The Seattle Seahawks had a few needs heading into the offseason, and then, in early March, the team created a lot more needs. Seattle suddenly needed a new quarterback and two new quality receivers, and that overshadowed a problem that Seattle has had for a decade. The offensive line has been bad and is still presumably not good, and hardly anything has been done to address it.
Sure, general manager John Schneider hosted a bunch of free-agent offensive linemen in free agency, but the only one signed was Josh Jones, a long-time backup in the NFL. Jones is not expected (nor should he be) to battle for a starting spot on the 2025 O-line. The rest came to Seattle and left without contracts.
The list included seemingly solid performers such as Will Fries and Teven Jenkins. Maybe neither of those specific guys is a future Hall of Famer, but the Seahawks have to find decent linemen from other teams because Seattle has had nearly no homegrown linemen who turned out to be consistently good. Left tackle Charles Cross is one of the few exceptions.
John Schneider wants to wait a bit longer to address the Seahawks' offensive line problem
12s should be frustrated by the lack of aggressiveness in attracting linemen to Seattle. The bad part is that it is not going to change anytime soon.
In the recent past, 12s have been given reasons why players have not signed. Perhaps one was too expensive or wanted a longer-term deal than Seattle wanted to give (Fries), or maybe the player was not a good fit in Seattle's new offensive system (Jenkins). There are always reasons, whether they are good reasons or bad.
At the NFL meetings this week, Schneider addressed the lack of signings for the offensive line. He also did his best to try to make Seahawks fans believe that the players already on the roster will be better under new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and new offensive line coach John Benton. Schneider implied the issue wasn't the players but the scheme and lack of good coaching.
But we can rule out the Seahawks still trying to sign a lineman in free agency, at least for now. Schneider said, "It probably won't be until after the draft that's a cap casualty guy or something like that. We brought several guys through, it just hasn't been a fit."
The issue is that beggars cannot be choosers. Other than Charles Cross, there is no O-lineman that the Seahawks can point to and say, "He will be healthy and he will be good." Seattle lost veteran left guard Laken Tomlinson in free agency, so Seattle is theoretically worse heading into next season.
Boxer Joe Frazier once said that a fighter knew it was time to retire when one could see a punch coming but could no longer do anything to defend themselves against it. Everyone can see the Seahawks have had an offensive line problem for a decade, and Schneider has not done very much to address it effectively.
Sure, the team has drafted many O-linemen, but few have worked out well. Can Seattle not do a good job of evaluating linemen? The coaching staff has changed several times, but Schneider has remained, along with the line issue. If the line is terrible again in 2025, Schneider needs to do a better job of answering why it is and why he deserves to keep his job.