Seahawks draft profile: Cesar Ruiz may be the center of the future

The Seahawks could make Justin Britt a roster cut in 2020 due to his contract size. Could Michigan’s Cesar Ruiz take his place?

Stay with me on this one, 12s. The Seahawks offensive line, though we think it is better than 2017 and maybe it actually is, is still not good. It is bad. Duane Brown is a good left tackle. The guards have been D.J. Fluker and Mike Iupati and others (don’t even get me started on Ethan Pocic!) and the right tackle has been Germain Ifedi. Ifedi plays every game, but he isn’t exactly good.

Center is a little bit different and more complicated. Justin Britt has almost been good but he has also just been a good run blocker and not great against the pass rush. The great thing about Britt is that he cares and he will literally fight another player on another team if he feels wrong. That is Seahawks mentality and that is great.

But Britt also makes a lot of money and when he got hurt in 2019 and Joey Hunt replaced him, there wasn’t a huge drop off between Hunt and Britt. This means Britt could be expandable. It also means he might not be that great and Seattle could do better long-term. And that long-term replacement could be Cesar Ruiz, 2020 NFL draft hopeful and former member of the University of Michigan football team.

Strengths

Cesar Ruiz is big and strong and can push people around and can help a team run the ball. In other words, he is the perfect Seahawks center. Heck, even the perfect offensive lineman. Seattle wants to run the ball, they want smart offensive linemen, they want a center who can call out the alignments quickly and they want big guys clearing the paths for Chris Carson and company.

Ruiz fills almost all of these needs. He is 6’4″ and 320 pounds and will knock a defender on his butt to clear a path for a running back. Joey Hunt had issues because he was smallish by NFL standards; Ruiz isn’t. Ruiz could be the Seattle starter for the next 8 to 10 seasons.

Weakness

The Seahawks centers have different levels when it comes to how to call out plays. Hunt is the higher football IQ guy, Britt is more of the bully along the interior of the line but still good at reading defenses, but what about Ruiz? One of the knocks against him in college is that he was some times slow in calling adjustments on passing downs to the defenses pass rush alignments. This would be bad in Seattle as keeping Russell Wilson upright is of utmost importance.

Still, Ruiz went to Michigan so he clearly is intelligent and would be taught well by offensive line coach Mike Solari. If the Seahawks do indeed let Britt go to save money, Ruiz could be Seattle’s first-round draft pick and a starter soon thereafter.