Seahawks training camp: O-line key to Grubb’s plan working for DK Metcalf, Geno Smith
They have their quarterback — of the present, anyway.
They have DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, a trio of wide receivers the NFL envies.
They have Kenneth Walker. The lead back has rushed for more than 1,950 total yards in his first two seasons in the league.
They’ve hired new play caller Ryan Grubb and line coach Scott Huff. Those two shredded college defenses and reached the national championship game scheming plays and blocks for the hometown Washington Huskies last season.
Yet for all new coach Mike Macdonald’s Seahawks have on offense, for all Grubb can and will scheme for them, they won’t threaten the San Francisco 49ers’ reign in the NFC West this season if they don’t improve their offensive line. The tall task begins in training camp that starts Wednesday.
“Absolutely. That’s where the game starts, up front,” Macdonald said. “And it’s going to be really important for us to be dominant in that phase.
“If it stops there, then you really don’t have a shot the rest of the play.”
It stopped there a lot last season for Seattle.
Injuries, inconsistency and ineffectiveness on the offensive line resulted in quarterback Geno Smith spending much of the 2023 season running away from pass rushers — and the Seahawks spending much of 2023 in long-yardage situations. Seattle was 28th in the NFL in rushing offense last season. That led to the Seahawks finishing 23rd in the league in converting third downs (a 36.2% conversion rate).
It was their worst performance on third down since 2011. That was Pete Carroll’s second year reconstructing the entire franchise, and the year before Russell Wilson arrived to lead the team into consecutive Super Bowls in the 2013 and ‘14 seasons.
Those days are long gone. Team chair Jody Allen and vice chair Bert Kolde fired Carroll and his staff in January.
Remaining general manager John Schneider hired Macdonald, a trenches-first head coach, this winter. Then Grubb, a line coach as recently as 2019 at Fresno State, arrived as the Seahawks’ new offensive coordinator.
Huff coached the best line in college football last year at Washington. Over his seven years at UW, Huff became regarded as one of the best line coaches in Huskies history.
Entering training camp, Seattle’s line is young and unproven, with big questions on the right side. Tackle Abe Lucas remains sidelined indefinitely following knee surgery. Anthony Bradford, a part-time starter at guard last season, missed all offseason practice except the final day of minicamp last month with an injured ankle. The center is a full-time starter for the first time in his NFL career, Olu Oluwatimi.
The line’s only sure things are left tackle Charles Cross and new left guard Laken Tomlinson — and the 32-year-old Tomlinson is on a one-year contract.
Yet the man who’s success is most directly tied to how these blockers perform goes well beyond saying the Seahawks could have the best offensive line in the division.
“If they collectively come together,” Smith said before his third training camp as Seattle’s quarterback, “I think that group could be, as young as they are, I think they could be one of the best in the world.”
Whoa.
The Seahawks would take them being among the best two in the division.
After breaking down the defense, here are what the starting positions and depth chart on the 90-man roster look like on the Seahawks offense entering camp (The News Tribune’s projected starters in bold, rookies with an asterisk *).
Seattle must cut the roster to 53 for initial regular-season roster by the league deadline of Aug. 27:
Offensive line
Center:
Olu Oluwatimi
Nick Harris
Mike Novitsky*
Oluwatimi gets his chance to be Seattle’s first multi-year starter in seemingly forever. He has two more years after this one left on his rookie contract. Harris, the former All-Pac-12 center for UW, played center and guard for Cleveland before he signed with Seattle this offseason.
Guard:
Laken Tomlinson
Christian Haynes*
Anthony Bradford
McClendon Curtis
Tremayne Anchrum
With Bradford out during offseason practices, Curtis was the starting right guard in offseason. He was a waiver pickup last season. Haynes started 49 games at right guard at UConn. The Seahawks wanted two rounds without a choice from top pick defensive tackle Byron Murphy to taking Haynes. Many scouts think he is ready to start in the NFL now. Bradford is known as a mean run blocker who needs to be better in pass protection.
They all do.
Tackle:
Charles Cross
Abe Lucas
George Fant
Raiqwon O’Neal
Stone Forsythe
Sataoa Laumea*
Garrett Greenfield*
Mike Jerrell*
Max Pircher
When (the Seahawks say it’s not “if”) Lucas returns from knee surgery will be a key story throughout training camp. Fant signed back with Seattle this offseason after years with the Jets and Texans to be a swing, backup tackle. O’Neal started for Lucas in offseason practices. Cross, the team’s first-round pick in 2022, is the only sure thing on the line beyond 2024. He has two years left on his rookie contract. The team gave Greenfield, from South Dakota State, the highest guaranteed salary ($175,000) of any Seahawks rookie free agent.
Tight end
Noah Fant
Pharaoh Brown
AJ Barner
Brady Russell
Tyler Mabry
Jack Westover*
Fant re-signed to be the number one. He’s the only one returning among the top three tight ends from last year’s team. Grubb using tight ends for big plays was one of UW’s strengths. Brown, 30, has been a blocking tight end in the NFL. He appears to be replacing Will Dissly, who signed with the Chargers. Barner is a rookie fourth-round pick. Russell was a special-teams mainstay in his Seattle debut last season. No one knows the Grubb offense better than Westover, a former Husky. The returning Mabry seemingly has work to do to make the roster.
Quarterback
Geno Smith
Sam Howell
P.J. Walker
Coaches and executives have said since they traded to get the former Washington Commanders starter Howell this spring there is no competition; Smith is the starter. He will turn 34 in October, in the second year of his three-year contract. So this camp and the preseason games are, in theory, Howell’s chances to impress coaches and Schneider for 2025, and perhaps beyond. Both Smith’s and Howell’s contracts end after 2025.
When The News Tribune asked Schneider at the end of the draft what the team’s long-term QB plan is past 2025, the GM multiple times mentioned Howell. He doesn’t turn 24 until September.
Seattle signed Walker late in the offseason. He started a game for Cleveland in Lumen Field last season.
Will they keep three QBs out of camp?
Running back
Kenneth Walker
Zach Charbonnet
Kenny McIntosh
Ricky Person Jr.
George Holani*
TaMerick Williams*
Kobe Lewis*
Walker is the clear number one. Grubb clearly loves predicating his layered passing game on a bell-cow running back (See: Dillon Johnson, UW, 2023). Coaches love Charbonnet’s pass blocking and catching. McIntosh gets a new chance after an injury-filled rookie season in 2023.
Thin and unproven after them. The team signed Person late last month. He was an undrafted rookie in 2022 who has won back-to-back USFL/USL titles with Birmingham.
Wide receiver:
DK Metcalf
Tyler Lockett
Jaxon Smith-Njiba
Jake Bobo
Dareke Young
Laviska Shenault Jr.
Dee Eskridge
Easop Winston Jr.
Cody White
Hayden Hatten*
Dee Williams*
Kaylon Horton*
Metcalf is in the next-to-last year of his contract extension. Lockett, 31, has hinted he may not be playing many more years. His contract also ends after 2025. Smith-Njigba is healthy after a broken wrist slowed his 2023 rookie debut.
Bobo, Young plus the kick-return ability of the recently signed Shenault mean the underwhelming Eskridge has some work to do in camp to make the team.
