Where Quenton Nelson fits on Seahawks’ offensive line

Those wanting to see the Seattle Seahawks invest more into the guard position have to be quite happy about what has transpired over the past two years.

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Last year, the Seahawks used their first-round pick on left guard Grey Zabel, a move that proved to be important in helping their run to the a Super Bowl title.

And on Tuesday, Seattle acquired six-time All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts for a 2027 third-round pick and 2028 fifth-round pick, pending a physical.

All off a sudden, Seattle has one of the elite guard combinations in the league.

But will both be manning the position when Nelson makes his Seahawks debut? Seattle Sports Brock and Salk discussed how Nelson fits on the offensive line soon after initial reports of the trade broke.

Nelson has played exclusively at left guard in 136 games during his nine-year NFL career with the exception of eight snaps played at left tackle in 2020. Zabel has played all 27 games, including the playoffs, at left guard for Seattle since he was drafted.

The natural move would seemingly be to move one of the players over to right guard in place of Anthony Bradford, but one complicating factor is left tackle Charles Cross is reportedly set to miss some time with a high-ankle sprain suffered in Sunday’s win over the Chiefs.

Zabel played all over the line during his college years at North Dakota State, including starting all 16 games at left tackle during his final season in 2024. So, could Zabel move over to left tackle while Cross is out? Former NFL quarterback Brock Huard doesn’t think that will be the case.

“You’re gonna play Josh Jones at left tackle,” Huard said of Seattle’s swing veteran swing tackle. “He was great for you last year and I think he slides (in) very comfortably. You feel very comfortable with him playing left tackle.”

As to whom would make the move to right guard between Nelson and and Zabel, Huard believes it is more likely that Zabel will flip to right guard and Bradford will be bumped from the starting lineup. Zabel made 17 starts on the right side of the line while in college, though all were at right tackle.

“I would think that he would be the more natural athlete to bump over and play right guard, but that would be totally determined by them and how they feel,” Huard said.

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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