Pro Football Focus's pick for best Seahawks free agent signing might shock you

It was a poor free agent class overall.

Seattle Seahawks offensive line
Seattle Seahawks offensive line | Steph Chambers/GettyImages

Let's get the negative out of the way first. The 2024 Seattle Seahawks free agent class, the first for general manager John Schneider without former head coach Pete Carroll, was awful. Schneider also appears to have missed on several draft picks, too. His freedom to make decisions with Carroll did not show that he was up for the job on his own.

Maybe the transition to a new coaching staff and some different personnel in the front office was just too complicated (it should not have been) and the one offseason badness will not roll over to this year. That is the hope.

Many of Schneider's free agent signings last offseason did not even stay on the team for the entire year. He signed Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker to replace Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks, and neither Dodson nor Baker panned out and were gone by the Week 10 bye week. Schneider did make a smart move to trade Baker to the Tennessee Titans for Ernest Jones IV. That worked out well.

Pro Football Focus' pick for best free agent pickup for the Seattle Seahawks last offseason is quite sad

Others who did not last the season were wide receiver Laviska Shenault, Jr. and center Nick Harris. Of the free agents that did work out, none did at a high level. This shows up in a recent ranking by Pro Football Focus (subscription required) of every team's best and worst free agent signings of 2024. In Seattle's case, PFF could have gone with several "worsts." The "best" one is almost sad.

That is because the site thinks left guard Laken Tomlinson, who was signed to a one-year deal and is a free agent yet again this offseason, was the team's best signing. Even PFF is not completely sold on the quality of the left guard. As part of their write-up, the site says, "Tomlinson didn’t play particularly well, as he earned a 62.1 overall grade, but he was one of just two Seahawks offensive linemen to play at least 12 games this season."

So, yeah. The only real positive for Tomlinson, according to PFF, is that he did not get injured. That certainly says enough on its own about how bad Seattle's free agent class was last offseason. The worst, for the record, was not Baker nor Dodson. It was safety Rayshawn Jenkins who did manage to stick around all season.

Sort of, he got injured and missed several games and ended up losing his starting spot to Coby Bryant. Nearly every other player Schneider signed, save for Johnathan Hankins, either got hurt or found a way to disappear during the season. Schneider has to do better this offseason or his job should be in jeopardy.

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