All the quarterback changes, coaching innovations and roster upheaval in the world won't mean squat if your team can't win at the line of scrimmage. Seattle Seahawks fans should be more than familiar with this concept by now, as they've been suffering through a decade-long streak of poor offensive line play.
What little hope for improvement this season has to hinge on rookie Grey Zabel being great right out of the gate and right tackle Abe Lucas staying healthy after missing most of the last two seasons with knee pain. Seattle has a solid left tackle with Charles Cross but that's just about the only sure thing this unit has going for it just six weeks removed from the start of the season.
The worst of it is the situation at center and right guard, where there were multiple upgrades available in both free agency and the draft, but the Seahawks passed on all of them. That leaves four unproven options vying for the two starting spots in 2025.
According to an account by Mike Dugar at The Athletic, at Wednesday's first training camp practice of the year, head coach Mike Macdonald had Anthony Bradford and Christian Haynes rotating snaps at right guard and Olu Oluwatimi and Jalen Sundell switching back and forth at center.
The Athletic on Seahawks' OL battles
"Macdonald and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak are mixing up the offensive line rotations, with centers Jalen Sundell and Olu Oluwatimi and right guards Christian Haynes and Anthony Bradford receiving opportunities in front of Darnold and the starting offense. Macdonald said they’ll continue mixing up the rotations through next week when they begin padded practices."
There's something to be said for competition, but as we learned the hard way during the latter Pete Carroll years if you don't have a settled starter it's often because there simply aren't any good options to fill that role on the roster.
That may not be the case at either of these problematic spots, but based on what we've seen so far there's not much reason to be hopeful for a huge break-through. Oluwatimi and Haynes remain undersized for NFL linemen, Haynes has precious little experience at this level and Bradford simply hasn't performed well consistently in pass protection.
At this point a solution is over our paygrade - there were plenty of opportunities during the offseason to improve the depth chart at both positions - but they just didn't seem to be a priority for general manager John Schneider.
Unless somebody steps up and becomes a late-blooming star out of nowhere, a costly trade for a proven veteran may be their only hope at this late hour.
