good candidate to compete with Phil [Haynes] at the right guard spot. We're really excited about it and feel like the arrows pointed up the last two years. He has been rolling and he seems like he's a young kid that is just getting started."
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