2 Early-season Seahawks Opponents Suffer Major Offensive Line Injuries

Two of the Seattle Seahawks’ first four opponents are dealing with big injury problems on their respective offensive lines.

Earlier this month, Washington Commanders left tackle Laremy Tunsil suffered torn triceps during a 1-on-1 rep in training camp. He’s since undergone surgery and will bare minimum miss a majority of the regular season. Tunsil is in his second season with the Commanders after he was traded by the Houston Texans, with whom he was a five-time Pro Bowl selection.

According to Commanders head coach Dan Quinn, Brandon Coleman will fill in for Tunsil at left tackle. Coleman was the team’s starting left guard, but he was drafted as a tackle out of TCU and made 12 starts at LT as a rookie in the 2024 season.

More recently, the Los Angeles Chargers made a significant free agent investment in former Commanders center Tyler Biadasz, who signed a three-year, $30 million contract to join a line that’s getting back a healthy Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater. Well, after a joint practice with the San Francisco 49ers, Biadasz is probably not going to make his Chargers debut any time soon.

After 49ers defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez was thrown into Biadasz, he can be seen immediately grabbing his knee. As of this writing, we don’t know if it’s a season-ending injury, but the extent of his injuries indicates he will be out for a long time.

At the moment, the would-be Chargers starting center is second-round rookie Jake Slaughter, a former first-team All-American out of Florida.

Seattle hosts the Chargers in Week 4, so in all likelihood Slaughter’s second road start will involve lining up against Byron Murphy II, Leonard Williams, and Jarran Reed.

It’s a really unfortunate set of circumstances for the Commanders and Chargers. The hope is that the Seahawks can continue going through their own preseason relatively unscathed, particularly at the top of the depth chart. When the regular season comes around, Seattle’s defense will look to capitalize on two teams who already know they won’t be at full strength on the offensive line.