Seahawks left tackle Charles Cross torched in Pro Football Focus rankings
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks have had a tumultuous offseason, but the changes made should bring positive results immediately. The funny bit is that if one has listened to national talking heads or read much of what the national media has to say about Seattle, one might believe the Seahawks have been terrible. The team, mind you, has gone 9-8 in each of the last two seasons.
A lot of predictions have Seattle going 7-10 this season. Why? Seattle has not lost much talent and has, in fact, revamped a few positions of need. Plus, there should be addition through subtraction as Seattle has replaced troublesome coordinators Shane Waldron and Clint Hurtt. Pete Carroll was a great coach for many years with the Seahawks, but bringing in Mike Macdonald to take Carroll's place should improve the defense.
The offensive line could be better as well. In 2023, the O-line ranked 28th in pass-block win-rate overall. Seattle will have new starts at left guard, center, and, likely, right guard. One player that was not a problem, though, was left tackle Charles Cross. Cross was not a Pro Bowler, but he was certainly a player a team can win with.
Seattle Seahawks left tackle Charles Cross gets disrespected by Pro Football Focus
Yet, according to Pro Football Focus, Cross is not one of the 32 offensive tackles in the NFL. To be fair, what PFF should have done is rate the top 64 tackles, or at least 32 left tackles and 32 right tackles, because grouping all the tackles together in their rankings can skew the results. Worse, some tackles were graded worse by PFF than Cross was in 2023. Even going off their own grades, PFF seems confused.
Last year, Cross was graded 38th among all tackles. One can argue whether Cross should not have been even better than that, but PFF has its own algorithms. They just clearly do not trust them.
Next. Seahawks cannot afford to lose these players to injury. Seahawks cannot afford to lose these players to injury. dark
On their list of top tackles were Cam Robinson of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Orlando Brown, Jr. of the Cincinnati Bengals, and Darnell Wright of the Chicago Bears. Each of these players graded worse than Cross last season. Wright was 52 (just one spot better than Seahawks free agent acquisition George Fant).
In their article, PFF likes to point out pass-block grades. In that aspect, Cross graded high enough to rank in the top 32 overall. According to Pro Football Focus, Cross literally was No. 32 in terms of pass-block efficiency. If Cross played for a team such as the New York Jets or Chicago Bears, he would probably get more love from PFF because they don't seem to base their 2024 preseason rankings on their actual grades in 2023.
More Seahawks coverage:
manual