Panic never helps anything. That said, if the Seattle Seahawks don’t come out of the 2024 NFL draft with at least two high quality offensive line prospects it will be time to panic, because if there’s another team around the league that has a more desperate need for their interior offensive line they are certainly doing a good job hiding it.
Over the last couple of weeks Seattle has been linked to several different veteran free agent offensive linemen. So far the list includes Laken Tomlinson, Cody Whitehair, Greg Van Roten and Lucas Patrick. Trouble is even those names may be too rich for the team’s blood – they’re currently $1.5 million over the salary cap when you count the rookie class.
That’s why drafting OL well may be more critical this year than ever – which is saying something given how things went under Pete Carroll. Here’s more proof of just how dire the situation is.
According to this analysis from Ben Baldwin, the Seahawks have the lowest Pass Protection Expectations in the NFL this year (based on 2023 PFF grades). They’re in last place by a significant margin, too.
Quick thread on offensive line starters leading up to draft as I wait for code to run What if we tried to guess offensive line strength given the 5 starters listed on Ourlads and their past performance in pass protection (as measured by grade)? This is what it might look like pic.twitter.com/drVEjPMK7r
— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) April 8, 2024
Not ideal. The best remedy is to target prospects who excel in pass blocking in the draft. For whatever reason Seattle has tended to gravitate towards better run blockers over the years. Now we will find out if that was a Pete Carroll thing or if Schneider was responsible.
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