The Athletic’s Mays: A big bet the Seahawks are making on offense

An offseason of change for the Seattle Seahawks hasn’t featured much of note at their greatest area of need.

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With free agency now three weeks in, the Seahawks’ only addition to the offensive line has been tackle Josh Jones, who figures to be a backup option for starters Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas. And they’re down one of their 2024 starting guards after veteran Laken Tomlinson signed with the Houston Texans in free agency.

There’s still plenty of time to add to the O-line this offseason, whether that comes in the form of free agency or the upcoming NFL Draft. But the team has also expressed believe that a revamped offensive coaching staff led by new coordinator Klint Kubiak can get more out of the young pieces it has on the O-line currently like recent draft picks center Olu Oluwatimi and guard Christian Haynes.

That belief is quite a bit bet, according to The Athletic’s Robert Mays.

“The biggest bet you’re making this offseason in my opinion – outside of the one that you’re making on (quarterback) Sam Darnold – based on all the other moves that the Seahawks have made, is that you think that the schematic change on offense is going to get you different results from your offensive line,” Mays said during a recent conversation with Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy.

Seattle wasn’t able to get much going on the ground behind its offensive line last season, and the unit allowed the third-most sacks (54) in the league. According to Pro Football Focus grading, the Seahawks ranked 24th in run blocking and 26th in pass blocking under former offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb.

Mays believes the offense that Grubb was running put the offensive line in bad positions.

“The way that the Seahawks’ offense was set up last year when they were throwing the ball, you were putting such a strain on both the quarterback and the offensive line,” said Mays, who hosts The Athletic Football Show. “It’s so much shotgun. It’s so much drop back. It’s a really hard world to live in for an offensive lineman.

“So I think the talent that you had with that group last year, you’re consistently getting the worst versions of those players.”

Connecting under Kubiak

Kubiak was the offensive play-caller last season for the New Orleans Saints, who faced some similar issues on the O-line. They ranked last in PFF’s pass block grading metric. However, they were more in the middle of the pack in sacks allowed, where they gave up the 13th-least (37).

Seattle did throw the ball more often with 34.9 passes per game compared to New Orleans’ 32.4, but it also a greater percentage of sacks on drop backs at 8.35% compared to 6.29%.

Mays believes the way Kubiak’s offense connects the run and pass games together more than what Grubb was running can be helpful for the O-line, but he isn’t so sure it will make that much of a difference.

“If you think by transitioning to this sort of system that it’s going to shift and you can start hiding your offensive line a little bit more … there’s a rationality to that, but I’m not sure I buy it,” Mays said. “But let’s say that does end up being true. Let’s say you find the receiver either in the first round or the second round (of the draft) as like an outside option to go along with (Cooper) Kupp and (Jaxon Smith-Njigba). And let’s say you get a version of Sam Darnold that was a little bit closer to the guy we saw for 15 games last year, rather than over the last two.

“That version of the Seahawks I think absolutely can be competitive in the NFC. I just think there’s a lot of stuff that has to go right for us to realize that version of this team.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Listen 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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