Everyone has their blind spots. Lord knows former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll did. Despite his mantra of constant competition, after the Legion of Boom broke up he frequently continued to roster some favored players long after they proved to be no longer useful, if they ever were. DeeJay Dallas and Dee Eskridge were a couple recent ones, to name a few.
By comparison so far rookie head coach Mike Macdonald has done an excellent job of trimming the fat and tightening up his team's discipline where they needed it, and not rewarding poor play. However, there is one notable blemish that doesn't fit with the rest of the picture.
That would be the continued starts for right guard Anthony Bradford, who has seemingly made zero progress from the second half of last season after he took over for an over-the-hill Gabe Jackson. Bradford finished 2023 with the lowest PFF grade for Seattle's offense and he's well on his way to a repeat performance.
Seahawks RG Anthony Bradford bombs again per PFF grades
In Seattle's Week 3 win over the Miami Dolphins Bradford was a liability yet again, contributing to a ton of pressures on quarterback Geno Smith, who didn't respond as well as he usually does and wound up throwing two preventable interceptions. According to the Pro Football Focus grades for this week, Bradford earned the second-lowest mark on offense, with only tight end Pharaoh Brown (37.1 overall in his Seahawks debut) coming in with a worse grade.
They both graded out horribly in pass protection, but only Bradford is supposed to do it well full-time. His 27.4 mark to go with repeated penalty problems (Bradford is tied for the second-most flags in the NFL) raise questions about why Macdonald has not pulled the plug and given rookie Christian Haynes a chance to start in Bradford's place. Together, Bradford and left guard Laken Tomlinson (who hasn't been a whole lot better) allowed 11 pressures to Miami's defense on Sunday.
Macdonald seems to understand that he has to at least consider making a change based on what he told reporters after the game. According to Brady Henderson at ESPN, Macdonald said he felt Bradford earned all the opportunities last week in practice. However, he also called the playing time distribution a "week-to-week thing right now" and also said we'll look at the tape."
Haynes might somehow prove worse than Bradford, but it's hard to see how. At the very least he'd be gaining valuable experience as we learn what his potential is. Bradford's has become pretty clear. The sooner that Macdonald either gives Hayes a shot or brings in another veteran to push Bradford, the better.
