When the 2026 NFL season kicks off, the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive line will return the same exact starting five they had last year. They’ve barely done this in their franchise’s recent history, as a quick look at this Sporcle quiz will show you, and when they do, there are always injuries forcing the plan in a different direction. Continuity is one of the most surefire signs of a solid offensive line, and as you might guess based on memory, the Seahawks have had constant year-to-year change in all five spots for the last two decades. Their development as a unit has faced constant disruption from injuries and inconsistency, but they’ve brought it upon themselves by prioritizing other position groups. It’s been a limiting factor that’s prevented
them from truly performing as an elite unit. The lack of continuity is a substantial explanation for the extreme lows they’ve hit.
This year, though, the Seahawks are one of the eight teams to return their entire starting offensive line. All five—left tackle Charles Cross, left guard Grey Zabel, center Jalen Sundell, right guard Anthony Bradford, and right tackle Abraham Lucas—are back in their same spots. Brandon Thorn’s continuity rankings for Trench Warfare, a thorough OL-specific resource for comparing their starting fives team-by-team, have the other seven as the Denver Broncos, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Cincinnati Bengals, the Dallas Cowboys, the Minnesota Vikings, the Los Angeles Rams, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The aforementioned Sporcle quiz shows the Seahawks returned the left side of Walter Jones, Steve Hutchinson, and Robbie Tobeck for the majority of the 2000s, sticking with Chris Terry, Chris Gray, Chris Spencer, and Sean Locklear as continual options too. The 2010s show more turnover during the Pete Carroll era, though, which reflects the disappointing memories from the post-Super Bowl win era when they kept reloading for another run to the mountaintop and fell short several times. The team was still making the playoffs consistently, but Russell Wilson was running for his life every time they stepped on the field. Once his big contract kicked in, John Schneider had to let his mobility pay for itself at the cost of the OL, while the team prioritized other complementary units and still fielded playoff teams. Carroll’s inability to figure out the OL will go down as his biggest flaw, though. It’s the clearest reason he never made it back to the Super Bowl with the Seahawks (or the Las Vegas Raiders, for that matter) after 2013-14.
While the Seahawks’ current offensive line is far from perfect, the ability to return all five of their starters after winning the Super Bowl is a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of their 21st century history. That alone gives them a floor that teams like the Raiders and Arizona Cardinals will need to spend years striving towards.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks return entire starting five OL for first time since 2003-2004
