SEATTLE – One criticism you can’t levy at the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive line over the last 15 years is a lack of consistency.
Consider these end-of-the-season rankings of the Seahawks’ offensive line from Pro Football Focus starting in 2010, the first for general manager John Schneider: 22, 29, 20, 27, 19, 30, 32, 27, 18, 27, 14, 25, 27, 28, 31.
Pro Football Focus’ ratings are subjective, but avid Seahawks watchers would likely agree an average annual ranking of 25 passes the eye test.
As another NFL draft looms next week, the offensive line remains the Seahawks’ biggest area of need, particularly after an offseason that has resulted in little change in personnel.
“While the team’s new foundation still keeps it alive for playoff contention, the root problem from last year – the offensive line – still hasn’t undergone nearly enough improvement,” PFF wrote recently.
Here’s where we step in with reminders about the legacy of the Schneider era with the Seahawks.
He is unquestionably the best general manager in team history, and in the conversation for the best of any of the major pro sports teams in Seattle history, building the roster that won the franchise’s only Super Bowl in 2013.
The Seahawks have had nine 10-win or better seasons in the last 13 years after having only five before Schneider arrived. The 133-78-1 record since 2012 is the second-best in the NFL.
Just think what the Seahawks might have done with even a slightly above-average offensive line all those years?
Which raises the inevitable question: Why has an organization that’s been so successful over the last 15 years, drafting at least four players who could end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, had such struggles assembling a consistently good offensive line?
Let’s examine three potential reasons and what to expect going forward.
Is it a drafting issue?
It’s easy to forget that it started off well.
The first draft pick of the Schneider/Pete Carroll era was left tackle Russell Okung, taken No. 6 overall in 2010, drafted to replace Walter Jones, who would retire shortly after.
“Well you’d be lying at some point if you said you’re not drafting by need,” Schneider said the day of the draft. “To be able to have Russell fall to us was critical.”
Okung proved serviceable enough, earning a Pro Bowl nod in 2012 on his way to making 72 starts in six seasons and another 12 in the playoffs and anchoring the line for the 2013 Super Bowl winners.
No offensive lineman drafted by the Seahawks since has been named to a Pro Bowl.
The only offensive lineman to make a Pro Bowl since 2012 is Duane Brown, who was acquired from Houston at the trade deadline in 2017. Brown made it in 2017 and 2021.
It hasn’t been for lack of trying.
The Seahawks have drafted 27 offensive linemen since taking Okung. Schneider said their research shows that’s among the top three in the NFL over that time.
They drafted 16 offensive lineman from 2010-16, the most in the NFL.
“It’s the one position we spend the most amount of time on,” Schneider said recently during an appearance on Seattle Sports 710 of how much the team scouts the O-line before the draft.
Among efforts the team has made to improve its drafting process was adding Hall of Fame guard Steve Hutchinson, who was part of the Seahawks’ first Super Bowl team following the 2005 season, as a consultant in 2020, working specifically in talent evaluation.
Of those 28 offensive line picks, just six have come in the first two rounds out of 29 such picks they have made since 2010.
The Seahawks have drafted just one offensive linemen with the first- or second-round picks it has had since 2018 – left Charles Cross at ninth overall in 2022.
To some observers, that’s the problem.
A recent study by Pro Football Focus concluded that the best offensive lines tend to be made up of early-round picks.
“When looking at Philadelphia, Detroit and Tampa Bay’s offensive lines (three of the top four rated lines in 2024), there is a clear trend among the three teams,” PFF wrote. “They prioritize building through the draft (each team drafted four of their starters in 2024), using premium draft capital to do so (eight first-round picks and four second-round picks among the 15 starters) while filling one missing piece through free agency (each team had one free agent guard). This is a recipe for success that other teams would be wise to follow.”
A separate study by OvertheCap.com showed that the best offensive linemen tend to be those taken earliest in the draft, noting that “of the top 20 paid left tackles last year, 61% were taken round 1, which is 2nd to only QBs. 86% were taken in first three rounds which was tops in the NFL.”
The Seahawks have done well with the six linemen taken in the first two rounds since 2010 – Okung, James Carpenter (first, 2011), Justin Britt (second, 2014), Germain Ifedi (first, 2016), Ethan Pocic (second, 2019) and Cross (first, 2022).
All became full-time starters with Okung and Carpenter teaming with 2009 second-round pick Max Unger (drafted during the lone year Jim Mora was coach) as starters on the 2013 team.
All but Cross, who is finishing his third season in Seattle in 2024, played at least 99 NFL games.
The Seahawks have taken five other linemen in the third round since, with two who could be considered as solid picks – Abe Lucas (2022) and Damien Lewis (2020) – and another who is too early to call (Christian Haynes, 2024). The other two were Rees Odhiambo (2016) and John Moffitt (2011)
Of the 17 taken in rounds four through seven, only three became what Pro Football Reference considers as full-time starters for at least one season – J.R. Sweezy (seventh, 2012), Mark Glowinski (fourth, 2015) and Anthony Bradford (fourth, 2023).
The Seahawks’ lack of success hitting on O-linemen picks in the middle-to-late rounds came during an era when the team became renowned for its success unearthing gems in those rounds at other positions such as cornerback Richard Sherman (fifth, 2011), safety Kam Chancellor (fifth, 2010), linebacker K.J. Wright (fourth, 2011), running back Chris Carson (seventh, 2017) and cornerback Riq Woolen (fifth, 2022).
Is it an investment issue?
Often cited as a reason for the Seahawks’ struggles up front is a lack of spending.
The facts are hard to ignore.
They ranked first in spending on the offensive line in the Super Bowl champion year of 2013 and 11th the following season, in large part because of significant contracts handed to Okung (drafted the year before the rookie wage scale went into effect) and Unger (who Schneider signed to a four-year, $24 million extension in 2012).
The Seahawks have ranked 32nd, 30th and 28th the last three years in spending on the offensive line, via OvertheCap.com. They currently rank 31st for 2025, and have ranked higher than 22nd just once since 2014 – 15th in 2019, mostly because of large contracts handed out over the previous two years to Brown and Britt.
The downward turn in O-line spending began at the same time the Seahawks had to give top-of-market contracts to the likes of Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, Earl Thomas, Sherman and other key players of that era.
Schneider has said the trend in not spending on the O-line was not indicative of a philosophy to not prioritize the line but simply the offshoot of a number of individual decisions – paying Wilson or Wagner huge deals meant having to scrimp somewhere else.
“I think we completely understand the importance of the position,” Schneider said in 2017. “We’ve just made what we think are the appropriate decisions in managing our cap along the way and trying not to overspend at certain positions. It just so happens that we’ve had Pro Bowl, top-five guys on defense, and we ended up trying to keep those guys.”
Why has that trend continued as the Legion of Boom-era defense and Wilson moved on?
One reason is that the Seahawks have generally not paid big money to external free agents at any position, preferring to spend to keep players already on their roster, such as big contracts given over the last few years to DK Metcalf, Jamal Adams and Leonard Williams.
The Seahawks simply haven’t had many linemen on the roster worthy of big deals. Schneider can point to extensions given to Brown and Britt as proof of the team’s willingness to invest in the position when it felt there was a player worth keeping.
A test of that theory is coming up soon as Cross is entering the final year of his rookie contract. The team is likely to exercise a fifth-year option on his contract for 2026 that would guarantee him $17.56 million, though the two sides could work out a long-term extension.
The Seahawks have tried to pay big for an external free agent but have lost out for varying reasons, such as this year when they were prepared to make a significant offer to guard Will Fries of the Colts but wanted him to take a physical first (he suffered a fractured tibia in October). Fries signed a five-year, $88 million deal with the Vikings.
The Seahawks didn’t see any other linemen this year worth paying big money and have signed just one, Josh Jones, who projects as a backup swing tackle, to a one-year deal worth up to $4 million.
“You can’t just throw money at something to fix (the offensive line), to fix a perceived need,” Schneider said earlier this year on Seattle Sports 710. “We’ve made mistakes there in the past, and we’re not trying to repeat the mistakes we made.”
There is proof that building a good offensive line is about more than just trying to buy one.
The Colts finished first in 2024 in spending on the offensive line at $68.1 million but were just 17th in points scored, 13th in yards and finished 8-9.
Five of the top nine highest spenders on the O-line in 2024 did not make playoffs – Colts (first), Panthers (fourth), Falcons (fifth), Browns (seventh) and Giants (ninth).
None of the last four Super Bowl champions ranked higher than 13th in spending on the O-line, with the Rams winning it in 2021 at 27th and the Chiefs in 2023 at 24th.
Is it a development issue?
To Schneider, this is at the heart of the team’s issues on the line, and a reason the Seahawks have not made any significant additions.
Schneider points to examples such as Lewis, signed by Carolina in March, 2024, to a four-year deal worth up to $53 million, as proof that the Seahawks have brought in good offensive linemen and should have gotten more out of them when they were in Seattle.
Schneider noted recently that the “money spent on our offensive linemen we’ve let out of here is top three in the NFL.”
To Schneider, that indicates “maybe the guys are a little bit better than we give them credit for here in our organization. Maybe we need to do a better job of (keeping guys).”
He could point to Glowinski, who started 19 games with the Seahawks from 2015-17 and went on to start 82 more with the Giants and Colts, earning almost $33 million along the way.
“There is a narrative that (the Seahawks) can’t evaluate offensive linemen,” he said earlier this year on Seattle Sports 710. “But the rest of the league sees it different because they’re signing our guys.”
The Seahawks have had a revolving door in offensive line coaches since the end of the Tom Cable era in 2017 (which looks better and better in hindsight).
Mike Solari, whose NFL career dates to 1987, succeeded Cable and lasted until 2021. Andy Dickerson coached the line in 2022 and 2023 before the entire offensive coaching staff moved on following the firing of Pete Carroll. Scott Huff came from UW to coach the line last year in his first NFL season.
After the line was coached the last three seasons by two coaches (Dickerson, Huff), who’d never headed an O-line room in the NFL, the Seahawks are going back to experience, bringing in John Benton – who has 18 seasons as an O-line coach in the NFL – as coach, and Rick Dennison (29 NFL seasons, nine as an O-line coach) as run game coordinator.
They will be entrusted with installing the outside zone scheme that is at the heart of new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s plan to remake the offense.
“We have to be a strong developmental team,” Schneider said earlier this year. “(The Eagles have) done a great job. Their offensive line coach (Jeff Stoutland) is really good (and has) been there for a long time. And they’ve done a really nice job getting acquisitions and developing there. That’s what we need to improve on.”
So what now?
That the Seahawks think they have coaches who can develop linemen is one reason they didn’t undertake a massive overhaul of their line.
The Seahawks have drafted seven O-linemen over the past three years who remain on the roster and the team feels they have untapped potential and will be a better fit for the outside zone scheme.
“Obviously, the offensive line is a critical part of our football team,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said earlier this season. “We’re on record saying this, but we believe in our guys. We’ve got an opportunity to become a great offensive unit.”
That doesn’t mean the Seahawks won’t use any of their 10 draft picks on offensive line. They surely will, though they might not force it with their first-round pick at No. 18.
They undoubtedly will draft offensive linemen with some of their picks. The Seahawks have five picks among the top 92 for the first time since 1977.
Whatever the Seahawks do, Schneider promises he understands the frustrations fans have felt through the years.
“Yeah, the offensive line – definitely, we need to (address it),” Schneider said earlier this year. “Everybody sees it. I get it with the offensive line, the offensive-line stuff. Talking about the fans, I mean. I get that. I have empathy for that big time.”