Last year, Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider made a trade deadline deal that didn’t garner much attention when it happened, but it ended up having a major impact on Seattle's run to a title. This year, a few weeks before the deadline, he made another trade. But this one got everybody’s attention, including several of his own players.
When Schneider dealt a couple of draft picks for Rashid Shaeed last season, it didn’t displace anyone. Had rookie wide receiver/kick returner Tory Horton not gotten hurt midseason, the deal may never have happened.
But Schneider recognized that he needed a new receiver/returner, and he also wanted to add speed to his offense. Shaheed was an ideal fit, though I doubt even Schneider could have predicted just how valuable he would prove as a kick returner.
Anthony Bradford just returned to the Seahawks lineup, and soon he may be going to the bench
Quenton Nelson, who Schneider acquired from the Indianapolis Colts, is going to displace someone on the interior of the offensive line. It will be interesting to see how quickly he enters the starting lineup. Week 8 would seem too soon, but due to the Monday night game with Chicago, the Seahawks do have an extra day this week. Time will tell. If it isn’t this week, it will be the following game.
All three of the Seahawks' interior linemen – left guard Grey Zabel, center Jalen Sundell, and right guard Anthony Bradford – have struggled this year. Not having the explosiveness of Kenneth Walker behind them has allowed for some of the cracks in the blocking scheme to show through.
Still, the line has been serviceable and played its best game on Sunday night against a quality Chiefs front seven.
That performance coincided with Bradford’s return to action after missing a few weeks. In his absence, Christian Haynes and rookie Beau Stephens shared snaps at right guard.
Now the question becomes where Nelson will play. In eight seasons, he has made the Pro Bowl every season and has been either First- or Second-Team All-Pro in six of those years. Every snap has come at left guard. It would seem insane to move him from the spot he has dominated for the better part of the last decade.
But that does not mean the current left guard Zabel, would go to the bench. Zabel has not taken a big step forward in his second year, but he remains a crucial member of the offensive line. As hard as it is to imagine Nelson shifting to right guard, it is equally difficult to imagine the Colts benching Zabel.
That means Zabel has to move. From the outside, it would appear Seattle prefers him to Bradford, so a move to right guard seems most likely. But it’s not a given. Zabel did play left tackle in college, but he never played left guard. He could probably make the transition with little problem, though we won't know until we see it.
This is the most likely outcome, and if it does indeed come to pass, it almost certainly spells the end of Bradford’s time in Seattle. He is scheduled for free agency in 2027, and it was hard to gauge how intent Schneider may have been on retaining him. Trading up to pick Stephens in the draft was a sign to many that the club had been preparing for life after Anthony Bradford for a while.
Seattle has Haynes on his rookie deal for one more season, and Stephens is around for three more years. Nelson is only 30. He will demand a large contract next season, but depending on how this year plays out, re-signing with Seattle is not out of the question.
There is one other less likely scenario that could see Zabel move to center. He never played there in college, but before last year’s draft, there were a lot of scouts who projected that to be his best position in the NFL. He took reps at the 2025 Senior Bowl practices at center and reportedly looked very good.
Even if the Seahawks do see Zabel as a center down the road, changing the man who snaps the ball to Sam Darnold in the middle of the season – coming off Darnold's best game since his return from injury – would seem to be a risky move.
I suspect we will be seeing Grey Zabel at right guard when Nelson is ready for action. The biggest question I will have after that is made clear is whether Dante Fowler will give up his number – 56 – without a fight.
Fowler wore 13 last year with Dallas, but EJIV has that one. Maybe he’ll take Jalen Milroe’s “6,” which is the number he wore with Washington two years ago. Then again, maybe he won’t really care about such trivial matters.
The Seahawks have a title to defend, and regardless of who plays where and who goes to the bench, they just made themselves a much better team with the addition of Quenton Nelson.
Add us as a preferred source on Google