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As the offensive line of the Seattle Seahawks struggled during the 2024 season, the team spent the first half of the season using a rotation at right guard.
Specifically, 2024 third round pick Christian Haynes and 2023 fourth-round selection Anthony Bradford rotating at the spot, with Bradford earning the majority of the playing time. This situation led to significant debates among fans, as many hoped that Haynes would surpass Bradford as the starter as the season went along.
However, what wound up happening is that after Bradford went down with a season ending injury against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 12, sixth-rounder Sataoa Laumea took over as the starter, with Haynes earning just three garbage-time offensive snaps over the remainder of the season.
Now, with debate continuing to rage about the state of the right guard spot ahead of the 2025 season, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald shared Monday that when the team settles on a starting five for the offensive line, that will be it and there aren’t any rotations planned.
Now, of course, that means that attention turns to the players who have been getting the practice reps with the first team, and whether or not they will hold onto those roles with the regular season now less than four weeks away.
Of the five starting spots, Charles Cross, Grey Zabel and Abe Lucas appear to have three of them on lockdown. The central debate about the line during much of the offseason was largely focused on right guard, but that spot appears to be falling to Bradford for the third straight season under a third offensive coaching staff.
All of that appears to combine to leave just center up for discussion at this point, with the key question being how long Olu Oluwatimi’s back will keep him out, and whether it will be long enough that he Wally Pipps himself out of the presumed starting role.
And now it’s on to Preseason Week 2 and the Kansas City Chiefs.
