The changing of the (offensive) guard in Seattle has worked out

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The Seattle Seahawks are fresh off of a playoff bye, looking to enter the fray and bully a division rival on the way to an NFC Championship Game appearance. They just might have the hogs to get that rodeo rocking.

Take your gleeful eyes off of the San Francisco 49ers matchup for one second to go back in time for a sec. It wasn’t long ago when the ‘Hawks were considered to have one of the worst offensive lines in professional football. One must only travel back in time one year, in fact to see that they were ranked 31st out of 32 teams. They were bottom-5 in both pass blocking as well as run blocking. Tough to make waves when you can’t protect the quarterback or block for ball carriers.

Fast forward to present day, and the Seahawks are at least middle of the pack, in terms of offensive line performance. Seattle’s offense achieved a top 3 ranking in points scored per game. What changed?

The 2024 guards

The 2024 offensive line featured Laken Tomlinson at left guard and a combo platter of players at right guard. Tomlinson was the most solid factor at either guard position in the 2024 season, mostly because he was always available. I have fuzzy, partially suppressed memories of his erratic play (including getting forklifted by Jeffery Simmons… more on him later). Since then, the man has been benched and then released by the Houston Texans this year. Yikes.

At RG, remember that the Seahawks were rotating Anthony Bradford with then rookie, Christian Haynes, for a good portion before Sataoa Laumea stepped in. Haynes has been a non-factor, teetering dangerously close to the bust label becoming more of a conversation, while Laumea is not currently on an NFL roster.

The 2025 guards

After GM, John Schneider’s infamous quote (guards “get overdrafted” … “And, in my opinion, they get overpaid”) that made people think he had disdain for guards, the team made a heavy investment in taking Grey Zabel with the 18th overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft. Was this an elaborate diversion? That’s a question for another day.

Since being inserted into the Hawks’ protection unit, the rookie has registered the sixth-lowest QB pressure percentage allowed (3.5%) among all offensive linemen with at least 50 pass-blocking snaps. In his first go at the league he allowed 24 total pressures and two sacks over 553 pass-blocking snaps. Zabel has looked like a home run pick thus far, and if life were fair to the big men, he would be getting more Offensive Rookie of the Year buzz.

In the run up to a rubber match with the 49ers it’s nice to be able to lean back on the knowledge that LG, Grey Zabel was the highest-graded player of Week 18 in the previous matchup.

On the right side, the Seahawks passed up on high-priced free agents, like Will Fries. They rolled out Anthony Bradford and stated that the new offensive coaching staff (OC Klint Kubiak and his goons) believed in the talent on hand. Fries is doing a good job in Minnesota but getting paid ~15x more than what Bradford is due this year!

A.B. has caught a lot of (justified) heat for his play over the last couple of years, but Seattle brass has done an incredible job of minimizing his weaknesses while morphing him into an occasional weapon on the offensive line.

For one, Sam Darnold is a quick trigger distributor, which can somewhat mitigate Bradford’s pockmarked quick and ugly losses. Only four teams have given up fewer sacks than the Seahawks this year. In contrast, 12’s remember that Geno Smith loved hunting for the big play, for better or worse. Getting the ball out quick helps to not get a weak link in pass pro exposed.

Secondly, the benefit of having a rookie left guard who you can count on so early is that he can block on an island, freeing up the center to help double and chip on Bradford’s side more often. Backs and tight ends have been utilized more creatively this season as well, with Kubiak providing blocking help across the board.

The run game is where Bradford truly shines. His superpower is that he can tear run lanes wide the hell open if you give him enough chances to get locked in. It also doesn’t hurt that he has one more year on his affordable rookie contract. More growth is possible.

It hasn’t been perfect, but Schneider, Kubiak, John Benton (OL coach) and Mike Macdonald (HC) put together an actionable plan that they believed in for the offensive guard positions in 2025. They acted decisively, and it has paid off without breaking the bank. Both Ken Walker III and Sam Darnold gave flowers to the line for their collective performance when interviewed by the ESPN/ABC crew directly after the Week 18 win over SF that delivered the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

Bring the lunch pails again fellas, time to put up another 180 yards rushing against Santa Clara!

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