RENTON – Given the Seattle Seahawks’ long and well-documented history of offensive line issues, there’s once again a lot of focus on the trenches heading into the 2025 season.
And in particular, which linemen will make up the starting five.
What stood out from Seahawks’ final minicamp practice
From OTA and minicamp practices open to the media over the past two weeks, it appears that three of Seattle’s five starting O-line spots can essentially be penciled in, barring injuries. Charles Cross is the left tackle, rookie first-round pick Grey Zabel is the left guard and Abraham Lucas is the right tackle. None of those, of course, are surprises.
As for the other two spots? As expected, both are open competitions.
In recent practices, Olu Oluwatimi and Jalen Sundell split nearly all of the first-team reps at center, while Christian Haynes and Anthony Bradford split most of the first-team reps at right guard.
Sataoa Laumea, who started the final six games of last season at right guard after Bradford went down with an injury, primarily worked as the backup left guard. Michael Jerrell was typically the backup left tackle, while veteran swingman Josh Jones was primarily the backup right tackle.
“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.”
Asked whether right guard is a two-man battle between Haynes and Bradford, Macdonald said others are still in the mix.
Macdonald specifically mentioned Laumea, while also stating the center battle could factor in. During Tuesday’s minicamp practice, Sundell spent some time at right guard, which could indicate that’s an option for him if he doesn’t win the center job.
In addition, Macdonald left open the possibility that one of the team’s rookies could also make a push at right guard once training camp begins on July 23. The most likely rookie to factor in at right guard would be sixth-round pick Bryce Cabeldue.
“We’ll see when the pads come on (in training camp), because you (also) have to work out the center position,” Macdonald said of the right guard battle.”(Sataoa) is part of that equation (at right guard). 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.”
Last year, Bradford and Haynes were in a tight battle at right guard that lingered through the first half of the season. Bradford started and got most of the playing time over that stretch, but Haynes continued to rotate in for occasional series until the team finally settled on Bradford in Week 9.
It sounds like the Seahawks want to avoid that type of situation this fall.
Macdonald said ideally they would like to solidify their O-line’s starting five within the first two weeks of training camp.
“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, (but) probably within the first two weeks.”
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