Fans of the Seattle Seahawks were treated to a lot of pleasant surprises in Sunday's home win over the Denver Broncos. Head coach Mike Macdonald's defense played exceptional ball from top to bottom and beginning to end, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb won the halftime adjustments battle and Geno Smith bounced back from an ugly start to the game.
One thing that seemed all too familiar was the performance of the offensive line, which was even worse than we were expecting. Seattle's front five got mostly dominated by Denver in the first half, but there was one important exception to the rule. That was the standout play of starting left tackle Charles Cross, who may have had the best game of his career to date.
This was a long overdue break-through performance for Seattle's franchise tackle and former top-10 overall draft pick. Cross showed improvement in pass protection, but his run blocking jumped several levels and into the stratosphere. Watch Cross block his man all the way back to Mississippi on this run by Ken Walker.
Charles Cross takes run blocking to the next level
K9 scoot, the 2024 edition pic.twitter.com/mYBAaacad4
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) September 8, 2024
For his efforts, Cross earned the highest Pro Football Focus grade on the team this week on the strength of an awesome 96.1 grade in run blocking. No tackle earned a higher grade around the league this week. Cross also allowed zero pressures against a Broncos pass rush that was daunting for everybody else up front, especially right guard Anthony Bradford.
It's only one game, but it also aligns with everything we were hearing about Cross this offseason - including anecdotes about a marked improvement under new offensive line coach Scott Huff. If Cross can keep this going, the Seahawks will finally be getting the kind of returns you expect to get out of a top-10 lineman.
