Seahawks Pre-OTAs Roster Reset: Offensive Line
Though the 2023 season remains months away, the NFL never sleeps. And after landing a new 10-player draft class, the Seattle Seahawks have transitioned into phase two of their offseason program with OTAs and minicamps just around the corner.
Starting from scratch at the tackle positions, the Seahawks hit home runs drafting Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas a year ago, as the pair started 16 regular season games and a postseason game together. While there's stability outside, the franchise will be guaranteed to start a new center for the third straight season and will also break in a new right guard after releasing Gabe Jackson this spring, creating some question marks in the interior.
Transitioning from the frenzy of free agency and the draft to on-field offseason work, where do things stand for Seattle along the offensive line? Here's a look at projected starters, backups, a wild card to watch, and what could come next at the position:
Don't miss our roster resets for other positions:
- Safeties
Projected Starters: Charles Cross, Damien Lewis, Evan Brown, Phil Haynes, Abraham Lucas
Immediately vaulted into the starting lineup replacing departed veteran Duane Brown, Cross endured his share of bumps as a rookie protecting the blind side. But the No. 9 overall pick out of Mississippi State made strides as the season progressed, allowing two or fewer pressures in three of Seattle's final four games, including in a wild card loss at San Francisco. With another full offseason under his belt to get stronger and continue working on technique as a run blocker, he has a chance to make a huge leap in his sophomore season and emerge as one of the sport's best young tackles.
The same can be said for Lucas, who joined Cross to form only the third tandem of rookie tackles to start a season together in the lineup since 1970. Aside from missing a game in December with a sore knee, the third-round pick out of Washington State started every game and though he allowed nine sacks, that number was a bit misleading. He actually surrendered 20 fewer pressures than Cross and earned higher overall grades from Pro Football Focus both as a run and pass blocker, showing enough upside to be a Pro Bowler down the road in his own right.
In the middle of the offensive line, Lewis will return for his fourth season as a starter and third at left guard, a position he grew much more comfortable in last year after a somewhat disappointing 2021 campaign. Though he missed the opener recovering from an ankle injury, he enjoyed his finest season as a pass protector, allowing only 21 pressures on 679 passing snaps and producing a 98.1 efficiency rate. Heading towards free agency, he'll have plenty of incentives to take his game to another level in the final year of his rookie contract.
What Seattle will have to begin figuring out over the next few weeks in OTAs, however, is which two players will line up next to Lewis in the interior. After starting at right guard for Detroit last season, Brown signed as a free agent on a one-year deal and will enter training camp atop the depth chart. But he will have to fend off Oluwatimi, a fifth-round pick out of Michigan who won the Rimington Award and Outland Award as the nation's best center and interior lineman last year. At the right guard spot, Phil Haynes will have his best chance to start yet in his fifth season, but like Brown, he will have to beat out a capable rookie in fourth-round pick Anthony Bradford in a wide-open competition.
Backups: Olu Oluwatimi, Anthony Bradford, Stone Forsythe, Jake Curhan, Greg Eiland, Jalen McKenzie, Joey Hunt, Kendall Randolph
Starting their NFL careers, Oluwatimi and Bradford enter the league with a bit different backgrounds. On one hand, Oluwatimi logged over 3,500 snaps at the pivot position in college and if there's a such thing as a seasoned rookie, he fits the bill after excelling in spread and pro style offenses at Virginia and Michigan. Far less experienced, Bradford only served as a full-time starter for one season at LSU, but he's an outstanding athlete for a 332-pound mauler in the run game and yielded just 12 pressures for the Tigers last season, suggesting he could be ready to play sooner rather than later.
At the tackle spots, with Cross and Lucas cemented as starters moving forward, Forsythe and Curhan should provide the Seahawks with quality depth at the position. Forsythe, a 2021 sixth-round pick, played well in a spot start filling in for Lucas last season, while Curhan started five games as a rookie two years ago and performed admirably. Neither should be threatened by Eiland or McKenzie, who spent time on the practice squad a year ago.
In the interior, Curhan also has seen some action at guard and depending how things shake out in the impending battles at center and right guard, he could be a primary backup in the interior. Randolph, an undrafted rookie out of Alabama, is the only other guard currently on the roster, while Hunt previously started for the Seahawks in 2018 and at the very least will be a mentor for Oluwatimi.
Wild Card: Bradford
Given his lack of playing experience in college, Bradford will open OTAs well behind Haynes, who received extensive snaps in a platoon role with departed veteran Gabe Jackson last year and did well enough to warrant a one-year deal to return in March. But in terms of natural tools, Haynes doesn't have Bradford's size or athleticism, as the incoming rookie tore up the combine with an impressive 1.66 10-yard split in the 40-yard dash and a 30-inch vertical jump at over 330 pounds. If he takes to coaching from Andy Dickerson and the rest of the staff, considering those enticing traits coupled with his nastiness in the trenches, it wouldn't be surprising at all to see him push for playing time right away.
What's Next?
Unlike this time last year, the Seahawks don't have any question marks at the tackle spots with Lucas and Cross poised to be the bookends potentially for the next decade following impressive rookie campaigns. With that said, the 26-year old Lewis stands out as the elder statesman of the group with the retirement of former starting center Austin Blythe and Jackson's release leaving the team with minimal regular season game experience on the roster. Even Brown, who started 12 games each of the past two seasons at center and guard, barely has a full NFL season of staring experience under his belt.
What makes the situation interesting is that Brown and Haynes are both under 27 years old and it's possible that either player could still be a potential long-term starter in waiting playing on a one-year deal. At the same time, after using draft picks on Oluwatimi and Bradford, Seattle would love to see both of them give the veterans a run for their money out of the gate and eventually find their way into the lineup. Though that would make for an incredibly young offensive line prone to mistakes, it also would guarantee the team has four core starters playing together for at least the next three seasons, boding well for the present and future up front.
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