The Seattle Seahawks biggest area of need between now and the start of the 2020 regular season is along their defensive line.
While most will focus on the lack of a big name pass rusher, this team is also severely lacking depth on the interior defensive line. After losing Al Woods to free agency and cutting Nazair Jones, Seattle is left with Demarcus Christmas, Bryan Mone and two undrafted free agents – Cedrick Lattimore and Josh Avery – as options to backup Jarran Reed and Poona Ford.
The Seahawks almost always sign a veteran defensive tackle to serve as the No. 3 lineman, and there are still plenty of options left on the open market, including Mike Daniels, Damon Harrison, and Brandon MeBane.
However – if the team opts to save some cap space and go with internal options instead, perhaps the most likely candidate to win the job outright is Mone, an undrafted free agent who joined the team last May.
Mone is a hulking presence, standing six-foot-three and weighing a whopping 366 pounds. He made the team out of camp last year in part thanks to Reed’s six-game suspension. He ended up pinballing between the practice squad and the active roster, appearing in four games and 89 total defensive snaps.
He didn’t do much with the opportunities he was given, recording just three combined tackles and one pressure, but he is the only other DT on the roster outside of Reed and Ford with any NFL experience.
Christmas was a sixth round pick by the team in 2019, but he missed his entire rookie season with a knee injury. Lattimore and Avery are both camp fodder, and while either could impress, the odds of making the team with such a limited window of exposure to the coaching staff thanks to COVID-19 are even trickier this season – giving Mone the upper hand.
Mone is the best bet for that No. 3 tackle role on the roster as things currently stand, but it would be a surprise if this team didn’t aggressively pursue a veteran upgrade on the interior over the next few weeks.
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