Seahawks GM sees ‘lazy narrative’ about offensive line

Do the Seahawks need to address their offensive line in this draft?

Yes.

But that’s also “a lazy narrative,” John Schneider says.

Three days before he makes (or trades) the first of his 10 picks in the 2025 NFL draft, Seattle’s general manager poked a verbal jab at the dominant storyline reporters, writers, fans — heck, everyone with a pulse — have had this offseason about his Seahawks.

What is he going to do about Seattle’s chronically troubling offensive line?

“I think it’s an area of need, yeah, absolutely. I think it’s been very well-documented throughout the spring,” Schneider said Monday of what many see as his biggest failing as the team’s GM.

“But it’s also a little bit of a lazy narrative.”

Wait … the worst part of the team — the one that has subverted productive seasons from the offense and last year’s rebound from the defense during consecutive non-playoff seasons — is under more scrutiny, not a Seahawks problem?

“Because every team is looking for offensive linemen,” Schneider said.

“We’re trying to create guys every single year.”

The 54-year-old GM is entering his 16th Seahawks draft. He began his NFL career in 1993 as a scout for his hometown Green Bay Packers. His first boss was legendary general manager Ron Wolf, who’s enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“It used to be when I started in the league with Ron Wolf, it was a free agent had to have three redeeming qualities,” Schneider said.

“Now, especially with offensive linemen, you have guys maybe in the fourth round that have two redeeming qualities: tall and long, strong and quick, whatever.

“It’s just happened. It’s not anything that anybody in football is happy about, to be honest with you.

“It’s an area that hasn’t been developed as well as the other side of the ball for one reason or another.”

Actually, Schneider has a reason. It’s his theory of football evolution over the last decade or so. He and Pete Carroll used to talk about it when Carroll was the Seahawks’ coach and ultimate decision-maker from 2010 until January 2024.

“I think it just fundamentally comes down to, like, if you’re going to be playing football at a young age, you want to go sack the quarterback and do your sack dance? Or do you want to go block for a running back or a quarterback?” Schneider said Monday.

“I think it comes down to that.”

But someone is drafting good offensive linemen. Good enough, anyway, to win Super Bowls, as Philadelphia and Kansas City have the last two seasons while the Seahawks have missed the playoffs entirely.

Reaching for need over better players

Schneider’s assessment of college blockers leads to this: His belief that his biggest draft mistakes have been reaching to draft offensive linemen who weren’t as good as the players available at other positions.

“We’ve made our biggest mistakes when we’ve, you know, pushed players up a board for need — rob Peter to pay Paul — for offensive lines,” Schneider said at the combine in Indianapolis two months ago.

“So you have to be careful. You have to take the best (player) … You really have to. The philosophy is, you take the best player, take the best person, best competitor.

“You know, when you try to stick something in there, it’s just … it’s hard. You kind of know you’re behind the eight ball already. You know, you’re drafting a guy that you’re like, ‘All right. Well, no, that guy’s a better player than him, but you don’t have a left guard.’”

So when has this happened for the Seahawks?

GM’s 1st-round O-linemen

Schneider has drafted 28 blockers as Seattle’s GM. He’s only drafted four O-linemen in Round 1. All four were college tackles: Russell Okung from Oklahoma State in 2010, James Carpenter out of Alabama in 2011, Germain Ifedi from Texas A&M in 2016 and Charles Cross from Mississippi State in 2022.

Okung is the only one the Seahawks re-signed to stay with the team beyond his rookie contract.

He was Seattle’s starting left tackle from 2010 through the ‘15 season. He won a ring at the end of the 2013 season when the Seahawks crushed Denver in Super Bowl 48. He also started Super Bowl 49. Seattle lost in the final seconds to New England the following season.

Okung left following 2015 to sign what ended up being a one-year, $8 million deal with the Broncos. He played the next 3-1/2 seasons after that for the Los Angeles Chargers, then the latter half of the 2020 season at age 32 with Carolina. He retired following the ‘20 season having earned $109 million over 11 NFL seasons.

The Seahawks converted Carpenter to guard as a rookie in 2011. He started next to Okung at left guard on those Super Bowl teams of 2013 and ‘14. Carroll and Schneider let Carpenter’s rookie contract expire after Super Bowl 49.

He signed in free agency in spring 2015 with the New York Jets. He started for four seasons with them. He then signed with Atlanta and was a Falcons starting guard in 2019.

Carpenter’s career ended after he was a backup tackle and guard for the Baltimore Ravens and New Orleans Saints in 2020. He earned nearly $37 million from five teams during his 10-year NFL career.

Cross went ninth overall to Seattle in 2022, a pick the Seahawks got from Denver in the Russell Wilson trade that year. Cross has been the starter at left tackle since his first week in the league. We’ll find out more about what Schneider and the Seahawks think of Cross by May 1. That’s the NFL deadline for teams to exercise fifth-year options for guaranteed contracts in 2026 for first-round picks from 2022.

Asked Monday if the Seahawks plan on picking up Cross’ option for 2026, Schneider didn’t answer.

“We’ll answer that at a later date,” the GM said.

Indications this offseason have been the team might exercise Cross’ option by May 1, to buy it time to extend him to a longer-term deal. That would be at better team salary-cap numbers than the estimated $17.6 million picking up Cross’ option would count on Seattle’s 2026 cap.

Schneider has not selected a guy who was exclusively a guard or center in college before the third round in any of his 15 drafts as Seahawks GM.

Given Okung’s, Carpenter’s and Cross’ relative successes, the first-round offensive linemen reach Schneider must be referring to as a mistake over better players, is Ifedi.

Germain Ifedi’s time

In spring 2016, coming off those back-to-back Super Bowls, Schneider drafted Ifedi 31st overall. He got a four-year contract worth $8.3 million as a first-round pick.

He was a right tackle at Texas A&M. Then-Seahawks line coach Tom Cable moved Ifedi inside for his rookie season of 2016. He replaced J.R. Sweezy as the team’s starting right guard.

By the first week of August in his rookie training camp, Ifedi was fighting after plays in practice with veteran Super Bowl-champion teammate Michael Bennett. Carroll said then he loved the way Ifedi “approached the game … I think he’s the real thing.”

He wasn’t.

Ifedi’s struggles in run and pass blocking in 2016 led the Seahawks to move him back to his college spot of right tackle for the 2017 season. It didn’t help his play. Or his demeanor.

In August 2017, again during some of the first full-pads practices of training camp, defensive end Frank Clark punched the helmet-less Ifedi in the face in the middle of the field during a pass-rush drill. Ifedi missed much of the next week of practices.

He went on to become the league’s most penalized player that ‘17 season; he went from seven penalties at guard as a rookie to 20 at tackle. He often got false-start penalties getting out of his stance too early trying to get a jump start on faster edge rushers. When he got out to those edge rushers, he often got caught holding them. Seventeen of his 20 penalties that season were for holding or false starts. One of their 53 men on the roster had 13.5 percent of all Seahawks flags that season, which ended with Seattle out of the playoffs.

Before the ‘18 season Mike Solari replaced Cable as Seattle’s line coach. Ifedi improved in Solari’s more direct, physical, man-on-man blocking system. And he cut his penalties by almost half, to 11 in 2018. Still, that tied Ifedi for third-most accepted penalties in the league.

After a fourth struggling season in 2019, and 52 penalties on him in 60 career games, the Seahawks decided they’d seen enough. They pursued and ultimately signed free agent Brandon Shell to replace Ifedi at right tackle.

Seattle let Ifedi’s rookie deal expire. He signed with the Chicago Bears for the 2020 season. He got a modest, one-year deal well into the secondary waves of free agency. Chicago gave him one year at $1.6 million.

That same offseason Ifedi’s Seahawks backup in 2019, George Fant, got three years at $10 million per season from the Jets.

Ifedi played a second season for Chicago. He signed with Atlanta in 2022. He did not start a game for the Falcons in his only season with them. In 2023 he was signed and released six times by three teams, the Falcons, Lions and Bills, while not playing in a game. Buffalo released him from its practice squad in January 2024.

Cleveland signed him to a one-year, minimum-salary deal worth $1.2 million in April 2024, six weeks before his 30th birthday. He made seven starts and appeared in 15 of 17 games for the Browns last season.

He is currently a free agent. He hasn’t been a full-time starter since the 2020 season with Chicago. He’s earned $18.4 million in nine NFL seasons.

Dee Eskridge over Creed Humphrey

Then there’s the offensive linemen Schneider didn’t draft.

Five years after drafting Ifedi, perhaps because he did, Seattle missed again on the offensive line.

The Seahawks had a pressing need (again) in 2021 for a new center. It was the COVID year. Seattle had only three picks. Among many others, Schneider had heralded Alabama center Creed Humphrey available to take with the Seahawks’ first choice, at 56th overall in Round 2.

The Seahawks drafted Dee Eskridge.

The small wide receiver did little more for Seattle than get a severe concussion in his first NFL game, then suspended by the NFL for six games of the 2023 season for a domestic-violence incident. He lasted three years of his four-year rookie contract. He had three receptions in six games last season as a backup for the Miami Dolphins.

Kansas City selected Humphrey seven spots after Eskridge went to Seattle. Humphrey has been a 2024 All-Pro, a two-time Super Bowl champion and three-time Pro Bowl center for the Chiefs. He signed a four-year, $76 million extension, including $50.3 million guaranteed, with K.C. last summer.

The Seahawks still have an issue at center. They have started 10 different ones the last 10 seasons, since Schneider’s trade in 2015 of Pro Bowl center Max Unger to New Orleans for tight end Jimmy Graham.

Seattle’s 2025 draft approach

So when does need come into Schneider’s Seahawks drafting strategy? During later rounds? While developing his team’s draft board all year leading up to the picking days?

“Really, your need ends up being part of our grading system, too,” he said. “We’re comparing prospects to our players. It’s just the way we do it, not necessarily (to) the rest of the National Football League: What does our team look like?

“So, yeah, what I was talking about at the combine is sometimes you think you’re just filling a hole — and you’re jumping that player ahead of more talented players.”

Thursday, the Seahawks will have a choice with the 18th pick whether to address their biggest need. The top left guard his team needs is likely to be available for Seattle’s first pick of 2025.

So are top wide receivers, cornerbacks, pass rushers, defensive tackles …

The TNT is predicting Schneider’s philosophy of drafting the best available player particularly in the first round is going to combine with the Seahawks’ most pressing need. The TNT is projecting Texas’ Kelvin Banks Jr. will be Seattle’s pick. The 6-foot-5, 315-pound Banks is a stud left tackle many in the NFL believe can start immediately at guard because of his quickness and athleticism.

We’ll find out what narrative plays out on the Seahawks’ needy offensive line in the first round Thursday, plus on Friday and Saturday. The team has 10 total picks, including five of this draft’s first 92 selections. That includes Seattle’s two picks in Round 2 and two more in Round 3.

“That’s exciting,” Schneider said, sitting next to coach Mike Macdonald three days before the draft. “We were in there (Sunday) afternoon staring at (our draft board) for a while.

“It’s fun. There’s a lot of room for activity. It just provides us with more opportunities to either just stay and pick good players or maneuver (trade) around.”