The one inescapable fact of the 2025 offseason is that the Seattle Seahawks must upgrade their offensive line play. I like what they've done so far, but I'm not at all certain that coaching and scheme will be enough.
I came not to bury John Schneider, nor to praise him. Okay, so he deserves quite a bit of praise for drafting guard Grey Zabel in the first round. Yeah, he drafted Germain Ifedi nine years ago, but they promptly moved him to tackle after his rookie season. So this was a big deal for the Seahawks, and Schneider deserves his props.
On the other hand, the Seahawks whiffed and whiffed badly on a couple of top free-agent guards they hosted this year. Both Will Fries and Tevin Jenkins signed with other teams after they visited Seattle.
The miss on Jenkins stung especially hard as he signed with the Browns. Can you imagine how bad the offer must have been for him to sign with that organization? Happily, the Seahawks have a plan to improve their O-line play. But is it enough?
Seattle Seahawks need more than better coaching for the offensive line
Let me be clear, 12s. I think the hires of Klint Kubiak as the new offensive coordinator and John Benton as Seattle's new O-line coach are major improvements over last season's tandem of Ryan Grubb and Scott Huff. Sure, it was kind of cool that they both came from UDub; well, more or less. Neither had a single day's experience in the NFL, and it showed.
Contrast that with Kubiak and Benton, who have a combined 32 years in the league between them. Benton's lines have shown good to phenomenal improvement throughout his career. There is every reason to believe that between his coaching and Kubiak's schemes Seattle will get the most out of players like Anthony Bradford and Christian Haynes,
But if the Seahawks can improve players who were mired at the very bottom of the rankings among guards, what could they do with players who were already good? Per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Bradford was ranked 72nd in the league. Sataoa Lumea was even worse at 77th. Hey, at least Christian Haynes would have been 71st if he'd had enough snaps to qualify.
Contrast that with a player like Brandon Scherff. I'd prefer to see the Seahawks go for a younger player, but there's no denying that the ten-year vet would be a huge upgrade to Seattle's line. Yes, we've all read that Bradford has looked good in camp so far. That's great, but Scherff has proven to be a stud in 140 actual games.
As for those younger players, I've previously written about three solid options Schneider could sign for much less than Scherff. All three are younger, and while they don't have Scherff's resume, all are miles better than anyone Seattle has on their depth chart at right guard now.
The lowest grade of the trio was 68.1, good for 22nd in PFF's rankings. So how much better could he be with improved coaching?
Yes, I expect the offensive line to be much better this year than in the past several seasons. But think how much greater could they be with another proven player.
