Center Locator: Seahawks sign Connor Williams, end training camp 'competition'

Seahawks sign C Connor Williams to one-year contract, 8/6/2024

Less than a year after suffering a knee injury that he worried would end his football career as a player, Connor Williams has found a new oluwa-team-y. The Seahawks signed Williams to a one-year contract on Tuesday worth up to $6 million total and containing $3 million guaranteed according to Adam Schefter and others.

The Seahawks met with Williams 2 weeks ago and he passed a physical, something that his agent Drew Rosenhaus called “miraculous” and arguably the most incredible recovery story of his career representing football players.

The news of signing Williams comes as a huge surprise because the Seattle Seahawks ADDED A CENTER OR GUARD OF SOME NOTE, but is not that surprising given that Seattle had not shown a sign of urgency with regards to the offensive line. The Seahawks let Damien Lewis leave in free agency to sign a $13m/yr deal with the Panthers and also parted ways with starters Evan Brown and Phil Haynes. In an ideal world, Seattle’s coaches would have been impressed enough with 2023 fifth round pick Olu Oluwatimi or free agent Nick Harris to have never needed this move, but as I wrote a few days ago, that doesn’t seem to be what happened in training camp.

This is not intended to be a knock on Oluwatimi, it was just my interpretation of the news that the team was talking to Williams about a contract, that Seattle only viewed him as a center, and then Mike Macdonald told the media on Monday that the competition had no clear favorite after two weeks. I wondered if it could just be touching base with Williams in case the Seahawks were underwhelmed with Oluwatimi a few weeks into the season, but interest in Williams heated up considerably after those reports that he had passed a physical with the Seahawks, plus Rosenhaus calling it “miraculous” just a few months after they were worried his career might be over.

In the last couple of days, the Baltimore Ravens were said to be getting aggressive in their pursuit of Williams too despite already having a really good center named Tyler Linderbaum. But maybe less sure of their guards, the Ravens allegedly wanted Williams too, although not enough to give him an offer better than the $3 million guaranteed. The Ravens inclusion in a “bidding war” could have also been entirely fabricated by Rosenhaus.

If Williams is 80% as good as his agent says that he is, the Seahawks will be getting one of the best bargains at center in the league this season. On the Joe Rose Show, Rosenhaus said that Williams is “able to play in the first game” despite worries of a career-ending injury and that he was about to sign a life-changing contract prior to tearing his ACL.

Though it was only a nine-game sample size, Williams may have been tracking as a potential Pro Bowl or All-Pro center in 2023 with the Miami Dolphins, as Rosenhaus alleges. He was especially lauded for his run blocking, with some reports that he was the best run-blocking center in the NFL last season, but pass blocking wasn’t far behind. I’m not sure to what degree Miami’s offensive linemen should be graded on a curve for playing under offensive whiz Mike McDaniel, although the Seahawks can take some solace that he’s still taking orders from a Mike MacSomething.

My interpration of an addition like Connor Williams is that if he had not torn his ACL, he would not be on the Seahawks today. The Dolphins probably wouldn’t have been able to afford to keep him this year, but with Lloyd Cushenberry getting $12.5 million per year and Tyler Biadasz getting $10 million per year in free agency, that feels like a good range of contracts that Williams would have been looking for on the market. That’s not territory the Seahawks want to be in with regards to outside free agents or centers.

However, the injury could be a blessing in disguise for Seattle if Williams can stay healthy for the entire or most of the season.

No matter how well Williams plays this season, he’s got the best pedigree for a new Seahawks center since the team drafted Ethan Pocic at the end of the second round in 2017, one year before the Cowboys drafted Williams at the end of the second round in 2018. He’s played left guard and center in the NFL and seems to have found his best position is going to be in the middle. If he has a really good season, I actually do expect the Seahawks to extend him, just as John Schneider extended Leonard Williams after the team was able to take him for a test run at a rate they were comfortable spending at the time.

But if Williams does not have the season he know he’s capable of having, or isn’t healthy enough, the Seahawks will either hope that Oluwatimi has developed enough in the background to be ready for the job in 2025 or it will be back to square one in the draft next year, once again with fans hoping that Seattle will address a position that they almost never address.

Thank you to everyone for the congratulations and well wishes on our announcement that Seaside Joe and Seaside Jay are getting married this week! I will be getting back to each of you individually soon!

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