Field Gulls
There’s been no shortage of discussion about the need for John Schneider to address the offensive line during the offseason. However, before fixing anything, the starting point is taking inventory of what the team has.
Monday marked seven weeks since the Seattle Seahawks unloaded offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb after a disappointing offensive season played a material role in the the Hawks ending the year on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoffs.
In the time since, former offensive line coach Scott Huff has found new employment as the tight ends coach for the Los Angeles Rams, but there have been exactly zero roster moves that have addressed the biggest impediment the Seattle offense faced in 2024, specifically the offensive line.
So, with just two weeks until the start of free agency and less than two months until Day 1 of the 2025 NFL Draft, plenty of questions remain about how the Hawks will address the offensive line. Of course, before being able to address the offensive line, it becomes necessary to understand exactly what the team has and what position or positions it needs to address.
Most will agree that Charles Cross at left tackle has certainly not performed at a Pro Bowl level, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise given the fact that Cross is just 24 years old, and likely has a lot of very good football ahead of him. He has steadily improved over the first three seasons of his career, and has the athleticism to likely have a significant amount of upside potential remaining, especially given that tackles tend to continue to improve as pass blockers all the way through their twenties.
Moving left to right, the big questions for the offseason surround the interior of the offensive line. Maybe Laken Tomlinson comes back to once again steal developmental practice reps and game snaps from the young trio of guards the Seahawks have in Christian Haynes, Anthony Bradford and Satoa Laumea. Or maybe Tomlinson moves on and Seattle opts to bring in another bargain bin veteran. Or maybe the Hawks simply tell Geno to strap in while the line rolls with Haynes, Bradford and Laumea competing for the two starting spots at guard.
Keeping the same development curve as was presented for tackles, here are what things look like for interior offensive linemen, at least in terms of the Pass Block Win Rate (PBWR) metric from ESPN.
Thus, the question at guard is how much will the Seattle front office be willing to invest at a position at which it already has three young players who saw playing time in 2024? Especially when all of them are young enough that they should see significant improvement in the coming years? Fans certainly didn’t like the on field results from the interior of the offensive line in 2024, and that included the team having signed a bargain bin veteran in free agency, so does it make sense to add another bargain bin veteran who...
