RENTON — The Seahawks’ offensive line is changing again.
Time will tell if it’s for the better.
For Geno Smith, new play caller Ryan Grubb and Seattle’s entire offense and season, it absolutely has to be.
Connor Williams practiced for the first time as the Seahawks’ starting center Monday, 13 days after the 27-year-old free agent and former Miami Dolphins starter agreed to a one-year contract. Williams went directly into anchoring the first-team offense and snapping to quarterback Geno Smith, both at the start of practice and to begin 11-on-11 scrimmaging against the defense.
By the middle of the scrimmage period, Olu Oluwatimi alternated in at first-team center. That appeared to be a matter of pacing Williams into his new job. He is eight months removed from a torn anterior cruciate ligament and reconstructive knee surgery.
“Yeah, we have a plan for him to rep him in. Good to see him get a few reps today,” coach Mike Macdonald said. “Hopefully we will keep that process growing as we head toward the season.”
Williams said last week he was back to about 95% health in the knee.
“I’m getting there,” he said Aug. 13. “The strength’s getting there. I’m pretty symmetrical (between strength and health in his left and right knee), honestly.”
The Seahawks will take their time with a slow indoctrination for Williams. They will take his knee being less than 100%.
They are guaranteeing Williams $3 million for this season because they believe he is already an improvement at the key anchor position in the offense.
Given his pacing Monday, it appears unlikely Williams will play Saturday when the Seahawks play their third and final preseason game, against Cleveland at Lumen Field (7 p.m., KING-5 television).
“I think we are devising a plan to slowly work back in, and slowly get me on the field,” Williams said last week.
But Smith and some of the veteran starters on offense may get their first action of this preseason against the Browns. It appears it will not be for Seattle as it was in Nashville last weekend; Macdonald and the Seahawks held out 31 players from playing in the second preseason game.
The head coach said he needed to talk to some veteran starters in the next day or so before he would be ready for any public comments of who will and won’t play Saturday.
The team has a full week of practice and rest following the preseason finale this weekend. On Sept. 2 they will start the game week of full preparation for the opener.
Oluwatimi had been the starting center during offseason practices and during most of the first three weeks of training camp. Seattle’s fifth-round draft choice from 2023 now becomes Williams’ backup.
Center has been a Seahawks black hole for most of the last decade, since the team traded Pro Bowl center Max Unger to New Orleans for tight end Jimmy Graham prior to the 2015 season. The Seahawks have started nine centers in the nine years since that trade.
Williams will make it 10 in 10 years.
He has multiple tasks before the season begins in less than three weeks, Sept. 8 against Denver.
The 6-foot-5 Williams, who looks lighter than his listed 320 pounds, must prove to himself and the team’s medical staff his repaired left knee is up to the daily rigors of line-of-scrimmage driving and pounding. He must learn the new offense’s formations, terminology and plays Grubb has been installing for four months before Williams got here. Plus, Williams must learn new line coach Scott Huff’s protection calls.
All while the Texas native moves his wife and life 3,300 miles across the continent from South Florida.
Other than that, Williams is pretty much set in the middle of the Seahawks’ offensive line.
Offensive line questions
The line remains uncertain besides Williams’ work ahead.
Right guard remains a rotation between Anthony Bradford and rookie Christian Haynes. Both started Seattle’s preseason game last weekend at Tennessee, Bradford at right guard and Haynes, the team’s third-round pick, at left guard.
“It looked good. I thought A.B. played well. I thought Christian played well,” Macdonald said. “They’ve got a great battle going. But I was pleased with the crew that started out the game.”
Monday, Bradford was the starter to begin practice. Haynes was the starter when the team began 11-on-11 scrimmaging.
Starting right tackle Abe Lucas again spent most of the practice inside, in the training room. He hasn’t practiced since January following knee surgery.
Asked if he plans to have Lucas start the opening game, Macdonald said: “Right now, I probably don’t want to answer that question.”
Veteran George Fant was the starting right tackle again Monday.
Hurting tight ends
Macdonald had nothing new on the injury statuses of the team’s top two tight ends. Noah Fant remained out for going on a week with an undisclosed issue. Pharaoh Brown was on crutches following his foot injury Thursday in the second of the Seahawks’ two joint practices.
Undrafted rookie Jack Westover from the University of Washington remained out with a hamstring issue.
Special-teams mainstay Brady Russell is full taking advantage of the opportunity. He’s been with the starting offense the last few practices and days and excelled in the preseason game at Tennessee last weekend.
“Talk about a guy who just forces his way onto the field,” Macdonald said. “Just keep making plays, man. Steve Smith Sr., make a play a day.”
That is in reference to the two-time All-Pro wide receiver who ended his career with Baltimore from 2014-16, when the 37-year-old Macdonald was a coaching intern then young assistant with the Ravens.
To address the lack of depth from the injuries, the Seahawks signed two new tight ends Monday: undrafted second-year free agent Michael Ezeike from UCLA and rookie free agent Devon Garrison from Division-II Pittsburg State.
The Seahawks waived rookie free-agent linebacker Devin Richardson from Washington State and undrafted rookie cornerback Willie Roberts.
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