These Ouzts Were Made For Blocking

And that's just what he'll do

Robbie Ouzts wasn’t a starter at Alabama, he doesn’t catch or carry the ball, and he was only the seventh prospect picked by the Seahawks in Seattle’s 11-player class this year, but after top pick Grey Zabel he could have the second-most snaps among all of the team’s rookies.

Because playing time isn’t determined by talent alone and is actually based on the specific needs of the team you are on and the pecking order of the position you play.

Ouzts has just one player to beat for the fullback role in Klint Kubiak’s offense, that being Brady Russell, and despite having more NFL experience Russell is actually less prepared than for this opportunity that the rookie.

Kubiak has made it clear that the fullback will have a “significant role” with the Seahawks and if it looks anything like it did with Adam Prentice on the Saints last season, that’s a minimum of 25% of the snaps.

To put in context that Seahawks fans will better understand, that’s more often than Pharoah Brown saw the field in Seattle and only a little bit less often than Jake Bobo’s playing time last season. But that’s only if it looks exactly like it did in New Orleans; during Kubiak’s year as the Vikings offensive coordinator in 2021, fullback C.J. Ham played in 33% of the snaps.

That’s barely less than the total number of snaps that Olu Oluwatimi and Kenneth Walker saw in 2024.

That’s why Ouzts could end up with more snaps on the Seahawks in 2025 than he had for Alabama in 2024 and potentially the second-most among all of Seattle’s rookies.

• Zabel should see every snap if healthy

• Nick Emmanwori could be nearly a full-time player, but his role is not clear to anybody yet

• Elijah Arroyo has some durability questions and could end up third on the depth chart if Noah Fant prevails

• Jalen Milroe should see some playing time, but if all goes to plan with Sam Darnold than it will be fewer snaps than his Alabama teammate

• Tory Horton might win a WR3 role, but needs to get healthy and then beat out Marques Valdes-Scantling

Robbie Ouzts is not the player you draft to tilt the field from being an also-ran to a Super Bowl contender, but he is the player you draft to be your starting fullback from the jump. His role for Kubiak and his prowess as a talented run blocker is on display in the latest breakdown video from the Legion of 12s channel:

I’m not going to lie, I led with this Ouzts video today because of that amazing headline opportunity I stumbled into this afternoon. But he’s also going to be one of the most talked about rookies in Seattle this year simply because of his role as a fullback who is likely to see the field a lot, so why not start now?

Here’s what else I wanted to share on Wednesday:

Scott Marquis: What position are you most concerned about (meaning the position most likely to underperform that will have the most negative impact on the team's performance, whether it is due to insufficient talent, potential injuries, a lack of depth or otherwise) at this point in the off-season?

The first position that came to mind as I was reading your question was edge rusher. Although the Seahawks have four potentially-good starters there right now, none of them cross the threshold for making fans feel comfortable:

• DeMarcus Lawrence is older, missed most of last season

• Uchenna Nwosu has missed most of the last two seasons

• Boye Mafe and Derick Hall need to be more consistent and prove worthy of starting roles

Those last five words stand out to me, “prove worthy of starting roles”: If Lawrence and Nwosu are unavailable, a future situation that is more probable than just possible, can Mafe and Hall play so good that fans don’t even care if Nwosu or Lawrence return? Because in previous situations when they were pressed into starting duty, Mafe and Hall weren’t able to close the deal.

While other positions on the Seahawks are clearly lacking talent, such as center, guard, corner, or even quarterback, all of those jobs still seem manageable for the time being. Whereas with edge rushers, Seattle has a well-established recent history of sometimes going months without adequately pressuring the quarterback and it costing them wins.

What’s your answer?

Trap Play as explained by All_22:

The Brandon Scherff situation, explained:

A reader asked about Scherff this week and I didn’t have a good answer as far as how well he’s playing recently, so thankfully All_22 made a video about it. If you’re still curious if Scherff is good or not, this video should help. The short answer: Scherff is good sometimes, but he does have some weaknesses, especially if the QB holds onto the ball for longer than a couple of seconds.

Flipp-ABE-le?

If Abe Lucas has a healthy 17-game season in 2025 and looks to be in perfect shape at the end of the year, would the Seahawks consider extending him and trading Charles Cross? This breakdown of Lucas by Top Billin’ shows why Lucas is the better tackle than Cross, but unfortunately not the healthier one:

If the Seahawks can only pay one of two tackles, should it be the injury-prone one or the overrated one? Hopefully by 2026 we’re not calling Lucas “injury prone” or Cross “overrated”.

Mike Florio still not getting it

I couldn’t fathom anyone siding with Mike Salk’s question for Mike Macdonald on Tuesday, but then again I didn’t know that Florio would chime in. Florio says it’s perfect reasonable to assume that maybe Jalen Milroe or Drew Lock would beat out Sam Darnold for the job, to which we can only thank Chris Simms for bringing the conversation back to Earth:

I actually don’t think that Florio is doing this one for clicks. If I recall correctly, Florio is a Vikings fan. As long as I’ve tracked his takes, he does seem to let his personal feelings slip into his stories. Florio kept harping on the fact that Darnold shit the bed against the Lions in Week 18. Is that why he’s toying with the idea that Macdonald “doth protest too much” as it pertains to the crazy question?

But again no, it is not a valid question to ask Macdonald if Darnold could be benched before Week 1, and anyone who thinks otherwise — the situation is NOTHING like Matt Flynn and Russell Wilson — is exposing themselves as not being credible.

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