After selecting Charles Cro s with the ninth overall selection in last month's NFL draft, all signs point towards the former Mi si sippi State standout being a day one starter protecting the blind side for the Seahawks.Acro s from Cro s at the other tackle spot, however, as Seattle rebuilds its offensive line in the post-Ru sell Wilson era, a fierce competition already appears to be underway between second-year blocker Jake Curhan and incoming third-round pick Abraham Lucas. Through the opening stages of OTAs, Curhan has been seeing first-team reps, but the former Washington State standout Lynn Bowden Jr. Jersey will soon be chomping at his heels aiming to vault to the top of the depth chart.With the final phase of offseason workouts underway, who holds the edge to start at right tackle in Week 1 against the Broncos?To help reach a verdict, I broke down their respective games into six categories for comparison, including pa s protection, zone and gap run blocking, and athleticism. Scroll to Continue Pa s Protection: Abraham LucasWith both players coming from pa s-happy offensive schemes in the Pac-12 conference, Lucas and Curhan each entered the league with ample experience in pa s protection pitted against quality competition.Logging nearly 2,100 pa s blocking snaps at Washington State, Lucas excelled at mirroring against defenders and keeping them away from the quarterback, surrendering only 45 pre sures and 4.0 sacks playing in Air Raid and Run N' Shoot NFL Miami Dolphins Jersey offensive schemes. He closed out his impre sive college career by yielding no sacks and one lone quarterback hit on 477 pa s blocking reps, earning First-Team All-Pac 12 honors for the first time.At California, Curhan didn't post quite as efficient of numbers protecting the quarterback, though he remained one of the conference's best bookends and enjoyed a quality four-year run as a starter. Moving better than expected at 330 pounds and light on his feet, he surrendered 63 pre sures and 7.0 sacks on 1,582 pa s blocking snaps for the Golden Bears, earning a stellar 84.6 grade from Pro Football Focus and Honorable Mention All-Pac 12 recognition as a junior in 2019.Based off of their college numbers, accolades, and film, Lucas should come into the NFL as a more polished pa s protector than Curhan, who struggled with consistency as a rookie for the Seahawks. Over his final six games played, including five starts, he allowed 15 pre sures and 3.0 sacks, receiving better than a 50.0 grade from Pro Football Focus in only two of those games. He wrapped up the season with a 37.2 pa s blocking grade and ranked 84th out of 88 qualified tackles in pa s blocking efficiency rate. Blitz/Stunt Pickup: Abraham LucasQuantitatively speaking, statistics simply aren't available to compare Curhan and Lucas blocking against blitzers and stunts. Pro Football Focus doesn't have splits available, so a se sing this trait boils down primarily to film study and in that regard, there's very little separation between these two players.Playing in spread offenses, Curhan and Lucas saw plenty of twist stunts and defensive line games from aggre sive Pac-12 defenses. They also had to pick up oncoming blitzers on a regular basis and for the most part, both players excelled at keeping their heads on a swivel, pa sing off rushers inside to their right guard, and picking up loopers shooting back outside. Technique-wise, each Salvon Ahmed Jersey player consistently did a good job of using hand and feet in unison against these stunts for quality pickups.As evidenced in the video above, Curhan has already shown what he can do against stunts at the next level. While he struggled with fast edge rushers and also got abused regularly with inside power counters both as a right guard and tackle, aside from a few mishaps playing in his first NFL regular season game against the Vikings in Week 3, he didn't have any notable i sues picking up stunts or blitzes. Lucas will have to prove he can handle NFL gamesmanship from defensive lines.With that said, from a projection standpoint, Lucas looks more comfortable in these situations than Curhan on film with better movement skills and hand/feet synchronization. In the long run, this won't be a factor this makes or breaks who wins this starting job since Noah Igbinoghene Jersey both players have shown themselves capable and effective in this area, but the incoming rookie offers a higher upside picking up stunts against NFL-caliber athletes. Zone Run Blocking: Jake CurhanThough both players didn't have many opportunities to run block in college, Curhan benefited from seeing extensive action in a zone-heavy scheme for the entirety of his career at Cal. In each of his first three seasons as a starter, the Golden Bears ran zone concepts on at least 64 percent of their run plays, and that may explain why he looked so comfortable on similar concepts as a rookie last year.Playing a key role in running back Rashaad Penny's explosive finish in December and January, Curhan received a respectable 73.4 zone blocking grade for the season, ranking 33rd out of 75 tackles with at least 175 run blocking snaps. While it isn't always pretty, he succeeds more often than not as a zone blocker by winning the positioning battle, getting the job done consistently on reach blocks and cutting off backside defenders.As for Lucas, he won't arrive in the league with near as extensive of a background in the zone run blocking department. Compared to Curhan, he logged more than 300 fewer snaps with zone concepts and his performance on those plays was erratic. While he did receive a 77.0 grade in 2019, he never had another season receiving above a 69.3. On film, his athleticism didn't always show up moving laterally to Miami Dolphins Hats execute zone blocks and he struggled mightily making backside blocks.Due to Lucas' athletic traits, it's a strong po sibility he will take a major leap forward as a zone blocker as he gains experience in the NFL. Down the line, he could surpa s Curhan in this area, but he will be far behind his tackle counterpart when camp kicks off in August and will be playing catchup. Gap Run Blocking: Jake CurhanIn a 180-degree turn from blocking twists and stunts, debating who has the advantage in the gap blocking department presents a challenge because neither player did these types of concepts much in college playing out of a two-point stance.Combing through data, Curhan (298) and Lucas (258) saw roughly the same number of zone concept snaps at California and Washington State respectively. Grade-wise via PFF, Lucas scored a significantly higher grade in 2020, but Curhan also played le s than 100 total snaps due to COVID. In 2019, the two players had near identical grades, while Curhan finished with a 69.9 grade compared to Lucas' 59.9 in 2018.On film, neither Lucas nor Curhan consistently dominated opponents as physical drive blockers, though both displayed heavy, violent hands in spurts. Lucas plays faster out of his stance and engages his hands quicker, while Curhan seems to sustain blocks a bit longer when he ge