The bye week is meant to be rejuvenating. Players get away from the game, heal up, and return to work with vigor. That has seemed to be the case for most players on the Seahawks. One player has yet to make it back. Connor Williams was absent for the second straight practice with the reason listed being “NIR – Personal.” Meaning, it is not injury related. The team does not have to release injury reports for the practice they had on Monday, so it is not clear if he was here for that practice. Whatever the reason, his absence leaves a huge gap in the middle of an already struggling Seahawks offensive line.
Being away from the team for personal reasons does not mean Williams will not return tomorrow and be ready to start on Sunday. At a minimum, it is not ideal to have a player who has had numerous snap issues that involved both physical and mental errors for him and his quarterback to be missing practice time.
The offensive line has been under fire all year. That is nothing new for Seahawks fans. The hope had been that the bye week would give the team some time to self-scout and regroup. Mike Macdonald said “everything was on the table” prior to the week off.
He proved how serious he was by waiving his leading tackler and starting linebacker, Tyrel Dodson. Macdonald acknowledged they considered an equally tectonic move on Monday when I asked if they looked into moving Williams to right guard and starting either Olu Oluwatimi or Jalen Sundell at center.
“[We have], but we’re staying put right now,” said Macdonald.
The logic behind the move is straightforward: Williams has struggled with snaps at center, he was an above average guard for Dallas, and Anthony Bradford has been a major problem at right guard. You have the potential of addressing numerous problems, and realistically, how much worse could it really be?
The downsides include getting Geno Smith acclimated to another center, the multiple moving parts leading to new chemistry and communication issues, and the likelihood that the center position could become as big of a weak spot as the right guard position has been.
Oluwatimi entered camp as the expected starter but lost the job, in part, due to lack of power in either pass protection or run blocking. Sundell was an undrafted free agent who was not expected to make the roster, but had an impressive camp. He has been asked to backup at center and at the tackle spots, which is a rare level of versatility.
It is unclear which player would act as next man up this week as there have been weeks where Oluwatimi has been inactive on game day, meaning Sundell was the backup. Seahawks coaches have implied that was largely due to the positional flex that Sundell provides. Oluwatimi is really only an option at center, even if the team has tried cross-training him at guard.
Oluwatimi has far more reps with Smith and has started an NFL game before. The team might want to lean on his experience even if they see more promise in Sundell.
Of course, the best case scenario for the team is that Williams returns. Short of that, the best guess is Oluwatimi would get the start on the road against a physical and talented 49ers defense. It would represent a golden opportunity for him to turn around a career that was starting to point toward career backup, at best.
Sundell would be the higher risk, higher reward choice. His floor could be very low as a small school rookie who has never played an NFL snap, let alone started. His ceiling, though, could exceed Oluwatimi as an athlete. He looked more stout in 1v1 pass rush drills during camp and clearly has the feet and quickness to have coaches comfortable with him as a backup tackle even when they have players like Jason Peters and McClendon Curtis on the practice squad.
It is the latest in a season full of the unexpected, and often unwanted, twists. The team will almost certainly say more tomorrow when they release the final injury report for the game and Macdonald does his Friday press conference.