No position on the Seattle Seahawks roster has undergone more changes than on the offensive line.
Two stalwarts from the past few seasons, right tackle Germain Ifedi and tackle/tight end George Fant, have signed elsewhere, while the team has brought in four new players to compete for jobs across the line.
Those four new players, B.J. Finney, Brandon Shell, Cedric Ogbuehi, and Chance Warmack, will compete with the 14 other offensive linemen on the roster currently, a number that could increase even more after the 2020 NFL draft.
The Seahawks dished out respectable contracts for all four of their new additions, maintaining the team’s status quo about not spending big money during free agency.
“You know that we are not break-the-bank free agency people,” general manager John Schneider commented during a press conference on Tuesday evening. “We look for commonalities and fits, and what’s important for our quarterback. We love our quarterback. We want to keep him. We want to have as many grown men in front of him as we possibly can. It was important for us to be able to identify some people early on and quite honestly, we hit in our mind what was 1, 2, 3 in free agency.”
Although it wasn’t specified, it’s likely Schneider was referring to Finney, Shell and Ogbuehi and one, two and three – although the order is anyone’s guess.
Shell and Ogbuehi will compete to start at right tackle in Ifedi’s absence, while Finney could be an option to start at center if the team ends up cutting Justin Britt to save room against the salary cap.
“We still have a lot of tough decisions ahead of us,” Schneider continued. “But you know, this is an area where we felt like we could make a difference in free agency playing by our rules and what our philosophy is and trying to protect the quarterback in the best fashion that we possibly could.”
The Seahawks will likely roll into 2020 with Duane Brown, Mike Iupati and D.J. Fluker all starting again, and Britt would start as well if he is not cut.
However – the four new additions as well as some of the younger linemen on the squad, including Phil Haynes and Jamarco Jones, should make for a fun training camp competition while giving the Seahawks incredible depth up front.
“We have some young guys coming up that we are really excited about and feel like we are going to have maybe the best depth we’ve and particularly the most competition we’ve had,” coach Pete Carroll said on Tuesday. “So with that thought, the ability to add some guys with experience that have been there to make sure that we shore up and we can come right back and play really good football, but we are not just trying to get along. We are trying to keep moving and stay as high-tech as we can with our ball, and that’s going to call for the guys to be able to be fluid and well-versed and confident in all of that.”
The Seahawks may look to add even more competition to the o-line room starting on Thursday when the NFL draft kicks off at 5:00 p.m. PT.
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