SEATTLE – There wasn’t much subtlety to Mike Macdonald’s assessment of the offensive line during his end-of-season news conference last week.
“We want more from our offensive line,” he said. “Guys know that.”
The question is how much more the Seattle Seahawks need and what steps are needed to get it.
In that same news conference, Macdonald professed that a lot of the answers may already be on hand.
“I believe in the guys that we have and any opportunity we have … to develop those guys and make our team better, we’re going to do it,” he said.
The influential analytic site Pro Football Focus thinks the Seahawks’ OL needs a lot of work, slotting them at 31 of 32 teams in its final rankings, calling it “arguably the worst offensive line in the NFL.”
PFF rated the Seahawks last in pass-blocking efficiency and not a lot better in run blocking at 24th.
Some might say the Seahawks got what they deserved since they spent the least on the offensive line in the NFL at $21.171 million, according to OvertheCap.com.
The Seahawks have used some significant draft capital on the line in recent years, taking four players in the top 108 in the draft over the last three seasons, all of whom ideally could have been manning starting spots this season.
But injuries and ineffectiveness got in the way and the OL was mostly more of the same – PFF ranked the Seahawks’ OL 25th, 27th and 28th from 2021-23 before falling even further this year.
The last time the Seahawks were in the upper half was at 14th in 2021, the last season for Duane Brown at left tackle.
Can it get better in 2025?
Let’s address that as we continue our postseason review of Seahawks’ position groups by looking at the offensive line.
Offensive line starters
Center: Olu Oluwatimi
Age: 25.
Snaps played in regular season: 438, 39.82%.
Contract situation: Will enter the third season of his four-year rookie deal in 2025, due to make a nonguaranteed $1.030 million.
Left guard: Laken Tomlinson
Age: 32.
Snaps played in regular season: 1,097, 99.73%.
Contract situation: An unrestricted free agent after playing last season on a one-year deal worth $1.2 million and hitting a $2.04 million incentive for playing more than 95% of the snaps in 2024.
Right guard: Anthony Bradford
Age: 23.
Snaps played in regular season: 578, 52.55%.
Contract situation: Has two seasons remaining on his rookie contract, due to make a nonguaranteed $1.030 million in 2025.
Left tackle: Charles Cross
Age: 24.
Snaps played in regular season: 1,097, 99.73%.
Contract situation: Entering the final season of his four-year rookie deal in 2025, due a guaranteed $3.62 million.
Right tackle: Abe Lucas
Age: 26.
Snaps played in regular season: 409, 31.18%.
Contract situation: Entering the final year of his four-year rookie deal, due to make a nonguaranteed $3.325 million.
Backups
Sataoa Laumea
Age: 23.
Snaps played in regular season: 358, 32.55%
Contract situation: Has three years left on his rookie contract, due to make a nonguaranteed $960,000 in 2025.
George Fant
Age: 32.
Snaps played in regular season: 30, 2.73%.
Contract situation: Entering the final season of his two-year deal in 2025, due a nonguaranteed $3.46 million base salary.
Christian Haynes
Age: 24.
Snaps played in regular season: 167, 15.18%.
Contract situation: Has three years left on his rookie contract, due to make a nonguaranteed $1.058 million base salary.
Stone Forsythe
Age: 27.
Snaps played in regular season: 414, 37.64%.
Contract situation: A free agent after playing out his four-year rookie contract.
Michael Jerrell
Age: 25.
Snaps played in regular season: 250, 22.73%.
Contract situation: Has three years remaining on his rookie contract, due to make a nonguaranteed $960,000 in 2025.
Others on roster in 2024 who played: center Connor Williams (618, 56.18%), Jalen Sundell (37 snaps, 5.18%).
2024 review
In an ideal world, this would have been the season 2022 draft picks Cross and Lucas would have become bookend All-Pro tackles, and Oluwatimi, Bradford and Haynes – taken in the fifth, fourth and third rounds, respectively, over the past two seasons – would have proved to be under-drafted and solidifying the middle of the line.
It didn’t quite work out that way.
Lucas missed the first nine games recovering from offseason knee surgery and said he was never 100%, while Haynes (the 81st overall pick of the 2024 draft) couldn’t unseat Bradford at right guard, leading to seasonlong struggles at that spot.
Questions about Haynes only grew when Bradford was injured late in the year and the Seahawks decided to go with sixth-round pick Laumea to take his place instead.
They signed Fant last offseason to a two-year deal hoping he would provide insurance at RT while Lucas recovered. He was injured in the first quarter of the first game and played only two games.
The Seahawks signed former UW standout Nick Harris to compete with Oluwatimi at center. With neither taking charge of the spot, they signed veteran Connor Williams in August, hoping he could give them an anchor in the middle.
That didn’t work out either, as Williams never seemed close to the player he was earlier in his career while still working back from an ACL injury suffered in Dec. 2023. Williams retired during the bye week at the age of 27.
You get the picture.
The left side at least was stable with Cross and Tomlinson playing nearly every snap.
Cross acquitted himself well, ranked 10th of all tackles this season via PFF. Oluwatimi finished 20th of 40 centers.
No one else ranked better than Tomlinson’s 46th of 77 guards. Lucas was 55th of 81 tackles, and Bradford 73rd and Laumea 77th at guard.
2025 preview
How the Seahawks approach the line will be one of the more intriguing stories of the offseason.
Cross is eligible for an extension. Since he was a first-round pick in 2022, the team could exercise an option on his contract for the 2026 season. According to OvertheCap.com, that option would guarantee Cross $18.427 million for the 2026 season, while he’d play 2025 on his current deal. The window to exercise options opened on Jan. 6 and closes on May. 1.
They could work out an extension for Cross that would give him more money now while bringing down the 2026 cap hit.
Lucas is also eligible for an extension, but the Seahawks can probably be patient and see how he performs in 2025 when he is hopefully healthier.
The Seahawks certainly aren’t ready yet to give up on Haynes, Oluwatimi and Bradford.
Macdonald gave Haynes a vote of confidence at the end of the season saying, “I think he’s got a bright future. I really do. When we were making that decision to go to Sataoa, it wasn’t that Christian hadn’t done enough to earn an opportunity. We just felt like Sataoa did more.”
Expect the Seahawks to continue to explore upgrades at all three interior spots in free agency and the draft. There should be decent options at picks 18 and 50.
The free-agent market is harder to read as there tends to be a run of teams locking up their best potential free-agent linemen in the days and weeks before the signing period.
Still, there should be some options there if the Seahawks can create the cap space to go after them.
They could probably bring Tomlinson back on another one-year deal if they want some veteran leadership and durability, though the Seahawks could decide to move on.
And they might decide to move on from Fant, which would save $3.8 million in cap space.