Four Seahawks that could be roster cuts before 2020
By Lee Vowell
Justin Britt
In 2019, the Seahawks showed that they need a strong center. Justin Britt is that and Joey Hunt is not. Hunt knows the offense and played decently at times but he also got ran over a lot after he became the starter in week 8 after Britt was lost for the rest of the year with an ACL tear. Britt is a bigger and more physical player than Hunt, but not by so much that his current salary warrants him sticking on the team instead of Hunt.
Britt has a cap hit of $11.4 million next year. That is quite a bit for someone coming off of a serious injury and who hasn’t performed as well over the last couple of years. According to Pro Football Focus, Britt was the 37th highest-graded center in 2019 and Hunt was 35th. See, Britt is better. But.
Hunt’s pass block grade was better than Britt’s and Hunt played more snaps than Britt. Britt was better, and no surprise here given his girth compared to Hunt, at run blocking. The question becomes whether moving forward the Seahawks will value pass blocking over run blocking since they have injuries at running back and Russell Wilson is a great quarterback.
Either way, Hunt might supplant Britt as the starter. If this is the case, Seattle would save about $8 million in salary.