Seahawks’ vital investment in O-line goes beyond the players

This Seattle Seahawks have heavily invested to their much-maligned offensive line this offseason.

What Big Ray wants to see out of Seahawks LT Charles Cross

The Seahawks kicked it off with a trio of signings in March, inking depth pieces center Nick Harris and guard Tremayne Anchrum Jr. to one-year deals and tackle George Fant for two years. Seattle added to its haul by bringing in a likely starter in veteran guard Laken Tomlinson on a one-year contract and signing depth tackle Max Pircher in April. Then, the Seahawks used three of their eight picks in the NFL Draft on the offensive trenches. That’s a total of seven new bodies on the offensive line.

That’s not the only way the team has invested in their O-line this offseason, according to former Seahawks offensive lineman Ray Roberts. He highlighted how Seattle also added to the “brains” of the unit when he joined Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Monday.

“I was thinking about how the Seahawks invested in their offensive line this year,” Roberts said. “Obviously they had three draft picks. They signed a couple of free agents. They had a first-round draft pick in (left tackle) Charles Cross a couple of years ago (2022), (right tackle) Abe Lucas was a first-round-draft-pick type talent (in 2022), but now they’ve invested in I want to say the brains of the offensive line.”

What exactly is Roberts referring to? He’s talking about the additions of new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and offensive line coach Scott Huff, who led one of the country’s top college offensives the past two seasons with the UW Huskies. Roberts noted the pair’s ability to craft plays that fit the strength of their offensive linemen.

“With this team, where the weakness has been – or not weakness, but the battle, the struggle – has been on the offensive line,” Roberts said, “and I think a lot of it comes from not necessarily not having players, but not designing plays and an offense that helped develop your offensive line, that … takes advantage of their strengths and mitigates their weaknesses. So hopefully that’s what we’ll see with this offensive line, with this offensive line coach and with this offensive coordinator.”

Related: What style of lineman fits Seattle Seahawks OC Grubb’s scheme?

One thing Grubb has become known for is how involved he is with the offensive line in comparison to other offensive coordinators. The 48 year old spent a total of six seasons as an offensive line coach during his college coaching stints at Sioux Falls and Eastern Michigan. That’s something Roberts finds encouraging.

“I love what I’m hearing, that he does go down and he’s hanging out during individual period and all these different kinds of things that are really checking out what’s happening along the offensive line, because I think that’s important,” Roberts said. “I’ve said this before, a lot of times offenses when they start thinking about putting their offense together, you think of the edges, you think of the receivers and the running back and quarterback – how we’re going to take advantage of all these weapons – and you don’t categorize the offensive line as a weapon. They’re something else, and so I like what I’m hearing that he’s paying attention to that spot and probably designing and calling plays through the eyes of an offensive line coach.”

Listen to the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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