Matt Calkins: What Seahawks' John Schneider thinks about NFL offensive-line rankings

Matt Calkins, The Seattle Times on Apr 23, 2025

Published in Football

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RENTON, Wash. — It wasn’t an attempt to annoy or agitate. The question stemmed from pure curiosity.

During the Seahawks’ pre-draft news conference Monday, I asked the team’s general manager, John Schneider, if he thought there was validity to all the poor grades various websites had been giving Seattle’s offensive line.

The consensus was that the position group for the Seahawks was among worst in the NFL. Still, maybe Schneider saw something the analytics folks didn’t.

His response? The one you’d expect. At first. Then it took a turn.

“I think it’s an area of need, yeah, absolutely. I think it’s been very well-documented throughout the spring. But it’s also a bit of a lazy narrative, because every team is looking for offensive linemen,” Schneider said. “It’s an area that hasn’t been developed as well as the other side of the ball for one reason or another. I think it just fundamentally comes down to, like, if you’re going to be playing football at a young age, you want to sack the quarterback and do your sack dance, or do you want to go block for a running back or a quarterback? I think it comes down to that.”

Hmm. I have little doubt that playing on the defensive line is a more attractive endeavor than the OL for most of the heftier high schoolers. It comes with greater recognition for a job well done, and frankly, seems a lot more fun.

So this might make it slightly harder to evaluate offensive linemen when the draft comes around, but the truth of the matter is — a lot of teams have figured it out. Almost every team has a better O-line than the Seahawks’, and that has cost Seattle wins. There’s nothing lazy about pointing that out.

I imagine Schneider has become incrementally more irritated about offensive-line criticism as the issues up front persist. As Seattle Times Seahawks writer Bob Condotta pointed out last week, Pro Football Focus’ average annual ranking for the team’s O-line since 2010 has been 25th, with the unit never being ranked higher than 14th. The draft has played a significant role in the shortcomings, with left tackle Russell Okung — the No. 6 overall pick in 2010 — being the only offensive lineman Schneider drafted to make a Pro Bowl (2012) for Seattle.

As far as Schneider’s résumé goes, these linemen whiffs are like a prominent pimple on a Brad Pitt face. This is the man who — along with Pete Carroll — constructed a roster that won a Super Bowl and sent the Seahawks to another. He’s the man who snagged Russell Wilson, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Richard Sherman, Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright in a three-year span, and traded for Marshawn Lynch.

The Seahawks have posted winning records in all but three of the past 15 years. That said … it also has been 10 seasons since they’ve reached an NFC Championship Game. Decent, no doubt, but a long way from dominant.

One thing I try to avoid is playing amateur GM. I’ve dished out criticism to executives before, but regularly point out that their jobs are a lot more difficult than mine. In other words, there won’t be a rebuke if Schneider decides to focus on another position in the first round of the draft. There have been receivers, cornerbacks and even linebackers mocked to the Seahawks on Thursday night, when the first round will be held. The Seahawks have the 18th overall pick.

Still, from the outside this feels like an area that one doesn’t have to overthink. Difficult as it may be to evaluate offensive linemen, there might be six to 10 of them going on Day 1 depending on the mock draft you look at. They are out there. It’s just going to take a keen eye to select the right one.

The only member of the current Seahawks O-line that has panned out is left tackle Charles Cross. He doesn’t have a Pro Bowl to his name, but PFF did rank him as the 10th-best tackle in the NFL last season. The interior, meanwhile, might be the worst in the NFL, and though productive when healthy, right tackle Abe Lucas has been regularly hampered by knee pain.

In short: The Seahawks need to take care of the obvious.

Reliable offensive linemen aren’t easy to pinpoint. Lord knows the Seahawks have used plenty of picks over the years trying to lock one down. But that’s when Schneider and folks are paid for. If a championship is still the goal, that’s where they’ll have to deliver.

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