I have gone on record several times that rookie center Olu Oluwatimi will get the starting nod for the Seahawks after the bye week. It's beginning to look more and more like that prediction will get smoked in week one, and I couldn't be happier about that. There's a big reason that he may start every game as a rookie, and it isn't just his 6'3", 307-pound frame.
Yes, I'll admit once again that I believe former Lions offensive lineman Evan Brown will earn the Seahawks job at center coming out of training camp but will be supplanted by Olu Oluwatimi after the Hawks' bye in week five. FanSided's own Matt Connor sees Olu as pushing Brown for the role, and eventually supplanting him. I think Brown wins out initially.
The reason is simply experience. Brown has played 27 games at center in the league, plus another 16 at guard last season. Oluwatimim of course, has zero experience in the NFL. And center, as all good 12s know, is the most mentally demanding position on the field. Yeah, some people would say that's the quarterback, but the success of Brett Favre puts that concept to rest.
Oluwatimi has the academic pedigree to lead the Seahawks O-line
Anyway, back to Oluwatimi and Brown. While Brown has a vast advantage in NFL experience, it isn't as if Olu had been playing nickel in college. He was acclaimed as the best center in college by far. Just check his bio on the Wolverine's site for all the lovely bold ink. He won both the Rimington Award and Outland Trophy as a graduate student at Michigan in 2022 as the nation's best center and interior lineman. Not bad accolades, and that's just scratching the surface of his accomplishments.
What interests me - and what I see as his overwhelming advantage - isn't all the hardware on his parents' shelf. No, it's that phrase "graduate student at Michigan". Even on the west coast, the University of Michigan is known as one of the best schools in the country. You don't get into grad school at the U of M simply because you can play ball, no matter how good you are.
To illustrate just what I'm talking about, let's look at the average scores on the GRE for students accepted into Michigan. Yes, 12s, we're about to get - mathy.
A deeper dive into academia and the achievements of Oluwatimi
The GRE, or Graduate Record Examination, has three components: Quantitative, Verbal, and Analytical Reasoning. The first two areas are scored from 130-170 points, while the last section is scored from 0-6 points. Hey, I didn't make the rules; talk to the Educational Testing Service.
So, the average scores for all entrants are as follows: 150.37 for Quantitative, 152.66 for Verbal, and 3.60 for Analytical. All of those mathy bits are from the article, "What is a good GRE Score" by Lekhika Dhariyal. Thanks for the heavy lifting!
Ah, but those are average scores, and U of M is not an average program; it's generally recognized as being one of the top ten schools in the nation. While the minimum requirements for admission are set at the 50th percentile for each of the three scores, the average score for those accepted are 168, 155, and 3.3, per the school's own website. Those averages are for the engineering program, but you get the idea, right? The average for the Quantitative score is particularly high, close to the 90th percentile. Oh, and your GPA has to be a minimum of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale. In short, you better be smart to get in.
Which brings me back to Mr. Olusegun Oluwatimi. You see, he's been proving his acumen for academics all his life. At DeMatha Catholic High School, he was on the Dean's List every single semester. He was accepted into the U.S. Air Force Academy; again, a school with stringent academic standards.
Once he discovered it wasn't the right fit for him, he enrolled closer to home at the University of Virginia. Once again, he was accepted into a program with extremely high academic standards. Oh, and he was a walk-on for the Cavaliers, so he didn't get in through his gridiron prowess at all. Olu has the cerebral goods, for sure. For a terrific look at Olu and the importance of academics in his life, dive into Nicholas Stoll's article for the Michigan Daily.
Oluwatimi has the goods on the field as well
As I'm sure you know, the man can deliver on the field as well. He earned a scholarship at Virginia within a year and delivered a semi-finalist Rimington Award as a senior. We already talked about his accomplishments at Michigan, but let me throw a few more numbers at you. While I detailed that Evan Brown has the advantage of NFL experience, Oluwatimi actually has more experience at center in the past three seasons.
Per Pro Football Focus (paywall alert, sorry, 12s), Olu played 2,546 snaps from 2020 - 2022, all at center. In his entire professional career, Brown has played 1,604 snaps, with 768 of those at guard last year. I'm not backtracking about the importance of NFL experience, but Oluwatimi played more than three times as much at center as Brown, all at a very high level. In those 2,546 snaps, he allowed a total of - prepare yourself, 12s - three sacks. Yes, you read that correctly.
Some people will downplay that number, saying silly things like, "Oh, most of that was just in the ACC", or "Yeah, but Michigan only runs the ball." To those naysaying miscreants, I'll remind them that Olu was a Rimington semifinalist as the top center in the NCAA while at Virginia.
As for Michigan running the ball a lot, yes, they do. They literally ran the ball twice as much as the Cavaliers, 507 to 246 in Olu's 2022 and 2021 campaigns. Still, Oluwatimi was in for 411 passing plays as a Wolverine and gave up zero sacks. Five QB hits, four hurries, and zero sacks. Oh, and PFF actually grades him even higher as a run blocker. Oluwatimi was an absolute steal in the fifth round.
Listen, I'm more than happy with Evan Brown. He only allowed one sack in 755 snaps as Detroit's center in 2021 while committing just four penalties. He's a fine player, and not to knock any former Seahawks player, but he's a solid upgrade over the retired Austin Blythe. But Olu Oluwatimi will be even better if he isn't already.
Our own Lee Vowell believes that Brown is a solid candidate to be cut before the season kicks off, and he may well be right. I think Brown's versatility to play at guard and play well keeps him in Seattle. The academic advantage goes to Olu though. At center, what goes on inside the helmet matters even more than what goes on between the pads. Whether it happens in week six or week one, Olu Oluwatimi has what it takes to lead a great Seahawks offensive line for the next decade.