Three questions Seattle Seahawks still must answer before Week 1
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks have added more talent this offseason. Sure, a lot of the rookies are banged up right now, but most should be able to play the majority of the season and hopefully be good. A Seattle team that exceeded expectations in 2022 should be expected to be better in 2023.
But Seattle still has a lot of questions to answer that cannot be answered right now. Once the real games begin we are going to learn a lot more about how good the team will be. Schemes are so vanilla in the preseason that all we are seeing now in the preseason are just glorified scrimmages.
What are some of the more important questions the team still needs to answer? Maybe the three that follow.
Is the Seattle Seahawks offensive line any better in 2023?
Seattle is replacing 40 percent of its offensive line from 2022. That sounds crazy, doesn't it? But two-fifths of the Week 1 starters in 2022 are gone. Center Austin Blythe has been replaced by Evan Brown. Phil Haynes ended up rotating out with Gabe Jackson for the second half of last year at right guard, but now right guard completely belongs to Haynes. For now.
Last season, tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas were rookies and were fine. Lucas was probably even a little better than Cross. But in 2023, both players need to take big steps forward to being top-20 tackles. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Lucas was the 39th-best offensive tackle and Cross was 54th. Those rankings aren't bad for rookies but shouldn't be accepted by second-year pros.
Left guard Damien Lewis was really good last season. He is also entering the final year of his rookie deal and that should motivate him to be even better in 2023. He is currently the one offensive lineman a 12 can likely count on to be excellent. The reason is that Lewis has proven he can be excellent in previous seasons.
Overall, the offensive line has better talent, especially as Brown is so much bigger and stronger than Blythe. But will Lucas and Cross be much better than last year? Is Haynes truly a good right guard? The offensive line is still very much a question mark.