Seattle Seahawks rookie guard Beau Stephens will open his rookie season in prime standing within the building. He made the initial 53-man roster as one of ten offensive lineman. They carried nine to open last season and eleven the year before, both of which reflected their long-term strategies at the time. This year, they meet in the middle with ten, exactly one backup for each position.
That speaks to the confidence the franchise has in those depth pieces. Carrying more than one full set of backups admits the team is throwing options at the wall and seeing what sticks, whereas less than a full set of backups shows a lack of ability to replace each specific left and right side of the tackle and guard spots. Now, before the season’s even started,
John Schneider and Seattle are reaping the rewards of living with a happy medium of offensive line depth. Stephens' development over the course of the preseason is a great example of such, and shows why ten is the magic number.
After playing left guard all of last year, Stephens has been allowed to focus strictly on right guard leading up to his rookie season. The Seahawks have Grey Zabel locking the left interior down, so they have no immediate need there. At right guard, though, Anthony Bradford was arguably the most replaceable starter on the offense. He still deserves respect as a starter on a Super Bowl winning team, but putting Stephens behind him builds out the room with more versatility. One of the most respected OL voices in the game, Duke Manyweather, even gave Stephens’ his vote of confidence over Bradford, both in the long- and short-term.
I like Stephens and Zabel as your longterm starters at OG in Seattle!!! https://t.co/Eb6VW1Pr4f
— Duke Manyweather (@BigDuke50) August 29, 2026
Also edge pressure with a hard slanting DE who is HUGE. Wonder if there was any communication from the play side guys on this. He looks completely caught off guard, no pun intended! https://t.co/OKL2JULEZA
— Duke Manyweather (@BigDuke50) August 29, 2026
Bradford has more room to play full speed in his athleticism-over-polish package, but will have a fire lit under him to polish his game quickly so Stephens can’t catch up with awesome weeks of practice. To a lesser extent, the same is true for all the other starters, too. There’s no “you’ll swing both guard spots” anymore, at least on the interior. Josh Jones might still be the immediate backup to both Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas, but Bryce Cabeldue will lock in on the right side. At center, the criminally underrated Jalen Sundell will be followed by Olu Oluwatimi.
While the Seahawks revolutionized the fluidity of the nickel and wide receiver positions last season, the offensive line is getting more rigid about roles this year- and already seeing success.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks G Beau Stephens opens rookie season in prime roster standing
