Can Charles Cross just play all 5 offensive line positions for Seahawks?
Besides Charles Cross, how do the Seahawks other offensive tackles grade out for the 2024 season? 9/11/2024
One thing I’ve noticed with offensive linemen in the “Close Your Eyes” test scores is that they all rank slightly higher than other players, and the reason for this is that they get a bump for “supply and demand”. If you could not tell, a lot of Seahawks fans are already wondering if there’s a supply of other offensive linemen available because they’re demanding some replacements at guard.
For context: Here’s a link to a tweet showing Seattle’s offensive line in every true pass set against the Denver Broncos.
The one Seahawks offensive lineman drawing praise instead of ire is left tackle Charles Cross. Getting almost universal praise for his 2024 debut—following an offseason of hype that a breakout season was incoming—Cross knows what would be on the other side of a Pro Bowl type campaign: The highest-paid left tackles are making at least $25 million per season now.
Cross will be first-time eligible for an extension in 2025 and at this rate he will be eyeing Christian Darrisaw’s $26 million per year contract as a baseline for his next deal.
Will he be worth it?
The “Close Your Eyes” test requires rating the players 1-5 on six different attributes and then listening to your intuition for the types of values that the Seattle Seahawks have right now on their 53-man roster. Here are the first seven parts that have been created thus far:
Part I: Running backs
Part II: Wide receivers
Part III: Defensive Bigs
Part IV: Linebackers
Part V: Tight Ends
Part VI: Interior Offensive Bigs
Part VII: Safeties
Up next are the Seahawks five offensive tackles, even though one of them technically isn’t on the 53-man roster right now because he’s on PUP. And another who might not be on the 53-man roster for much longer due to an injury suffered in Week 1; but these scores were created BEFORE the Broncos game, so I couldn’t have known what would happen to George Fant. And Abe Lucas is too important to leave off of the list, especially because Seattle needs him to come back so badly.
Here are the Close Your Eyes tests scores for Cross (could he be a 5/5 player?), Lucas, Fant, Stone Forsythe, and Michael Jerrell.