The Seahawks seem to be absolutely obsessed with turning over their interior defensive line this offseason. While they passed on Jalen Carter at No. 5 overall in the draft, most of this team’s energy has gone into improving and reshaping that underperforming iDL unit.
Yesterday, the team added three more interior defensive linemen to their roster: former Raiders defensive end Mario Edwards Jr., former Chargers nose tackle Forrest Merrill and former Seattle Sea Dragons DL Austin Faoliu. The team also has some interesting undrafted free agent defensive linemen. In fact some believe they have the best UDFA class this year by a wide margin.
Perhaps the most-intriguing guy in the group is San Diego State defensive tackle Jonah Tavai. Doug Farrar at Touchdown Wire has named Tavai his top 2023 undrafted free agent to watch.
“I’m highly intrigued by San Diego State defensive lineman Jonah Tavai, who landed with the Seahawks. Last season, he led all FBS interior defensive linemen with 12 sacks and 69 total pressures, and he wasn’t doing it all against lower-level competition — there’s enough “like as like” tape to make you think that Tavai can be pretty disruptive at the NFL level, as well.”
Tavai’s numbers in college were undeniably impressive and we are expecting him to be one of the UDFAs who wind up making the initial 53-man roster. Seeing is believing though, so here is a look at Tavai’s 2022 highlight reel.