Undrafted free agents are fighting uphill battles when they sign with the Seattle Seahawks or any other NFL team. Realistically, they are usually competing for a spot on the practice squad – and not necessarily the practice squad of the team that initially signed them. These players are usually grateful just getting the chance to compete.
To actually make an NFL roster, the UDFA would have to beat out a veteran or two, and perhaps a draft pick as well. Since the club already scouted everyone and chose to prioritize the draft pick, the UDFA has to clearly look better throughout training camp and the preseason.
The numbers can swing wildly, but in any given year, most teams may keep one or two UDFAs on their final 53-man roster. Some teams don’t retain any. It works out to about 40 UDFAs realizing their dreams. Others will join them during the season as injuries create openings, but usually, fewer than 50 players go all the way from undrafted to opening day roster.
The Seahawks face a major challenge with the loss of center Jalen Sundell
In 2024, Jalen Sundell was one of those players. He was the only UDFA to make the Seattle Seahawks’ roster straight out of training camp.
As impressive as Sundell’s accomplishment in 2024 was, what he did in his second season was even more remarkable. He won the starting center job on Seattle’s revamped offensive line.
Some of the greatest interior linemen in NFL history were ignored in the draft. Jeff Saturday was Peyton Manning’s center on those great Colts’ teams. The Cowboys’ Nate Newton was a multiple-time First-Team All-Pro. Miami’s Larry Little anchored the undefeated Dolphins of 1972 and wound up in the Hall of Fame.
But despite plenty of examples of success, the vast majority of UDFAs win by simply earning a roster spot. Few become starters.
If you stuck around to watch the fourth quarter of Seattle’s preseason games in 2024, you could see that Sundell was a special player. It wasn’t really his physical ability. That was fine. He was big enough and strong enough to play in the NFL.
It was something in the way he moved. Jalen Sundell looked like he belonged right from the start. He was never out of position. He was never stumbling or standing up too fast and losing leverage. He was never caught out of position or off balance.
And so, despite being the third center on the roster, Sundell was there on opening day. He had climbed above several free agents signed by the Hawks during the offseason – players like Tremayne Anchrum, Jr., who was released over the summer, and Nick Harris, who was traded early in the preseason.
In his rookie season, he played almost exclusively on special teams. He got an occasional snap as an eligible tight end, and then, when starter Olu Oluwatimi was injured against Green Bay, Sundell got his first extended time at center. That game was not very good for anyone, but Sundell showed he was not overwhelmed by professional defenses.
A presumed battle between Oluwatimi and Sundell for the 2025 center job never materialized because Oluwatimi was injured for much of the preseason. But it’s hard to imagine Sundell not winning the job regardless of the injury.
Seattle chose its former North Dakota State teammate, Grey Zabel, in the first round of the ’25 draft and plugged the pair into the middle of their beleaguered offensive line.
The result? Seattle's offense became one of the most dynamic in the league. Certainly, Sundell and Zabel were not primarily responsible for the transformation. But they were a vital part of it.
So was the fact that Seattle had a healthy starting five for the first nine games of the season. Going into last Sunday's game, Sundell, Zabel, Anthony Bradford, Abe Lucas, and Charles Cross had played together on more than 95 percent of Seattle’s offensive snaps.
Now Sundell will be out for a while, and it will fall on last year’s starter, Oluwatimi, to pick up the slack. Sundell suffered a knee injury against the Cardinals in Week 10. The team has been vague with the details, but he is expected to be out “multiple weeks.” Perhaps he will make a trip to the IR. Perhaps not.
Given Oluwatimi’s experience, center may be the spot along the offensive line at which the Hawks are best able to withstand injury. Rookie Bryce Cabeldue becomes the backup and perhaps, if Sundell does go to the injured list, second-year guard Christian Haynes may get a chance to revive his career.
Sundell knows this is the nature of the game. Not only did Oluwatimi’s injury open the door for him to start this year. He may have only made the roster in 2024 because Lucas began the season on the PUP list.
Jalen Sundell seized every chance he got and turned himself in short order into a legitimate starting center on a very good team. Seattle does have decent depth behind him, but it's hard to know how an offensive line will respond when they lose someone. And centers may be the most important linemen in terms of continuity and that intangible sense of cohesion that the best lines have.
Regardless of whether they struggle or thrive in the short term, Jalen Sundell is likely to return – perhaps sooner than expected – and get up to speed quickly. He has been defying expectations throughout his brief NFL career, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he does it again.