Olusegun Oluwatimi

Seahawks Nearing Deal With Connor Williams; Latest On Team’s OL Battles

AUGUST 5: A Williams-to-Seattle agreement should be expected shortly. Agent Drew Rosenhaus said during an appearance on the Joe Rose radio show Monday that a Seahawks contract should be worked out in the next 48-72 hours (h/t Sports Illustrated’s Scott Salomon). Notably, Rosenhaus added Williams will be available for Week 1, a sign of his positive ACL rehab. Getting a deal in place will provide Seattle with a starting center for at least the 2024 campaign, although the length and terms of the pact will be worth watching closely.

AUGUST 4: The Seahawks were engaged in contract talks with center Connor Williams at the end of July, and as ESPN’s Brady Henderson notes, Seattle is still interested in acquiring Williams. While the ACL tear that Williams suffered in 2023 has led to his extended stay on the free agent market and has put his availability for the start of the 2024 season in doubt, Henderson says that money, not health, is the hold-up in negotiations.

Indeed, previous reports indicated that Williams passed his physical with the Seahawks. Per Henderson, the 27-year-old pivot simply wants more than Seattle can pay him (OverTheCap.com estimates that the ‘Hawks presently have a little over $10MM in effective cap space, which is near the bottom of the league but seemingly still enough to bring Williams into the fold, especially if they are willing to consider a multiyear deal).

For now, however, Olusegun Oluwatimi is at the top of the club’s center depth chart, with Henderson noting that the 2023 fifth-rounder has consistently gotten first-team reps ahead of free agent pickup Nick Harris. It appears that another 2023 draftee, Anthony Bradford, has the edge over third-round rookie Christian Haynes for the Seahawks’ other unsettled O-line position, right guard.

George Fant, who is in his second tour of duty in Seattle, continues to take starter’s reps at right tackle while Abraham Lucas works his way back from a knee injury. 2023 UDFA McClendon Curtis is operating behind Fant at right tackle for the time being, though Henderson says Curtis has impressed the Seahawks’ coaching staff and may still be in the RG mix. Despite a clear distribution of first-team snaps through the early stages of training camp, head coach Mike Macdonald says the starting OL has not been established.

Williams, who would have been one of the top free agents on the market this offseason if not for his injury, would certainly be a welcome addition to an offensive front that has several question marks on the interior. He is reportedly talking to other teams as well as Seattle, but those clubs have not yet been identified.

Latest On Seahawks’ Offensive Line

Though the Seahawks’ path forward at offensive tackle seems secure, the team has lots of questions to face concerning the interior line. The situation should lead to a few position battles worth watching this summer.

At offensive tackle, the situation is simple: 2022 first- and third-round picks Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas are set to continue manning the starting spots they’ve held since their rookie season. The only questions mark here comes with Lucas’ health, after the 25-year-old missed all but six games last year as he struggled to come back from offseason surgery on his shoulder. Even if either player misses some time, Seattle brought back a former tackle of theirs in George Fant after four years away from the team. Most recently, Fant started 13 games for the Texans last year and should provide an improvement to the backup options utilized last season in Seattle.

At guard, the team inked veteran free agent Laken Tomlinson, who should slide into the starting job at left guard. At right guard, the Seahawks return Anthony Bradford, who started 10 games as a fourth-round rookie last year. The team also utilized a third-round selection this year to draft UConn’s Christian Haynes, who played exclusively at right guard throughout college. Bradford wasn’t a world-beater last year, with Pro Football Focus (subscription required) ranking him as the league’s 62nd-best guard out of 79 graded players, so Haynes will likely be given every opportunity to compete for the starting job opposite Tomlinson. Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times points out depth guard McClendon Curtis as another under the radar option. Though listed on the roster last year as a tackle, he’s now listed at guard, where he started 30 games in college.

The real questions come at center, where the Seahawks have stacked up a number of inexperienced options. Currently, the depth chart holds Nick Harris, Olusegun Oluwatimi, and Mike Novitsky. Harris, a 2020 fifth-round pick for the Browns, only started four games over the course of his rookie deal, though he earned plenty of snaps on special teams or on overloaded lines in Cleveland. Oluwatimi started one game as a rookie fifth-round pick for Seattle last year, though he also got plenty of special teams experience. He also played over half the team’s offensive snaps in two other games last season. Novitsky is a long shot to make an impact in this conversation. An undrafted rookie out of Kansas, Novitsky doesn’t trail the others much in experience but lacks the drafted pedigree.

Three spots are generally set: Cross at left tackle, Tomlinson beside him as left guard, and Lucas opposite the two at right tackle. You could even say four spots are set, if you decide to count Fant’s job as a swing tackle. At right guard, Seattle knows Bradford can handle the job, if necessary, but they will hope that competition with Haynes will either push Bradford to improve or reveal a better option in Haynes or even, possibly, Curtis. Center is where things remain dire. The team may strike gold in the three unlikely options they hold, but external additions may be on the horizon if no one takes hold of the starting job convincingly.

NFL Draft Pick Signings: 5/11/23

With many rookie minicamps set to start tomorrow, teams were busy today inking draft picks to contracts. We’ve compiled those signings below:

Cleveland Browns

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks

  • DT Cameron Young (fourth round, Mississippi State)
  • C Olusegun Oluwatimi (fifth round, Michigan)
  • S Jerrick Reed II (sixth round, New Mexico)

Tennessee Titans

  • TE Josh Whyle (fifth round, Cincinnati)
  • OT Jaelyn Duncan (sixth round, Maryland)
  • WR Colton Dowell (seventh round, Tennessee-Martin)