John Gilbert is the Field Gulls Deputy Editor and has covered the NFL's Seattle Seahawks since 2016. He specializes in the salary cap, the collective bargaining agreement and statistical analysis, with an occasional film breakdown sprinkled in.
It's no secret that the interior offensive line of the Seattle Seahawks have struggled through the first eight weeks of the 2024 season. They've been unable to open holes for the ground game and rank near the bottom of the league when it comes to keeping quarterback Geno Smith clean and upright.
In particular, fans have focused on right guard Anthony Bradford, whose struggles in pass protections as a second year starter have been well documented. With 20 pressures allowed through the first eight games, Bradford is tied for the twelfth most pressures allowed with the likes of Trevor Penning, while coming in just ahead of Roger Rosengarten (19) and just behind Joel Bitonio (20).
There is nuance to the pressures allowed by Bradford, though. When Seattle selected him in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, it was known that he had been a below average pass blocker in true pass sets in college, and that has continued. What is interesting, though, is the split between how often Bradford allows pressure in true pass sets versus how rarely he allows pressure on plays that are not considered true pass sets.
Before digging into the data, though, it's important to understand what true pass sets are, and what they are not. PFF breaks passing plays down into those that qualify as true pass sets, and everything else. The everything else category includes plays with less than 4 rushers, play action, screens, short dropbacks and time-to-throws under 2 seconds, meaning true pass sets are those plays that tend to look more like traditional drop back passing.
Here's a look at how many pressures the Seahawks offensive linemen have allowed through the first eight weeks of the season:
And here's how many pressures Seattle offensive linemen have allowed on true pass sets:
With total pressures allowed and pressures allowed on true pass sets known, it then becomes possible to calculate how many pressures each player has allowed on those dropbacks that don't qualify as true pass sets. Those numbers for the linemen of the Hawks are as follows:
Yes, you are reading that correctly. While Bradford has certainly struggled in pass protection, on plays that don't qualify as true pass sets he's been the best on the roster at not allowing pressure through the first eight weeks of the season. In fact, across the NFL Bradford has had the most pass blocking opportunities on non-true pass sets of all offensive linemen without allowing a single pressure. Bradford's 145 pass blocking snaps without allowing a single pressure checks in just ahead of Tristan Wirfs of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who has logged 138 such pass blocking snaps without allowing a pressure.
So, for those fans who have been wondering why the Hawks continue to trot Bradford out at right guard week after week, here's the answer. It appears that the coaching staff hopes that he can develop and learn to do in true pass sets some of what he is doing in non-true pass sets when it comes to protecting his quarterback.