Seahawks Joey Hunt is PFF’s highest-graded rookie center in preseason

The grades at ProFootballFocus are highly controversial around most football fan circles, but in the interest of trying to spread positivity about the Seattle Seahawks, I figured I would share this information: Seahawks center Joey Hunt is the highest-graded rookie center in the preseason so far by PFF.

Is that such a good thing? Well, I’d think of it in two ways:

• It’s better than getting bad news about Hunt.
• It’s still probably meaningless.

The reasons it’s meaningless — beyond just the PFF grades themselves, which I do mostly despise -— include the fact that this is based on two preseason games, that Hunt is the third string center so he’s playing against the lowest-rated defensive lineman the league has to offer in some respect, and the competition for “highest-graded rookie center after eight quarters” is so damn mild. Hunt was one of six centers drafted.

I’m sure there were some UDFAs taking snaps too, but overall I honestly don’t know how many rookie centers have played in the preseason this year or how many snaps they’ve actually gotten.

Among them are Ryan Kelly of the Colts (1st round), Max Theune of the Chargers (3rd), and Graham Glasglow of the Lions (3rd). Kelly missed five important days of training camp with a shoulder strain.

The fact that Hunt seems to have an okay PFF grade also doesn’t look like it’s helping him earn a job yet. Seattle still has Justin Britt as the center (and he’s looking good) and Patrick Lewis as his backup, and given Britt’s history as a failed tackle and guard, the team probably wants to have a capable backup around. It seems like either way, Hunt is a great candidate for the practice squad.

I’m not sure how many teams are interested in giving a roster spot to a sixth round center who many felt wouldn’t get drafted because he’s undersized. Decent PFF grade or not.

Other rookies leading their position in PFF preseason grades:

QB Dak Prescott, DAL

RB Derrick Henry, TEN

FB Chris Swain, SD

WR Tajae Sharpe, TEN

TE Alan Cross, TB

T Ronnie Stanley, BLT

G Joe Thuney, NE

C Joey Hunt, SEA

DT Darius Latham, OAK

4-3 OLB Jeremy Cash, CAR

Edge Def Romeo Okwara, NYG

S Matthias Farley, AZ

CB Vernon Hargreaves, TB

ILB Tyler Matakevich, PIT