4 Seattle Seahawks living on borrowed time after free agency upheaval

Center Olu Oluwatimi might be questioning his spot

After Oluwatimi was picked in the 2023 NFL draft and after his highly successful college career, some at 12th Man Rising thought he could eventually become the starter at center at some point during the 2023 season. We were wrong. The issue was he was playing behind Evan Brown and Brown was not playing at a high enough level where he should have kept his job. Brown was graded at number 27 among centers in the NFL last season, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

Oluwatimi only got 128 snaps, compared to Brown's 955, but in those limited snaps Oluwatimi still had a much higher pass-block grade. One might wonder what the Seahawks coaches were seeing from Oluwatimi that they did not trust to play him more. Possibly, a new offensive coaching staff will see Oluwatimi differently and decide he is definitely the Week 1 starter.

Seattle, however, signed free agent Nick Harris this offseason and Harris spent most of his time at center when he played for the Cleveland Browns in 2023. He did not get a lot more snaps than Oluwatimi, but he was the much higher-graded player overall. Harris is also a three-year veteran who is only 25 years old so Seattle did not bring in someone who was simply playing at the end of a long career. Harris could truly battle Oluwatimi for the starting spot.

The positive spin for Oluwatimi is that in college it did take him a couple of seasons to become elite. Maybe he is just the kind of player that needs time to develop and acclimate. If so, Oluwatimi could be a top-10 center by 2025. That is if he can beat out Harris as the starter in 2024.