College football's most decorated center in 2022, Olu Oluwatimi took the long road from Air Force to a Super Bowl start in Seattle.
Olu Oluwatimi's path wound from a walk-on stint at Air Force through three years starting at Virginia before a graduate transfer season at Michigan turned him into the nation's top center. The Seahawks drafted him in the fifth round in 2023, and he has steadily worked his way into the starting lineup since.
Path to the league
Oluwatimi began his college career at the Air Force Academy in 2017 without seeing game action, then transferred to Virginia, where he started 32 consecutive games from 2019 to 2021 and earned second-team All-American honors. He capped his college run as a graduate transfer at Michigan in 2022, and the Seahawks drafted him in the fifth round, 154th overall, in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Career highlights
In his lone season at Michigan, Oluwatimi won both the Rimington Trophy as the nation's top center and the Outland Trophy as its best interior lineman, while earning consensus All-American recognition after allowing no sacks across 410 pass-block snaps. He appeared in 16 games with one start as a rookie in 2023, then started 8 of 12 games in 2024.
2025 season recap
Oluwatimi took over as Seattle's starting center in mid-November 2025 following an injury to Jalen Sundell and held the job the rest of the way, helping anchor the offensive line through the Seahawks' Super Bowl LX championship run.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Olu Oluwatimi
- Seahawks.com: Olu Oluwatimi
Player Profile
Background
- Position
- Center
- Group
- offense
- College
- Michigan
- Hometown
- Upper Marlboro, MD, USA
- Age
- 27
- Status
- active
Team
