Seahawks have signed 6 new pass protectors already, is O-line still the #1 need?

Adding Laken Tomlinson as a probable starter at guard, the Seahawks could say they have a full offensive line: Seaside Joe 1869

Though the Seattle Seahawks have parted ways with three starting offensive linemen this offseason, it would be more fair to say that they’ve only lost one: Damien Lewis. Though Evan Brown started all but one game at center, he’s on the Austin Blythe career path by signing as a backup on the Cardinals. And nobody has signed Phil Haynes, including the Seahawks, which seems telling.

Having drafted Anthony Bradford and Olu Oluwatimi with picks that are valuable enough to be considered ‘future starters’ at guard and center, are the Seahawks really ‘worse off’ going from Haynes and Brown to Bradford and Oluwatimi? It sounds like Bradford and Oluwatimi are the ‘draft needs’ that were addressed in 2023 that many fans want repeated in 2024. But what about Oluwatimi and Bradford? Is the answer that if a player can’t start and play at a high level as a rookie that he must be replaced immediately?

Because anyone who is drafted in 2024—including if he is a first round pick—is more likely than not to struggle this year.

If Bradford and Olu are given legitimate chances to compete to replace the below-average starters who preceded them, then the only free agent loss that matters is Lewis at left guard. On Friday, the Seahawks made their most notable answer to that yet by signing veteran guard Laken Tomlinson to a one-year contract worth up to $4 million.

Tomlinson is the fifth offensive lineman to sign with Seattle in free agency following Nick Harris, George Fant, Tremayne Anchrum, and Max Pircher. A sixth signing that is expected to improve the moat around Geno Smith is blocking tight end Pharoah Brown.

Counting just the offensive linemen, that is five signings for three losses and they join a group that already has Charles Cross, Abe Lucas, Stone Forsythe, McClendon Curtis, Raiqwon O’Neal, Oluwatimi, and Bradford. If the Seahawks do not use their first round pick on an offensive lineman, they could still go into camp now with an expectation of having a capable starting five, competition, and decent reserves.

Knowing that the Seahawks probably won’t come out of the draft entirely without offensive linemen—although it is possible—Seattle won’t enter the season in anyone’s top-10 list for starting five but will be good enough. If Abe Lucas is healthy to go for the season, then George Fant could compete with Bradford and Anchrum at guard; Harris should compete with Olu at center; seemingly nobody is moving Cross off of left tackle.

If the Seahawks were to make a move like drafting Troy Fautanu of Washington, as has been addressed many times, they should be getting a great prospect and it could even be a great move. But if everyone else is healthy, the move was to use the 16th overall pick in the draft on the value difference between Anthony Bradford at right guard and Fautanu at right guard? What is that right guard upgrade worth exactly, about 0.002 wins per year?

Signing Tomlinson, a player who has started every game for the past six years and missed only one in his nine-year career, indicates that John Schneider wants to establish Seattle’s non-need at left guard. Yes, the team could still draft a guard who develops into a long-term replacement for Tomlinson…which is exactly what they did with Olu and Bradford in 2023, yet when we get to the point of actually needing that player it seems that the narrative changes to, “Yeah, but couldn’t we get someone even newer?”

The Seahawks could go into a game right now with Charles Cross, Tomlinson, Olu or Harris, George Fant or Bradford, and Abe Lucas.

If Lucas were out, then Fant could start at right tackle. Seattle has done more with less: They won the Super Bowl in the same season that Paul McQuistan, Michael Bowie and Breno Giacomini played more snaps than Russell Okung.

Is OL a need?

The answer to whether OL is a need is always “Yes”. If the Seahawks draft Fautanu, then Schneider could say at the following press conference, “We feel that he’s the next Steve Hutchinson” and then nothing else needs to be said. Or Seattle could pick Amarius Mims and Schneider explains the move to pick a tackle by saying that 340 lb players who move like him only come around once every ten years.

Picking an offensive lineman in the first round—or wherever they pick first—could be a GREAT move. But if the Seahawks aren’t going to give last year’s rookies a second season to prove themselves, what does that say about this year’s rookies?

Olu, Bradford, Fant, Harris, and Anchrum are five players who could be competing for two jobs, and Schneider has made several reminders this offseason that the Seahawks kept O’Neal and Curtis all of last season for a reason. It gives me more reason to think that Seattle’s first pick won’t be a guard and is likely a defensive player.