5 Burning Questions For Seattle Seahawks Offense Entering Training Camp

From Geno Smith's fit in a new scheme to lingering offensive line concerns, the Seahawks have plenty of questions to answer on offense leading up to a new season.

Armed with plenty of firepower, the Seahawks will lean heavily on Geno Smith, Ken Walker III, and potentially a breakout star in Jaxon Smith-Njigba. /

Launching an exciting new era for the franchise under the direction of first-time head coach Mike Macdonald, the Seattle Seahawks will begin their push to return to the playoffs when they kick off training camp at the VMAC on Wednesday.

With high expectations within the building as Macdonald takes the reigns succeeding the legendary Pete Carroll, the Seahawks expect to field a potent offense with several stars returning, including quarterback Geno Smith, receiver DK Metcalf, and running back Ken Walker III. Aiming to get the most out of their talent, new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb will look to build off of an outstanding run in nearby Montlake dialing up Washington's high-octane scoring machine.

Looking towards the season, here are five key questions Seattle must begin answering on offense as training camp unfolds over the next four weeks:

1. Can Geno Smith match Michael Penix Jr.'s immense success orchestrating Ryan Grubb's offense at the pro level?

Coveted by NFL teams this offseason, Grubb rapidly ascended the coaching ladder thanks to building one of college football's most dynamic and explosive offenses at Washington. At the center of that attack, Penix transformed from a mid-level starting quarterback into a Heisman finalist, excelling at throwing the deep ball and posting video game-like numbers for the Huskies as they marched all the way to the College Football Playoff championship game.

While it remains to be seen whether or not Grubb will be able to have the same type of success jumping to the NFL and the leap between the two levels is far from comparing apples to apples, Smith offers many similar traits to Penix as the new engineer under center, starting with his proficiency as a pocket passer in the vertical passing game.

Since beating out Drew Lock as Russell Wilson's successor two seasons ago, Smith has been arguably the NFL's best deep ball artist. Per Pro Football Focus, he has connected on 57 "Big Time Throws" traveling 20 or more yards, more than any quarterback in the league during that span. His 19 touchdown passes on such throws ranks third behind only Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts, and he's topped the league in big time throw percentage both seasons.

Aside from his ability to launch the ball downfield with the best signal callers in the game, Smith has demonstrated outstanding pocket presence as Penix did in Washington's offense. Helping mitigate obvious offensive line concerns, he took only 31 sacks - 13th most in the NFL - while being pressured on 40.8 percent of his drop backs - the fifth highest rate in the league. Per PFF charting, he also posted the second-lowest rate for QB-owned pressures (6.5 percent) behind Matthew Stafford.

Already an established starter, if not a capable top-10 quarterback when playing at his best, Smith's presence steering Grubb's ship offers plenty of intrigue with a top-tier stable of weapons around him. At 33 years of age, however, he will have to show he can bounce back to 2022 form after seeing his completion rate, touchdowns, and passer rate all take significant hits last season for the Seahawks new offense to truly take flight.

2. How will Seattle split up reps between a pair of contrasting, talented backs in Ken Walker III and Zach Charbonnet?

Zigging while much of the league zags, the Seahawks used not one, but two second-round picks on Walker and Charbonnet in consecutive drafts with the aim of rediscovering a dominant rushing attack. So far, the results haven't been quite what general manager John Schneider envisioned, as the team ranked a dreadful 28th in rushing last season. But those struggles haven't been due to the lack of backfield talent, and Grubb understandably has plenty of excitement about the duo of runners he inherited.

Despite seeing his rushing yardage total dip more than 100 yards, his yards per carry plunge half a yard, and his number of explosive runs shrink compared to his fantastic rookie season, Walker deserves credit for producing as much as he did behind a suspect line. According to PFF, he ranked fifth in missed tackles forced (56) and 637 of his 905 rushing yards came after contact, as he frequently turned nothing into something with underrated power and elite tackle-slipping wiggle.

Providing the thunder to go along with Walker's lightning, Charbonnet came on strong in the second half of his rookie campaign, rushing for 353 yards and catching 27 passes after Week 8. Doing his best to manufacture yardage on his own, 320 of his 462 rushing yards came after contact, and he flashed overlooked burst ripping off 16 runs of 10 or more yards, just eight fewer than Walker on more than 100 fewer carries for the season.

One of the most electric runners in football when he has space to operate, Walker will roll into camp as the starter and expected to receive the lion's share of carries in Seattle's offense. But the days of bell cow backs in the league are a thing of the past and after watching Dillon Johnson rush for over 1,100 yards for Washington last year, Charbonnet's similar downhill, no nonsense style could appeal to Grubb, opening the door for a by-committee approach for the Seahawks moving forward and how the backs are utilized bears watching.

3. Will Jaxon Smith-Njigba emerge as a viable No. 2 receiver - or potentially more - as a key cog in an already loaded passing attack?

Over the past five seasons, the Seahawks have employed one of the best one-two wideout punches in football with DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett assaulting defenses together. On two different occasions, both players went for 1,000-plus yards in the same season, a feat that had never been accomplished in franchise history previously, and they managed to check off that milestone catching passes from two different quarterbacks, making the production all the more remarkable.

As Seattle transitions into the Macdonald era, however, a changing of guard looks to be underway thanks to the presence of Smith-Njigba, at least in terms of the receiver pecking order. Set to turn 32 in September, Lockett failed to hit the 1,000-yard mark for the first time since 2018 last season, and if the final two-plus months hinted at anything, it may be time to pass the torch to his young apprentice.

From Week 7 on, while Lockett produced 56 catches for 643 yards compared to Smith-Njigba's 47 catches for 518 yards, the rookie caught four touchdowns - including two game-winners - during that span. Smith-Njigba also produced a five percent higher catch rate and slightly better yards per reception average compared to his veteran counterpart as he developed improved chemistry with Smith down the stretch.

This spring, Smith-Njigba lit it up on the practice field from start to finish during OTAs and mandatory minicamp, including scoring seven touchdowns during team sessions in a single practice. His route running savvy, elite acceleration, and soft hands should make him a perfect fit for Grubb's offense, which featured two similar players stylistically in Ja'Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan at Washington as key weapons, and the new play caller should move him around more than his predecessor to maximize upon his talents.

With Metcalf still being the lead dog for the foreseeable future and Lockett remaining a quality complementary receiver at worst, it may be too early for Smith-Njigba to surface as Smith's primary go-to target. But at the same time, nobody should be surprised if the former Ohio State star winds up leading the team in catches as a high-volume threat either, and signs hint at him becoming a staple of the offensive arsenal sooner rather than later.

4. Will Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas stay healthy and take substantial steps forward under the tutelage of a new line coach?

On the way to a surprising postseason bid in 2022, the Seahawks appeared to have struck gold with Cross and Lucas starting 16 games together as rookies, providing an abundance of optimism about the future of a much-maligned offensive line. But injuries muddied that outlook a bit last season, as both players went down in the season opener, preventing them from taking the big sophomore jump the team hoped they would.

Dealing with a balky knee, Lucas landed on injured reserve and didn't return until November, looking like a mere shell of his rookie self in five games before being shelved for the season finale. After yielding 28 pressures on 633 pass blocking reps as a rookie, he allowed more than half of that total on just 182 pass blocking reps last season, seeing his pass protection efficiency rating plunge more than two percent. He also wasn't near as effective in the run game department, struggling to drive defenders off the ball due to his injury.

While Cross wound up starting 14 games and didn't have any setbacks from a sprained toe suffered in Week 1, the former top-10 pick's performance flat-lined compared to his rookie year, and playing at below 100 percent certainly may have been the culprit. While he surrendered fewer sacks and pressures, his pass protection efficiency rate actually dropped by half a percent and his run blocking grade dropped almost 10 points, illustrating the lack of anticipated progress in year two.

Going into a new season, Lucas will open training camp on the PUP list after undergoing knee surgery in January and missing the entire offseason program recovering, but there's internal optimism that he will be able to return soon and bounce back from an injury-marred year. On the flip side, Cross participated throughout OTAs, quickly working to build a rapport with veteran left guard Laken Tomlinson while receiving plenty of one-on-one guidance from new line coach Scott Huff.

Assuming Cross and Lucas both avoid further injury and stay on the field, the Seahawks will be hoping Huff's previous track record developing NFL-caliber tackles at Washington translates to the league and his fundamentals-heavy approach will bear fruit taking their respective games to the next level. With protecting the quarterback imperative to sustained offensive success, seeing either player take a massive step forward would be a huge boost for the team's chances of getting back to the playoffs and potentially doing damage in January.

5. How will the interior offensive line shake out and did Seattle do enough to shore up three starting job vacancies short and long-term?

Away from Cross and Lucas, Seattle has other concerns in the trenches following the departure of former starters Damien Lewis and Evan Brown, who signed with Carolina and Arizona in free agency respectively. Continuing an ugly trend of playing musical chairs in the interior, the team will have three new starters at guard and center when Denver comes to town on September 8, and most likely, at least one of those new starters will have one or fewer career starts under their belt.

After losing Lewis to the Panthers, the Seahawks invested a third-round pick in former UConn All-American guard Christian Haynes in April, and the rookie will be thrust immediately into a three-way competition to start on the right side. As for his competitors, second-year blocker Anthony Bradford started 10 games as a rookie last season, oddly making him the second-most experienced guard on the entire roster, while ex-Chattanooga standout McClendon Curtis took all the first-team reps during OTAs and could be a dark horse to watch.

Regardless of who wins the job, Seattle will march a right guard with 10 or fewer starts under the age of 24 out as a Week 1 starter. Center won't be any different, as second-year lineman Olu Oluwatimi will open camp as the favorite to replace Brown after starting one game as a rookie last year with veteran Nick Harris reuniting with Huff as a versatile backup who has only started a handful of games in the NFL himself, casting questions amid uncertainty due to lack of experience.

If there's a silver lining, even coming off a down year with the Jets last season, Tomlinson brings 138 career starts and Pro Bowl pedigree with him as the Seahawks new left guard. Eager to mentor and bring young blockers under his wing, his arrival should pay major dividends for the likes of Oluwatimi, Haynes, and the rest of the youthful interior line group. How quickly everyone meshes will be a crucial factor in how the offense will perform in 2024 and set the tone for the future up front.