ESPN analyst points to Seahawks flaw that could be 'devastating' for Sam Darnold

The Seattle Seahawks offensive line has never been good during the Pete Carroll-John Schneider era, even when they were spending the most in the NFL on that unit. Now that they're spending less than any team (Baltimore being the lone exception) this group has finally bottomed out, finishing the 2024 season ranked 31st in the league and dead last in the NFC.

It took a long time to come to this, but the crisis at the line of scrimmage may finally explode this coming season if the current group doesn't radically improve compared to last year. According to an analysis by Bill Barnwell at ESPN, Seattle's lack of investment in their front line could be devastating for their new starting quarterback, Sam Darnold.

"Seahawks fans will need to hope Schneider is right, because the impact on Darnold could be devastating. Even during his resurgent 2024 season, his biggest weakness was his propensity for taking sacks, highlighted by a brutal end to the season in an ugly playoff loss to the Rams... Since the start of 2018, his 17.2 QBR when pressured ranks 34th out of 50 quarterbacks with 900 dropbacks."

By now you've heard this line of reasoning at least 50 times since the Seahawks trade Geno Smith and signed Darnold to replace him. It's always worth pointing out that Darnold is hardly unique when it comes to struggling under pressure, as every quarterback does to varying degrees. That said, Smith was definitely better in this particular department - even if Darnold outshined him in pretty much everything else last season.

The Seahawks could have and should have invested in this unit in free agency - they certainly had enough cap space to make a splash signing or two to improve their offensive line after trading Smith and DK Metcalf. However, they only signed backup swing tackle Josh Jones to a cheap one-year deal, and followed it up by only investing one high draft pick on left guard Grey Zabel.

Seattle added a couple of tackles to play guard on Day 3, as they have several times before - but overall the amount of resources that they put in to what might be the worst offensive line in the league is pretty disappointing.

Darnold might very well crash and burn behind that line, but if it gets John Schneider fired and replaced by somebody who takes offensive line building seriously it might just be worth it.

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