As is typical in the NFL, the Seattle Seahawks brought in almost an entirely new coaching staff under first-time head coach Mike Macdonald as the defensive guru tries to propel the team back to playoff relevancy.
Scott Huff, one of Macdonald’s two locally lauded coaching hires from the University of Washington, has been tasked with fixing Seattle’s revolving-door offensive line that has been poor, at best, for the better part of a decade. Huff is the Seahawks’ third offensive line coach in four seasons, and he is receiving praise from a former Seattle mainstay before training camp has even begun.
“When I watch him coach, he’s doing a lot of teaching,” former Seahawks left tackle Ray Roberts said on a July 2 episode of the Seattle Sports Wyman and Bob radio show. “I think sometimes when you’ve been coaching in the NFL for a long time, you just assume that these guys know the little things. And sometimes, they don’t.”
Roberts was the No. 10 overall pick by Seattle in the 1992 NFL Draft and spent four seasons with the team before playing another six in Detroit. He knows a thing or two about how to have success in the trenches at the professional level.
Huff, who coached at the college level for 18 seasons before landing his current position with the Seahawks, enters the job with a different eye than an offensive line coach who has been in the NFL for decades. He is used to coaching players as young as 18 years old — fresh out of high school — instead of professional athletes who are maybe in the middle or end of their careers. This, from a granular teaching perspective, could actually be a benefit.
“In this league, all those little things matter — pad level, knee bend, the angle that you take, if your helmet is on [the defender’s] shoulder or his number or right down the middle,” Roberts added. “All those little things, I saw him teaching and spending a lot of time teaching it. And I love that.”
Last season, at Washington, Huff’s offensive line won the Joe Moore Award — a prestigious honor given to the best unit in the nation — for protecting Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback Michael Penix Jr. on their way to a National Championship appearance. Running back Dillon Johnson also rushed for nearly 1,200 yards, the most by a Huskies back since Myles Gaskin in 2018.
Huff’s teachings are already impacting Seattle’s current left tackle Charles Cross, Roberts said. Cross was the No. 9 overall pick by the Seahawks in the 2022 NFL Draft and a standout as a rookie. He took a step back in 2023 but was set up for failure by the offensive line deploying 10 different starting lineups during the season.
“I can see how it’s impacting Charles Cross already,” Roberts said. “Charles is much more compact in his stance — even his two-point stance. He doesn’t stand as tall, he’s more violent with his hands, he’s a little quicker with his feet.”
If Huff can positively influence and teach Seattle’s young offensive lineman, it could have a huge impact on the unit’s success for years to come. The Seahawks’ line hopes to be better than in 2023 when the unit received the fourth-worst pass-blocking grade and was 15th in run-blocking, per Pro Football Focus. That begins with Huff.
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Publish date : 2024-07-11 20:00:00
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