Offseason Player Spotlight: OG Isaac Seumalo

February 15, 2023

by David Earl

Boosting the Interior: OG Isaac Seumalo

It is no secret just how bad Washington’s offensive line was in 2022, most notably the interior of the line. The offensive line allowed the 25th-worst sack percentage (7.97%) and the 28th-worst rushing yards per-attempt average (4.0) during this past season.  This is a direct reflection of the interior offensive line play. Trai Turner‘s grade of 53.0 and Andrew Norwell‘s 59.8 is not nearly the production a team needs from the starting guards. If Ron Rivera truly wants Sam Howell to be the starting quarterback then he must start with the interior of this line.  Isaac Seumalo would be the ideal choice to fill this void. Seumalo was an anchor on Philadelphia’s interior line and posted an overall grade of 75.2, making him one of the top guards in free agency. He was part of a unit in Philadelphia that posted a stout 4.6 yards per carry average. Although Philadelphia did not have a dominant pass protection line, allowing a 7.15% sack rate, some of that can be attributed to the style of quarterback Jalen Hurts. To put Hurts’ pass protection into perspective, he received an average time to throw of 2.76 seconds per dropback, while Tom Brady was the best at 2.45 seconds and Deshaun Watson the worst at 3.27 seconds. While the team will surely use draft capital for the interior of the line, it will be highly unlikely they start 2 rookie guards to start the 2023 season. At the projected contract of 2 years at $23 million, the team could work out a 3rd year and lessen some of the cap hit this season as they focus on extending Daron Payne and others.

Who is Isaac Seumalo

This 3rd round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2016 NFL draft was initially projected as a potential starting center but had the athleticism to hold down both guard positions. NFL next-gen stats had a solid total score of 73 for Seumalo which grades a player to his peers and his evaluated position grade heading into the NFL draft. Many of his scouting strengths held true in his quick feet, patient off the line getting his feet to reset, and his pass set (form) has remained part of his strong foundation. What propelled him to be a good NFL guard were his notable improvements at the next level in hand placement, being far quicker with his fans preventing the defender to engage him first, has developed much more control in his base once engaged with the defender. The only concern in Seumalo’s game is health, particularly his foot. A foot injury sidelined him at Oregon State in 2014 and a Lisfranc injury against Dallas in week 3 of the 2021 season which also sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Early in the 2020 season (September) he also missed time with a knee injury but came back to finish that season strong without any setbacks. There is plenty of positives in Isaac Seumalo’s game that would vastly improve thia terrible offensive line but there is also a level of buyer beware too. If he is their target they need to ensure their due diligence is done especially with the 2023 cap space going to be rather tight.

Other Notable Names

• Justin Pugh: This 32 year old guard from Arizona graded at a 61 for the season allowing no sacks. His market value comes at a much lesser number at a $5 million annual average salary but doesn’t grade much higher than Andrew Norwell.
• Rodger Saffold: At a terrible grade of 43.7, this 34 year old option may come cheap but is nothing more of a depth guy at best.
• Wes Schweitzer: Bringing back Wes might be a smart option even though his overall grade of 59.3 is not really appealing. His market value of $13.8 million average annual salary would have to be drastically reduced. His experience at Center makes him that versatile guy Ron likes but the price will have to be right.