Predicting who will make the Seahawks 53-man roster in 2021

More spots to fight for

On the previous page, I have selected three from fifteen possibles for the 53 man roster, so we now have ten remaining spots and thirty six players chasing them.

Tight end

The Seahawks carried four tight ends on their initial 2020 roster, but I am not sure they will do the same in 2021. I suspect they will only take three. I have included Gerald Everett and Will Dissly in the 40 certain to be on the roster, so one spot remains for Colby Parkinson, Tyler Mabry and Nick Guggemos to compete for.

Parkinson is the clear front runner here and either he needs to have a poor preseason or one of the other two guys needs to have a great preseason for Parkinson not to be the third TE on the 53 man roster. If a fourth is to make it then Mabry and Guggemos will need to earn it in the preseason camps, with Mabry the most likely to win that battle due to his superior blocking ability.

Offensive line

Once again using last year’s 53 man roster as a guide, the Seahawks had ten offensive linemen on the roster last season. I have awarded seven spots to Duane Brown, Gabe Jackson, Damien Lewis, Cedric Ogbuehi, Ethan Pocic, Brandon Shell and Jordan Simmons.

Leaving three spots to fight for. Pocic is the only center on the roster so far, so there is a spot at center available, there are three guards and three tackles in my seven so again one spot for each of those is going begging so to speak.

At center Kyle Fuller, Brad Lundblade and Pier-Olivier Lestage are the contenders. This will be an interesting one to see how it develops during camp. Fuller played one snap last season and Lunblade did not appear at all, Lestage arrives from the CFL and has the opportunity to outcompete Fuller and Lundblade who have clearly not inspired the confidence of the Seattle coaches to date.

I can see a scenario where none of these three impress enough and the Seahawks go into free agency for a center, particularly given the concerns voiced by Russell Wilson about the protection he is getting, or not. As it stands I think it will be Lestage or a free agent acquisition that takes this spot at center on the roster.

At guard Gabe Jackson, Damien Lewis and Jordan Simmons are on the roster, leaving Phil Haynes, Jake Curhan, Greg Eiland and Jared Hocker to battle it out for the remaining spot. Haynes made the roster last season but only played one snap all season, so is vulnerable to a challenge from the three rookies mentioned. And also from Kyle Fuller and Pier-Olivier Lestage who can play center or guard, as indeed can Pocic if a starting center were acquired via free agency.

So there is a possibility that none of Haynes, Curhan, Eiland or Hocker make the 53 man roster. To do so they are certainly going to have to shine during preseason training.

This is going to be one of the more interesting contests to watch win preseason, and to be frank I have no clue as to who will come out the winner or winners of this one.

Finally, offensive tackle. Duane Brown is the starting LT, Pete Carroll has already stated that Brandon Shell and Cedric Ogbuehi will fight it out to be the starting RT, whoever loses out will be on the roster as the back top though. So we have a vacancy as the backup LT to Duane Brown.

Jamarco Jones made the 53 man roster in this role in 2020 but will face competition from rookie Stone Forsythe who has been lining up at LT in mini-camp recently. Jones has played 509 snaps in the last two seasons for the ‘hawks and is clearly the favorite here. Forsythe is generally seen as a development project, so may not feature early in the season unless he really stands out in preseason training.

So I expect Jones to make the initial roster, if he does not then Forsythe will have looked really good in practice so either way, the Seahawks look good here.

Tommy Champion is the other tackle currently rostered but is likely to remain a practice squad player.