ESPN analysis a stinging rebuke of Seahawks GM John Schneider's offseason moves

If all the negative predictions about the Seattle Seahawks in 2025 are going to come true it'll be because the front office zigged where they should have zagged. Specifically, general manager John Schneider elected to keep mostly the same offensive line that finished last year ranked 31st in the NFL, instead electing to remake practically every other part of the offense.

And so when Week 1 rolls around we'll see Grey Zabel at left guard instead of Laken Tomlinson, but otherwise it'll be the same starting five we saw last season. According to ESPN's Bill Barnwell, this is no good. Here's what he had to say about Seattle's offseason.

ESPN zings Seahawks offseason moves

"In 2024, the line allowed quick pressures on 18.8% of Smith's dropbacks, per NFL Next Gen Stats, the second-highest rate of pressure on any regular starter around the league. Instead of cycling out the line, Schneider appeared to prefer swapping out the quarterback and most of the receivers instead... It's clear the longtime Seahawks GM believes the players he has on the roster, almost all of whom are his draft picks, will improve."

The problem with that is that for the most part none of the offensive lineman that Seattle has drafted over the last 15 years has shown dramatic improvement - at least until they move onto another team.

Damien Lewis is the most recent example of a Seahawks lineman who struggled here only to go on and perform at a much higher level somewhere else, which calls into question this team's ability to develop linemen. James Carpenter, Justin Britt and Breno Giacomini also enjoyed similar success after a change of scenery.

As Barnwell mentions, this lack of offensive line improvement is likely to be a huge impediment to new starting quarterback Sam Darnold, who went from 7th in QBR with a clean pocket to 22nd when under pressure last season with the Minnesota Vikings.

The hope is that new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and his run-heavy scheme will help keep defenses off balance and therefore Darnold more clean in the pocket. However, the problem there is that this was also an awful run blocking unit in addition to being bad in pass protection.

As a team, Seattle ranked 28th in ESPN's run block win rate and 24th in PFF's run blocking grades.

Maybe Grey Zabel will be able to turn the culture around for this group and instill a tougher attitude that will help this group rise in these rankings, but on paper this really doesn't look like a much better unit than last year. That means we're likely to see the same low ceiling on this offense as we have the last two seasons, regardless of the schematic and personnel changes.