Olusegun
Oluwatimi.
Olusegun
Oluwatimi.
Michigan
"A Rimington and Outland winner whose value was never in his testing numbers: Oluwatimi is a leverage-and-intellect center who wins the game before the snap and finishes it in a phone booth."Pre-draft read
Four-year starting center who ran the Virginia and Michigan offenses from the pivot, aligning almost exclusively at the 0/1-technique nose point and sliding to guard only in emergencies. The trait that carried the profile is command: he made the protection calls, identified the mike, and fired out with compact hands that arrive inside the frame and stick.
The second trait is torque. He is not a leaper off the ball, but he rolls his hips through contact, plays with a wide base, and drives 3-techniques off the spot in duo and gap schemes. Run blocking is the meal ticket; in pass protection he anchors and rarely gets walked back. The signature is zero sacks allowed on 410 pass-block snaps in 2022.
Gap/duo-based run game with a downhill center; power, counter and inside zone concepts that keep him working forward instead of laterally
Year 1: swing interior backup and the room's protection communicator, with a path to spot starts at center. Ceiling: multi-year starting center in a gap-scheme offense that lets him play square and use his hands.
An outside/wide-zone offense that asks its center to reach shaded noses playside every snap and climb to linebackers on the move; his 1.86 ten-yard split shows up immediately on those tracks.
His pre-snap value is real and travels to any system, but the run-scheme fit determines whether he starts or backs up.
Olusegun Oluwatimi Center Highlights
College center reel showing the hand placement, anchor and gap-scheme displacement that defined his Virginia and Michigan tape.
FILM BREAKDOWN: THE BEST OL PROSPECT NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT! (Olusegun Oluwatimi)
Pre-draft film study on the leverage, protection calls and athletic limits that shaped his fifth-round grade.
Seahawks Study: C Olu Oluwatimi Pine Boxing DL in his starting debut!
NFL film review of his first Seattle start, highlighting the anchor and finish against interior rushers.
A fifth-year center with a scholar's grip on the position, Oluwatimi is the rare interior lineman whose value shows up before the snap. He began at Air Force, sat a transfer year at Virginia, then started 32 straight games in Charlottesville before a graduate season at Michigan. His identity is stability: he sets the front, sorts pressure, and plays with a low base that wins the leverage battle against bigger noses.
The production is decorated. He started 13 of 14 games in 2019, all 10 in 2020, and all 12 in 2021 while playing 910 snaps, the most of any ACC center. Michigan was the crown: 14 starts, the Rimington and Outland Trophies, consensus All-American, and no sacks surrendered on 410 pass-block snaps. The flags are physical rather than mental. He is a shade under 6-3 with small hands, he is not a plus athlete in space, and reach blocks on wide zone ask him to cover more ground than his feet comfortably allow.
The board treated him accordingly. Award hardware pushed his name up in the fall, but a 5.38 forty and a 1.86 ten-yard split confirmed what the tape suggested, and evaluators settled him in the fourth-to-fifth-round range as a scheme-specific starter. Seattle taking him at 154 was a value swing on a plug-and-play interior brain rather than a bet on traits.
- 01
Protection quarterback
Called the front and the protections at two Power Five programs, identifying the mike and resetting the line's math without needing help from the quarterback.
- 02
Hand placement
Compact, inside strikes that land under the breastplate and re-fit quickly, which is why defenders rarely got a clean two-hand grip on his frame.
- 03
Anchor strength
Sat down on bull rushes with a wide base and rolled hips, allowing zero sacks across 410 pass-block snaps in his 2022 Michigan season.
- 04
Gap and duo finisher
Generates real displacement on down blocks and doubles, working defenders off the spot before climbing late to the second level.
- 05
Availability and durability
Started 49 of 50 college games across four seasons at two schools, never missing a start after taking over the Virginia job in 2019.
- 01
Athletic ceiling
A 5.38 forty and a 1.86 ten-yard split rank near the bottom for the position; he does not threaten defenders with range on the move.
- 02
Wide-zone reach blocks
Struggles to cover ground playside against shaded, quick-twitch noses, and can end up climbing with his shoulders turned.
- 03
Hand size and length
Small hands at 8 5/8 inches lead to occasional loose fits, and longer interior rushers can extend into his chest before he resets.
- 04
Space blocking
In screens and second-level pulls he arrives a beat late and lunges, which lets moving linebackers slip his block on the edge of contact.
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Virginia | 14 |
| 2020 | Virginia | 10 |
| 2021 | Virginia | 12 |
| 2022 | Michigan | 14 |
| Career | — | 50 |
Offensive linemen do not accumulate box-score statistics, so only games and starts are listed. Season-by-season games/starts verified against the official Michigan and Virginia biographies; the totals (50 games, 49 starts) match the Seahawks' official bio. Redshirted 2017 at Air Force (no game action) and sat out 2018 under the NCAA transfer rule, so no phantom seasons are listed.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A decorated college center who becomes a solid, scheme-dependent NFL starter without ever testing well.
The ceiling if the mental processing and anchor let him hold a job for a decade in a gap-heavy front.
A smart, undersized-athlete pivot who lives as a valued swing backup and injury starter.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Seattle drafted him behind Evan Brown and used him as an injury answer as a rookie: he played 16 games in 2023 but started only once, taking over against Arizona on October 2 when Brown went down, and otherwise entering in-game. Year two put him in the lineup for real. He played 12 games in 2024 and started the final eight at center, including the Arizona game in December where the line paved 176 rushing yards and did not allow a sack. In 2025 he was a rotational and injury-replacement starter again, playing eight games with four starts and appearing in all three postseason games during Seattle's Super Bowl LX run. Through three seasons the ledger reads 36 games and 13 starts.
The retrospective is honest and fairly kind. A fifth-round pick who has started 13 NFL games, held the job for half a season, and been trusted in a championship run has returned his slot value and then some. The limits scouts flagged are exactly the ones that keep him from locking the job down permanently: he is a leverage-and-intellect center in a league that keeps asking pivots to reach and run. In the right gap-heavy front he is a functional starter; in a wide-zone system he is the best backup on the roster.