If you consider yourself a fan of the Seattle Seahawks, you’d better sit down. What follows might blow your mind.
We’ve been tracking ESPN’s top tens at each position in the NFL. They’ve published rankings at running back, defensive tackle, safety, and tight end. Leonard Williams and Julian Love were recognized as top ten players. Kenneth Walker got some props in one of the lesser categories. No Hawks’ tight ends made any of ESPN’s tiers.
Fair enough. We can quibble. In fact, I have quibbled, especially over Williams' ranking, which should have been higher.
However, today … today, we come to a position that is kind of sensitive for fans of the action green: ESPN's ranking of interior offensive linemen.
Do you really have to ask how the Seattle Seahawks come off in this top ten?
Deep breath. Seattle did not have a single player in the top ten. Seattle did not have a single player in the group of five honorable mentions. Seattle did not have a single player amongst the eleven “others receiving votes” category.
That’s right. 26 NFL centers and guards were recognized in some manner and Seattle had nary a one.
They aren’t alone. Ten other NFL teams didn’t place a player on the list. Some greedy franchises hogged up two spots all to themselves. Teams like Kansas City, which had two of the top four, and Philadelphia, which placed two in the top 15.
Notice anything about those two teams? Here’s a hint. Think of last year’s Super Bowl. It’s almost as if having a strong interior line is one of the secret cheat codes for fielding a quality team. (It's not an infallible method. Tennessee and the Jets also had two players on the list.)
OK – I’ll stop the sarcastic, snarky part of this little essay. We all knew the interior of the offensive line was Seattle's single biggest weakness last year. None of its players deserved a passing glance from ESPN’s team of experts.
I mean, what does it say when the only Seahawk interior lineman from 2024 who might have come within spitting distance of getting a vote quits football halfway through the season? Even had he stuck around, I doubt a fading Connor Williams would have made the grade.
Olu Oluwatimi is not the worst center in the league. He’s about average. He’s young and could certainly get better. He obviously does not yet merit consideration among the league’s best, but maybe he will improve. If not, I’ve always thought Jalen Sundell has the potential to be an above-average NFL center if a team would put him on the field and leave him there.
The bigger problem, as you know, comes at guard. Last year's left guard, Laken Tomlinson, is no longer with the club. He didn’t make the list either, though he was the Hawks’ best guard in 2024. Fans are wishing hard that 2025’s first-round draft pick, Grey Zabel, provides an upgrade from day one.
If you’re concerned about his FCS-level pedigree, take solace in the fact that the eighth-ranked player on ESPN’s list, Denver guard Quinn Meinerz, played college ball at a Division 3 school.
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At the black hole known as right guard in Seattle, the same cast of characters who underperformed in 2024 are back at it this summer. They have been joined by a couple more draft picks. (Seattle drafted three players likely to see time at guard in the NFL in the ’25 draft.)
When the dust settles, this is likely to be a repeat of last year’s battle between Anthony Bradford and Christian Haynes. Neither has won over the hearts of the fans. But it’s important to remember that both are still very young. Bradford has 21 NFL starts under his belt and is still just 24 years old. Despite being drafted a year ahead of Haynes, he is actually a full year younger.
And Haynes was simply too good in college to be as bad as he looked last year. We should keep in mind that Seattle’s offense has not exactly benefited from top-level coaching over the past few years.
Shane Waldron (the same Shane Waldron who was fired by the Bears in the middle of last season) was in charge in ’23. Ryan Grubb (the same Ryan Grubb who had never coached in the NFL when Mike Macdonald named him offensive coordinator) handled the offense in ‘24.
These are not the types of moves conducive to developing young players. Hopefully, things will be better in 2025 with an experienced NFL coordinator running the show.
It is reasonable to expect that Zabel, Oluwatimi, and Haynes/Bradford form a somewhat better interior than the team had last year. A best-case scenario would have Zabel being recognized on the ESPN list next year and fans at least looking a bit more favorably on the likes of Oluwatimi, Sundell, Haynes, and Bradford. Is that really too much to ask?