The Seattle Seahawks have yet to announce their starting five offensive linemen, with the preseason finale against the Green Bay Packers set for Saturday and roster cuts due by Tuesday at 4 pm New York time.
With that in mind, there has been no shortage of speculation that Anthony Bradford appears to have won the competition to start at right guard, while Jalen Sundell may have wrestled the starting role at center away from Olu Oluwatimi while Oluwatimi nursed a back issue that has kept him out of practice.
Snap counts from the preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs appear to show that one of the two is true.
Specifically, the five offensive linemen who started for Seattle against the Chiefs can be grouped into one of three categories as noted:
- LT Josh Jones: Presumed backup playing in place of injured starter (Charles Cross, finger)
- LG Grey Zabel: Presumed starter
- C Jalen Sundell: Presumed backup playing in place of injured starter (Oluwatimi, back)
- RG Anthony Bradford: Positional competition with Christian Haynes, Bryce Cabeldue, Sataoa Laumea, etc
- RT Abe Lucas: Presumed starter
The three categories are easy to recognize, and the logical place to start is to look at the two members of the offensive line who are the presumed starters and see how much they played during the game.
- LG Grey Zabel: 19 offensive snsps
- RT Abe Lucas: 19 offensive snaps
That is simple and easy. Both of the presumed starters played the entirety of the first two drives before giving away to the second team. Nothing earth shattering at all, and the relevance comes from looking at how the team handled snaps at right guard.
- RG Anthony Bradford: 19 offensive snaps
In short, Bradford played the exact same number of snaps before heading to the bench as the two members of the group who are known to be starters. One need not be a rocket surgeon to look at the playing time from the Chiefs game and come to the conclusion that by playing the same number of offensive snaps as members known to be first team offensive linemen that Bradford appears to have laid claim to one of the starting roles.
With that out of the way, the next place to look is at left tackle, where Jones is not about to take the starting role from Cross.
- LT Josh Jones: 31 offensive snaps
Thus, even though Jones has performed very well since signing as a free agent in the spring, barring injury Cross is the starter at the position. Playing in place of Cross against Kansas City, Jones played the entire first half, logging 31 offensive snaps on four drives, with all 31 of those snaps coming at left tackle.
That gave Jones 19 snaps with the first team offensive line, and a further 12 snaps with the second team offensive line. This is important to consider when looking at the playing time for Sundell, who also played the entire first half, seeing the field for 31 offensive snaps, all of which came at center.
Now, what’s important to keep in mind is that these snap counts only inform as to the status of the competition up front heading into the game against the Chiefs. So, while the snap counts show that the competition at right guard was over and had been won by Bradford prior to the game, they only show that heading into the Kansas City game Sundell was still occupying his role as second team center.
It is entirely possible that the snap counts for the offensive linemen when they take the field against Green Bay Saturday afternoon may tell a different story, as it’s possible that Sundell’s performance against the Chiefs and in practice since has given him claim to the role as the starter at center.
Making the preseason finale must watch for those fans who obsess over things like which center will start when the Seahawks take on the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1 of the regular season.
