Gregg Bell The Peninsula Gateway
Just as they had for years in North Dakota, Jalen Sundell and Grey Zabel were standing next to each other in a stadium tunnel minutes before a game.
Just as they had for North Dakota State University in Fargo from 2020 through the Football Championship Subdivision national title game they played together in December 2016, Sundell and Zabel were starting next to each other on an offensive line.
But this was no long the NDSU Bison’s line. They were starting for the Seattle Seahawks.
The tunnel they were standing in was at Lumen Field. It was minutes before kickoff of their first NFL game, Seattle’s preseason opener against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Seahawks fans were roaring for their team about to be introduced Aug. 7. The stadium’s giant video boards were blaring music over team highlight videos. Taima, the Augur Hawk that is the Seahawks’ live-bird mascot, was primed to take flight as 90 players ran out of the tunnel through smoke onto the home field.
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Amid all that Sundell and Zabel, from North Dakota State to the NFL together, hugged.
“Can you believe this is really happening?” they said to each other.
“A lot of smiles — in pregame itself,” Zabel told The News Tribune after that first game.
“Yeah, it was pretty surreal running out of the tunnel right next to Grey,” Sundell said. “It was surreal playing another game with him.”
It appears the two former North Dakota State Bison may begin this NFL regular season starting next to each other, too.
Zabel has had the starting left-tackle job since the first practice after the Seahawks selected him 18th overall in the draft this spring. He’s been maybe even better than advertised, brilliant in each of Seattle’s two preseason games. He’s played 38 snaps. He’s not allowed a pass pressure. He’s had four knockdowns. Zabel has driven defensive tackles into the ground 3 and 7 yards up field from the line of scrimmage on run blocks. He’s made the key blocks on two touchdown runs.
He’s been everything coach Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider thought he could be when they made Zabel Seattle’s highest-drafted interior offensive lineman since Hall of Famer Steve Hutchinson, in 2001.
Sundell? He’s seized the opportunity Olu Oluwatimi’s back injury opened for him two weeks ago. Behind Oluwatimi, last season’s starter, early in training camp, Sundell has wowed Macdonald, new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and new line coach John Benton.
Sundell’s best came starting again next to Zabel in the Seahawks’ second preseason game, against Kansas City.
Sundell showed off the athleticism, quickness and familiarity with Kubiak’s outside-zone blocking system Friday against the Chiefs. Sundell consistently “ran off the ball,” Macdonald’s and Kubiak’s consistent term for requirements of the new system, to block Chiefs linebackers on the second level and spring big runs. Sundell played tackle at North Dakota State. He was a guard and tackle when he first got to Seattle last year.
What’s he like about center?
“You block a lot of second-level guys at center,” he said. “It’s close quarters. It’s a lot of quick movements.
“It’s a lot of close-combat stuff, which I feel I’m good at.”
Sundell and Zabel on the starting offensive line blocked for 119 yards rushing against Kansas City. In the first quarter.
Does Macdonald see chemistry of Sundell starting with Zabel again in Seattle, as they had at North Dakota State?
“I haven’t asked him that,” Macdonald said Sunday, “but I don’t see why that couldn’t be the case.
“I thought Jalen played a tremendous game (against the Chiefs). Coaches felt the same way. Played fast. Hit his targets.
“That’s the case,” Macdonald said of the Bison chemisty. “It probably exists.”
It’s Sundell’s physical skills of running and moving so quickly while 6 feet 5 and 301 pounds that Macdonald likes in the 2024 undrafted free agent. Sundell was a backup guard, tackle and center as a rookie last Seahawks season.
This offseason, Macdonald and general manager John Schneider raved about how Sundell fits the new blocking scheme better than Seattle’s mix of man-on-man, inside-zone, pulling and trapping with its offensive line last season. To poor results: the Seahawks were 29th in the NFL in rushing offense in 2024.
“That’s arguably his biggest strength is his athleticism,” Macdonald said of Sundell.
“It’s fun to watch.”
That doesn’t sound like a guy the Seahawks are going to bench whenever Oluwatimi returns.
Would Macdonald and Benton bench the center that has directed and plowed on the starting O-line that has blocked for 184 yards on 21 rushes in the first two preseason games (8.8 yards per rush), both against the Raiders’ and Chiefs’ mostly starting defenses?
Sundell is the latest Seahawks blocker to talk about how exacting Benton, his new line coach, is in this outside-zone scheme.
“Yeah, I think the biggest thing was just how precise the system is,” Sundell said. “Like I said, there’s a rule for every situation possible. You should know exactly what you’re going to get. If the whole playbook’s in, like it is in camp, and we get any type of defense that they could throw at us, we have a rule for everything.
“It’s very precise.” Oluwatimi back practicing
Oluwatimi practiced fully Sunday, for the first time since Aug. 3. That was the day Seattle’s 2023 draft choice and starting center the latter half of 2024 injured his back.
Oluwatimi was centering the first-team line in position drills early during practice Sunday, plus when quarterback Sam Darnold and lead running back Kenneth Walker joined them to go through run fits in plays against air.
But for 11-on-11 scrimmaging, Sundell was the starting center snapping to Darnold. Federico Maranges was the second center. Rookie guard/tackle Mason Richman was the third center. Oluwatimi did not scrimmage Sunday.
Macdonald said the plan is for Oluwatimi to practice Thursday when the Seahawks and Packers have a joint practice in Green Bay, ahead of the two teams’ preseason game Saturday at Lambeau Field in Wisconsin.
“Yeah,” Macdonald said. “I am hoping that he is practicing against Green Bay.”
But will it be with the starters, or the reserves? Center Olu Oluwatimi back practicing, and on the first-team offensive line again, today for the 14th practice of #Seahawks training camp. He missed two days last week + the preseason opener with a back issue. @thenewstribune pic.twitter.com/en4c0XU8dE — Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) August 9, 2025 Offensive line set?
Anthony Bradford has also impressed Macdonald, Kubiak and Benton. First, with how he got into better shape through better eating and more dedicated training this offseason, then with how physically he’s blocked compared to Christian Haynes at right guard.
The difference became evident once the pads came on in training camp three weeks ago.
“AB has made great strides,” Kubiak said last week. “Obviously, he’s a physical presence, but you see more consistency in his game throughout camp.
“I see a guy that’s playing more confident.”
Sunday, Macdonald wasn’t thrilled with how his players began the morning practice. He yelled at them for being slow.
The head coach scheduled a 9:40 a.m. Sunday start in part to prepare for the Seahawks’ week-two game at Pittsburgh. That starts at 10 a.m. Seattle time.
Macdonald and Benton also weren’t thrilled when Bradford jumped into a false start on the first sound in Darnold calling signals for the first snap of a full-team scrimmage. They took Bradford out and put Haynes in for him. That was one of the only times Haynes, the third-round pick last year, has played right guard ahead of Bradford, the fourth-round pick in 2023.
Bradford impressed Macdonald Friday in the guard’s preseason start against the Chiefs.
“When you watch the tape, you felt the physicality,” the coach said. “And I thought he finished plays the best that he has on tape to this point, at this game.
“So, let’s keep stacking those performances.
“It is not a play-in, play-out basis. And he can play some really great football if he can do that.”
Macdonald was asked if the coaches have made their decision on who will begin the season as the starting right guard.
“Maybe,” Macdonald said, grinning.
“Maybe not.”
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