The Seattle Seahawks have overhauled their roster this offseason. The team will look differently both by the coaches on the sidelines and the many of the players on the field. Out is linebacker Bobby Wagner, for instance, and in is Tyrel Dodson.
To be fair general manager John Schneider is betting on himself to a great degree. He has the final roster decisions for the first time in his Seahawks career, and he is building the team he wants and not the one Pete Carroll likes. We won't know if this works until well into next season.
12s cannot be too sure the free agents signed from other teams will work out, either. There seems to be a lot of hoping for the best from certain players. No matter, these Seattle players should be a little nervous about their roster spots.
Seattle Seahawks right tackle Abraham Lucas might be nervous
The issue with Lucas is not that he has played poorly overall. He was not quite as good in 2023 as he was in 2022, but he also struggled more with a knee injury. That is the big problem for the right tackle. He has already had two major knee surgeries - one in college and one this offseason - but he is only in his second season in the NFL. This past season, he missed all the games between Weeks 1 and 13 and when he did return he had to be rotated out due to his stamina.
This offseason, Seattle did not just sign a random backup offensive tackle, either. They added George Fant who has mostly been a full-time starter since 2020. He can play either left tackle or right tackle, but Seattle does not currently have a need at left tackle because Charles Cross owns that spot. Signing Fant, who played for Seattle from 2016 through 2019, to a two-year deal seems to indicate that the Seahawks have a real worry about Lucas's long-term health.
There is little question that Lucas can be a good offensive tackle in the league because he flashed that in his rookie year of 2022. But there is no guarantee that Lucas, even with another surgery to hopefully correct his knee, will remain healthy enough to be counted on in most games every year. Fant might be more than Lucas's backup; he could be his eventual replacement.
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.
Safety Coby Bryant has no home
Coby Bryant is versatile enough to be given a chance to play different spots in the secondary, but he might not be good enough to actually get many reps at any one position. In his rookie season of 2022, he did start six games at slot corner, but he had no chance of keeping that spot after the Seahawks chose Devon Witherspoon in the 2024 draft. Instead, Bryant was moved back to safety where he struggled to find playing time.
Bryant also suffered a tow injury that kept him out of several games last season. This meant he was not able to get enough snaps at his new safety spot to evolve into a player the team could trust in 2024. Plus, even though Seattle released Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs, which could have opened up a chance for Bryant to stake a claim to be higher on the depth chart, the team signed Rayshawn Jenkins and K'Vonn Wallace which at best keeps Bryant buried to where he was last season.
Bryant does have value as a player because he can play multiple spots in a pinch, and that is likely to keep him employed in the league for some time, but he might not be anything more than a backup in Seattle. His worry should be in 2025 when Seattle could save $1.1 million by releasing him. That does not sound like a lot of money, but the Seahawks are already tight against the draft cap next offseason currently.
His passer rating allowed has not been awful in the NFL, but it's not been good enough to earn playing time. One glaring issue he had in 2023 was that he missed 15 percent of his tackle attempts. If Bryant masters the fundamentals, he might impress, but if he fails to get better at tackling, he's sunk.
Defensive tackle Cam Young might be in a worst spot than in 2023
Last offseason, one might have been as confused about what the Seahawks were doing with their defensive line as 12s might question what the team is doing with its offensive line this offseason. Seattle was going to play a 3-4 base but with no true nose guard. We did not learn that Jarran Reed was going to try to play the nose until training camp. But Young was taken in the 2023 draft and many might have thought he would be an instant starter at nose guard.
Young, though, did not get many changes in his rookie season. He played 201 defensive snaps, but 37 of those came in the final game of the season against the Arizona Cardinals. He did not grade overly poorly in any facet of his game, though he struggled with his tackling at times. To be fair, what Seahawk did not struggle with tackling at some point last season? Maybe with a new defensive coaching staff, Young can correct what his issue was and he can improve.
Young might have also safely and logically assumed he was going to get more reps in 2024. Instead, Seattle signed Johnathan Hankins in free agency which basically pushes Young to third-string even in Mike Macdonald's 4-3 front. Plus, Young's style will need to adapt to not be focused solely on stopping the run but also trying to get to the passer as well.
Young should be a year stronger and will be taught better technique under Macdonald. He could develop into a very solid defensive tackle in the league. But he first needs to prove he is worthy of getting many reps in real games.