After the Seattle Seahawks starting center Austin Blythe suddenly announced his sudden retirement from the NFL at age 30 in late February, the team believed they had found his replacement by signing former Detroit Lions veteran Evan Brown.
“The Seahawks may well have found their starting center in free agency,” beat reporter John Boyle wrote of Brown on April 3. “Yes, the Seahawks can and very likely will continue to add to their interior line this offseason… but by adding Brown, they know moving forward they have already added an experienced and versatile starter.”
While the Seahawks needed to focus on beefing up their defense with their 10 picks in the 2023 NFL Draft, Seattle somehow ended up landing Michigan center Olusegun Oluwatimi in the fifth round, and head coach Pete Carroll seemed to know right away that this Day 3 selection would make an immediate impact.
Whatever grade you have on @UMichFootball OC Olu Oluwatimi it’s probably too low.
Seeing very little on here about Outland & Rimington winner and not sure why.
Tested well (9-2 BJ, 29.0 VJ, 29 reps) and blew teams away in Combine interviews.
He’ll start for somebody as rookie.
“I know it’s a long wait for you, but you’ve got your place now,” Carroll said to Oluwatimi on the phone after he was officially drafted. “You’ve got a really competitive opportunity too. You come in here with your mindset, you’re going to come out and get this job and see if you can own this thing. You’re going to get a real good opp to take a look at it.”
Last season, Oluwatimi allowed zero sacks and earned an impressive run block grade of 83.0 from Pro Football Focus.
Several NFL Analysts Predict Olu Oluwatimi Will Beat Out Evan Brown as Starter
USA Today analyst Tom Weaver predicts the 6-foot-3, 305-pound rookie is in a position to steal the top job for Brown, the 26-year-old former undrafted center out of SMU who started his career with the Giants.
“The competition to see who starts at center may be the most-interesting position battle to follow this summer,” Weaver wrote on May 19. “Brown may wind up starting Week 1, but we’re expecting Oluwatimi to take over at some point and eventually wind up starting more games.”
Sports Illustrated‘s Daniel Flick agrees. “The only question now is how soon he gets the opportunity – and if his resume says anything, it may come sooner rather than later,” Flick wrote of Oluwatimi.
Former Seahawks offensive tackle Ray Roberts told Seattle Sports that Oluwatimi “is the guy that I’ve kind of had my eye on because to me, he’s kind of like Damien Lewis” — the former LSU guard that Seattle drafted in the third round of the 2020 NFL draft and who started Week 1 of his rookie year.
“Lewis came in and like right from the get-go, Pete Carroll said, ‘You’re starting at right guard,’ and he just never looked back,” Roberts said. “And I think Olu has a chance to do the same thing.”
ESPN Called Olu Oluwatimi ‘The Biggest Steal’ of the Draft, Pete Carroll Said He Looked ‘Terrific’ at Minicamp
5th-round pick Olu Oluwatimi worked extensively at center on a “first-team” offensive line, with 4th-round pick Anthony Bradford next to him at guard to begin Seahawks rookie minicamp @thenewstribune
Out of the 259 players who heard their name called during the 2023 NFL draft, ESPN‘s Chris Low dubbed Oluwatimi “the biggest steal.”
Low wrote, “Centers are typically drafted lower than they should be, but seeing Michigan’s Olusegun Oluwatimi slip to the fifth round was surprising — but great news for the Seahawks that they could wait that long to get their center of the future. The 6-3, 310-pound Oluwatimi will play 10 years in the NFL and be a fixture in the middle of that Seattle offensive line.
“He played on college football’s best offensive line last season and won the Outland Trophy as the top interior lineman in college football and the Rimington Award as the top center. He has played in three different systems (Air Force, Virginia and Michigan) and will develop rapidly into a top-tier NFL center.”
Therefore, it’s no surprise that Oluwatimi is already impressing Carroll and company at minicamp. “We’ve always cherished the guy that can kind of be the play-caller up front in the middle, and Olu’s got that background,” Carroll said, per SI.
“He jumped into the Michigan thing and took over, overwhelmed the country a little bit with his play at center and got all those awards and acclaim and all of that. And you can see why. He’s a really bright kid. He’s got all the physicals. He weighed in at 319 [pounds]. He looked terrific.”
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Seahawks Veteran Predicted to Lose Roster Spot to Draft’s ‘Biggest Steal’