The Seahawks have no choice but to ‘draft and develop’ to rebuild o-line

We’re two weeks into free agency and despite ample salary cap space, the Seattle Seahawks have done… well they’ve not done a whole lot regarding the offensive line.

Their lone signing is Josh Jones, who has reasonably significant starting experience with the Arizona Cardinals but has otherwise been a backup in subsequent stints with the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens. His best attribute is the ability to play as both a guard and a tackle.

That isn’t to say John Schneider hasn’t tried to land a notable free agent. They were seemingly in on Will Fries before the Minnesota Vikings swooped in with a monstrous offer and no worries about signing him without taking a physical. Teven Jenkins was brought in for a visit but ultimately signed with the Cleveland Browns.

The remaining options on the FA market are sparse. Dillon Radunz is a possibility but he was generally unremarkable on a very bad Tennessee Titans offensive line. Dalton Risner has a reputation as a better pass blocker than run blocker so he could be intriguing as a one-year option, although he does come with a more recent injury history.

What we do know is that the Seahawks are almost certainly not making multiple big-time trades for any established, high-quality offensive linemen from now until September. They’re also not going to be able to use the “discounted items” approach to rebuild their interior offensive line, which was a season-damaging liability.

Seattle could’ve gone the Chicago Bears route to try and fix its offensive line without having to dip into the draft. It ain’t happening. So what’s the primary option for 2025?

Draft and develop (and retain). Same as the Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills of the present, the 2010s Dallas Cowboys, and the 2005 Seahawks.

I know there’s been a want of the Seahawks to spam offensive line picks through this year’s draft, and while I’m not saying they won’t do it, don’t be surprised if the investment is limited to one or two selections. Why?

Olu Oluwatimi (2023)
Anthony Bradford (2023)
Christian Haynes (2024)
Sautoa Laumea (2024)
Jalen Sundell (2024, UDFA)

Those five interior offensive linemen were starters and/or saw significant playing time in the 2024 season. All of them—yes, even Anthony Bradford—had positive moments to look back on in an otherwise difficult year with an offensive coordinator who looked out of his depth jumping from college to the NFL.

On his most recent radio appearance on Seattle Sports, Seahawks general manager John Schneider had more to say about the offensive line and Seattle’s history with identifying and developing talent. It’s worth a listen.

“There is a narrative that [Seattle] can’t evaluate offensive linemen, but the rest of the league sees it different because they’re signing our guys,” Schneider said. “So yes, we have missed on some guys, no question. There’s also a level of we haven’t developed guys, either. They’ve gone on and played pretty well in other places. [James Carpenter] was playing until two years ago, I think. Germain Ifedi was playing just last year.”

He also had something to say regarding the exceptionally pass-heavy nature of last year’s offense and how a more balanced attack under Klint Kubiak could be beneficial.

“When you’re throwing the heck out of the ball, it’s pretty hard to gain confidence when you’re not running off the ball,” Schneider said. “And that’s what happened with the young group of guys last year, quite frankly. We were throwing the crud out of it (and) we didn’t really establish the running game. You gain confidence when you come off the ball and you can block your guy, instead of being on your heels all the time.”

Schneider also said that he received a stat that since 2010, the year he became GM, the Seahawks have drafted the third-most offensive linemen in the NFL and have had the third-most money spent by other teams for OL originally drafted by the Seahawks. I’m not sure about either figure, but the OL drafted was actually number one in 2017 so it may be accurate. They’ve let Russell Okung, James Carpenter, J.R. Sweezy, and Damien Lewis all notably walk in free agency. Among Schneider’s OL draft picks, only Justin Britt has ever been extended beyond his rookie deal.

Beyond the mixed results (putting it kindly) in terms of drafting linemen, the other big problem for the Seahawks is they’ve had a terrible habit of neither retaining their best linemen nor adequately replacing them in the immediate. Russell Okung walked and Bradley Sowell was the Day 1 starter at left tackle in 2016. Max Unger, a Tim Ruskell draft pick inherited by Schneider, was traded for Jimmy Graham and Drew Nowak was his immediate successor. Carpenter walked and Justin Britt was moved to left guard to absolutely terrible results. For something encouraging, the transition from Duane Brown to Charles Cross has been clearly a positive and a step in the right direction.

It is puzzling to the point of alarming how infrequently the Seahawks have been willing to retain their own offensive line talent, yet have had no issue rubber-stamping contract extensions on the defensive side of the ball at all three levels. The continuity (or lack thereof) on the OL has been close to non-existent while “patching” holes with one-year contracts for the likes of Luke Joeckel, Laken Tomlinson, Austin Blythe, etc. It’s a formula that has objectively not worked and yet it’s been the go-to move without fail.

The 2025 Seahawks can be something they’ve rarely been, which is an exclusively home-grown starting offensive line. Offensive tackle should be set between Charles Cross and Abe Lucas—no, they aren’t randomly moving Lucas to guard after zero snaps at guard and zero in the NFL—so it’s all about developing the interior. It’s about trying to develop the existing players on the roster and the ones who will be drafted, which also means no more wasting contracts and starter spots on faded vets and draft bust reclamation projects.

Under (another) new coaching staff—I don’t want to automatically assume Kubiak and John Benton are elixirs given Seattle has had bad OLs with similarly experienced OCs and OLs before—this is the Seahawks’ chance to rewrite their own history. This means believing in the staff as much as believing in the players like Oluwatimi, Haynes, etc. to blossom with experience in an offense that is supposed to be less chaotic than they’ve experienced. It also means believing in John Schneider and the front office’s ability to identify, draft, and retain quality starters.

The dossier on Schneider’s offensive line strategy is not great, even with the acknowledgement that much of it was in conjunction with Pete Carroll. Based on the way this offseason has gone, there’s only one feasible route for the Seahawks OL to improve, and it’s going to make or break the ceiling of this offense and potentially Schneider’s job security.