It isn’t as if Seahawks’ general manager John Schneider has been chilling by the pickleball courts this offseason. He traded his starting quarterback. He traded his former cornerstone receiver. He allowed another franchise legend to walk via free agency. Along with head coach Mike Macdonald, he brought in a new offensive coordinator and several new position coaches.
It was obvious that the Seahawks needed an offensive overhaul after a mediocre 2024 season. They weren’t exactly bad. They were just kind of boring. And they were getting old.
The biggest culprit was the offensive line. Seattle cycled through three right guard players, none of whom played very well. Their top two right tackles were injured for much of the year, and their starting center retired mid-season.
Seahawks can win the offseason by doing this one thing
In the early weeks of free agency, Schneider did not seriously address the line issue. He signed one journeyman tackle while losing his starting left guard.
Some promising guards were on the market in March, but Schneider either chose to pass or was outmaneuvered by them. Therefore, the position remains the biggest question mark heading into the 2025 season.
With a glut of picks in the top half of the draft, the Seahawks will likely choose several linemen to compete for spots. However, it is by no means a certainty that anyone taken in the second round or beyond would be able to provide immediate help. (See “Haynes, Christian”).
Many draft analysts have Schneider choosing North Dakota State’s Grey Zabel, who many see as a plug-and-play left guard. Schneider has expressed skepticism about taking an interior lineman with the 18th overall pick, but perhaps a trade-back could make it more palatable.
If Schneider wants to make a bold play, there is one more high-risk, high-reward move available. He could sign former Browns tackle Jedrick Wills. And he could slide him inside to play guard.
To be sure, there are more reliable options still on the market. Former Pro Bowler Brandon Scherff is unsigned. He is not the player he once was, but he still has some tread on his tires. Dalton Risner has been a reliable starter in the league and won’t be thirty until this summer.
None of the remaining guards has the Wills ceiling. He was drafted out of Alabama with the tenth overall pick in 2019 – the second of four tackles chosen in the top half of round one that year. During his rookie season, he might be the best of the lot.
Things have not gone smoothly since that first season. For a while, it appeared that the first tackle in that group of four – Andrew Thomas – would be the cream of the crop, but a steady stream of injuries has derailed his progress. Plus, he plays for the Giants so that he may have been doomed from the get-go. Now, it turns out that the last of the four tackles, Tampa Bay’s Tristan Wirfs, is the best.
Up until now, the most intriguing player was the one selected immediately after Wills in 2019. Mekhi Becton, a failed tackle with the Jets, turned his entire career around by shifting inside to guard with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles last year. He parlayed that into the two-year, $20 million contract with the Chargers this season.
Schneider could have gotten in on the bidding for Becton. He didn’t. It has become apparent that Schneider does not intend to pay for an upper-tier interior lineman, so Jedrick Wills should be on the GM’s radar.
Wills hasn’t shown he can play inside. But if you look back at scouting reports when he was coming out of college, many teams were projecting him as a guard. It was never entirely clear why. Now, for whatever reason, he has not provided quality play at tackle, and his future is in doubt. This is exactly where Becton was last season.
To be clear, Wills is not Becton. Becton is a mammoth individual whose sheer bulk can move large interior defenders. Wills doesn’t have that kind of size. But he has moved extremely well and shown enough raw power to handle NFL defensive linemen. There’s no apparent reason he could not develop into an excellent pulling guard who is stout enough to protect the middle of the pocket.
In theory, Jedrick Wills has a high ceiling at guard. The only issue is that he has never actually done it, which means he also has a low floor. It also means he would come cheap. Could he make a Becton-like transition in one offseason? I like his chances better than any of the rookies Schneider is likely to acquire in the draft, except Zabel.
If Schneider wants to make a bold play to move several steps ahead this offseason, he should give Jedrick Wills a call.
