Seahawks Offense Meets Physicality In 2024 NFL Draft
Mike Macdonald and Ryan Grubb repeatedly voiced a desire for their Seahawks offense to be "physical". Encouragingly, John Schneider's first draft of Seattle's new era features tons of physicality:
Expect the new Seahawks’ offense — players and plays — to be underpinned by one characteristic: physicality.
Mike Macdonald made this clear in his first press conference as Seahawks head coach. “We’re going to be a physical football team,” he stated, answering a question on his offensive philosophies.
“We don’t want to reinvent our offense every week, so we have to have a core identity,” Macdonald extrapolated in his maiden radio appearance with Brock and Salk. “So what is that? Well, we're going to be a physical unit.”
New offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb agreed. “We are going to be a physical team in Seattle,” Grubb declared in his own introductory presser.
The various results of the NFL process quickly prove whether the sport’s trope-heavy interviews are substance or fluff.
And in the Seahawks’ case, the offensive physicality goal shared between head coach and play caller has transferred to the front office’s drafting.
While physicality is a “no duh” trait for players and for overall football success, certain dudes play with greater physicality. Emphasizing this is therefore important.
Looking at Seattle’s 2024 draft class shows the Seahawks have started right, and this early alignment between the defensive-minded Macdonald, OC Grubb, and John Schneider’s staff is an encouraging indicator for future success.
Offensive Line
Back on February 20th, Grubb appeared on Bump and Stacy and talked Seattle’s offensive line.
“The consistency in play, and you know, getting more physical, and finishing all the time,” Grubb identified as areas for 2024 improvement.
“I see some flashes of a really really special group there, we’ve just got to get it to be more consistent.”
Drafting three offensive linemen was a statement from Seattle. All aspects of physical line play are an absolute must for the Seahawks, whether it comes from their veteran players or via these new rookies.
“That's where the game starts up front and it's going to be really important for us to be dominant in that phase,” Macdonald explained following Day 3 of the draft.
“If it stops there, then you really don't have a shot the rest of the play, so, again, the style of play, we talk about all that, but we want to be physical, we want to be imposing, we want to create any lines of scrimmage and I think you're seeing the investment in that.”
In terms of the spend, despite the Seahawks’ lack of 2024 draft assets, they used their second pick, round 3 81, on guard Christian Haynes, before selecting tackles/guard converts Sataoa Laumea and Michael Jerrell in the sixth round.
“Steve Hutchinson talked to us the other day about their group, right?” Schneider revealed.
“Offensive linemen need to play as a group. They need to be nasty, they should be walking around the building together. They should be in their own world. That's what we're trying to get together.”
The Seahawks’ trio of drafted offensive linemen satisfies the “nasty”, “imposing”, and “physical” traits the coaching staff and front office desire.
“Tone-setting was definitely something that was a factor in the guys that we wanted to acquire,” Schneider assessed.
Haynes was considered the best finisher in the entire draft class by TrenchWarfare and Bleacher Report offensive line expert Brandon Thorn.
Haynes’ effort through the whistle went as far to cause a frustrated ripping off of the helmet from a Senior Bowl competitor in one-on-one drills.
Schneider summarized Haynes’ game as “plays with some nastiness.”
When Macdonald was asked about a preference between pass blocking or run blocking, his answer on Haynes again returned to seeking physicality.
“I like the guys that knock them off the ball, that’s me,” Macdonald said. “So we kind of figure out the rest later. I think Christian brings that to the table. So that's the first thing I'm looking for.”
On the draft call to the former UConn guard, Seattle’s head coach was keen to share his expectation.
“Come in here and we’ll go smashing people, that sound good?” Macdonald asked.
“Yes Sir!” Haynes responded.
“That’s what you do best, right?”
“Yep!”
Indeed, on a separate phone conversation, this time with beat reporters, Haynes described his game as “somebody that’s very athletic because I can run and also dominate at the point of attack.”
Laumea is another player with some dominant point of attack work: the former Utah man has a YouTube profile full of pancake-reel highlights.
“He's huge, he's tough, really aggressive,” Schneider praised. Laumea, meanwhile, shared a similar view: “I think I’m a strong, physical offensive lineman.”
Furthermore, Laumea spoke of enjoying playing with the physical style the Seahawks want.
“I would say moving a person from point A to point B is the most fun,” he set out.
“That’s what I mean by physicality. We’ve got to move grown men, and they’re not going to let us, so I feel like I don’t care, and I’m willing to do my job. I want to do my job. I want to finish. I need to be better at being more consistent with that, but that’s what I want to show in Seattle. I would say I am pretty physical in that way, trying to move people off the ball, and trying to finish them.”
The third and final lineman, sixth-round pick Michael Jerrell, is more of an athletic project coming from Division 2 Findlay. But the “monster of a man” Schneider saw at Ohio State’s pro day is still bringing another physical style to Seattle.
“I can play however offensive line needs to be played, but at the end of the day, I play nasty, I play gritty,” Jerrell told the media.
“I’m a gritty person, hard worker, so I’m really to get after guys.”
When asked about his school rushing for 177 yards a game, Jerrell went more in-depth on his gritty play.
“It shows that we want to open up holes,” he said. “Move bodies. Be a moving company, be professional movers out there.”
Tight End
Seattle’s fourth-round tight end A.J. Barner brings further physicality.
Macdonald started by praising the Michigan man’s passing game ability, suggesting some untapped potential. However, the conversation quickly turned to what Barner can do for the Seahawks’ run offense.
“The blocking tight end is a really important position,” Macdonald explained. “It starts in the C-gap in the run game and who's going to defend it and who's going to block it so you have to be able to answer those questions and those skillsets don't just grow on trees, you know? It's tough to do.”
Barner being slotted in as a run-blocker isn’t simply due to the departures of Will Dissly and Colby Parkinson, plus re-signing of the more move-type Noah Fant to a two-year, $21million deal plus. No, physicality is Barner’s style.
“We expect him to be able to do it…it’s a coveted skillset,” Macdonald said of Barner’s capability to block the C-gap.
“I’m a football player,” Barner told reporters. “If you ask me to go out there and catch 10 passes a game, I’ll go do that. If you go ask me to man up the C-gap and go be physical, I’ll go do that. If you ask me to play on every special team, I’ll go do that. I love strapping up the helmet, I love playing physical football.”
Asked specifically on how much pride he takes in his run blocking, Barner responded:
“Great pride. I take pride in everything I do on the football field. And everything I do on the football field, I do at 110%. That’s one thing you’ll never question with me. I’m going to give my 100% effort on every play.”
Physical Football
Seattle’s five defensive selections also satisfy some aspect of physicality.
Defensive tackle and 16th overall pick Byron Murphy II described his play style as “very aggressive,” while Macdonald agreed after Day 1, evaluating the Texas product as “such an aggressive player, plays violently.”
Fourth-round linebacker Tyrice Knight “stays square…brings some thump to the point of attack,” per Macdonald.
Fifth-round cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett was keen to emphasize his willingness to tackle: “I think I’m really intense when it comes to hitting. I’m not going to shy away from contact. You can turn on the film and you can see I’m super aggressive. Most of the time, I just try to come up with a body part at corner.”
And sixth-round corner D.J. James enjoyed press coverage at Auburn because “it was fun getting in other receivers' faces and messing with their timing.”
Asked following Day 2, the point in time where Seattle had drafted two linemen, if there was some intentionality in what the Seahawks were creating, Macdonald returned to talking about the team’s style.
“Just a style of play that no one wants to play,” he described. “That's what we're aiming for. That's our standard of how we play football. If you want to play here, you're going to have to play a certain way. Those are the types of guys we're bringing in.”
Whether it’s in the trenches, where Macdonald recently told a University of Washington coaches clinic that “we believe in knocking the crap out of the guy in front of you, and then some,” or beyond, this roster is now positioned for physical Seahawks football.
This article was edited by Alistair Corp.
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