4. There is some good competition taking place on the interior offensive line.
The Seahawks expect to take significant strides with their offensive line play, in part because they used their first-round pick on guard Grey Zabel, and also because Kubiak’s scheme, which will emphasize the run game, utilizes more play-action and puts the quarterback on the move with rollouts, should help the line from a schematic standpoint. There’s also the presence of new offensive line coach John Benton, run game coordinator Rick Dennison and run game specialist/assistant offensive line coach Justin Outten, all veteran NFL coaches who should help get the most out of players.
But while the Seahawks are confident that they’ll be better up front, they do not yet know who their starting five will be. Charles Cross is a sure thing at left tackle, fellow 2022 draft pick Abraham Lucas is the starter at right tackle, and Zabel is expected to start at left guard, but the competition is fully on at center and right guard.
At center, Olu Oluwatimi, who finished last season as the starter after Connor Williams’ surprise midseason retirement, is competing with Jalen Sundell. At right guard, Anthony Bradford, last year’s starter before suffering a season-ending injury, will compete with Christian Haynes, Sataoa Laumea, who started six games last season, and as Macdonald alluded to, perhaps also Sundell if Oluwatimi were to win the job at center.
“There’s a lot of competition,” Macdonald said. “We haven’t settled some of the spots, and that means we have a lot of guys that are options, so it’s exciting.”
On right guard in particular, Macdonald added, “We’ll see when the pads come on, because you have to work out the center position. Taoa is part of that equation. The rookies really haven’t seen live and in color, so I wouldn’t say it’s a two-man race right now. It’s more open.”
The Seahawks don’t want to rush decisions on those jobs, but they don’t want to let it drag too far into camp either if they can avoid it.
“I think we would like to make some decisions sooner than later, but we’re going to let the play speak for itself,” Macdonald said. “We’re not going to force the decision. We’re going to be intentional in what happens probably within the first two weeks.”