Seahawks Add Offensive Line Depth While Plagued With Injuries
The Seattle Seahawks came into the season opener on Sunday with high expectations. After an impressive 2022 and an offseason of improvements, the first matchup of the new year was supposed to go very differently. Instead of a dominating performance over a Rams team that is supposed to be in a mini-rebuild mode and that's been riddled with injuries, Seattle walked off the field with heads hung low after a 30-13 home defeat.
Of course, it's only one game, and the playoffs don't start tomorrow, but the start of the season is alarming for sure. And now injury concerns could affect the Seahawks' Week 2 matchup with the Detroit Lions.
Both starting offensive tackles are "hurting" per coach Pete Carroll after the Week 1 loss to the Rams. Right tackle Abraham Lucas re-injured his knee against the Rams and was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday meaning he must miss at least the next four games including Week 6 against Cincinnati.
Charles Cross suffered a toe sprain against the Rams and is day-to-day. “It’s going to be hard for them,” Carroll said before the roster move with Lucas. “It’s going to be a challenge for them.”
Stone Forsythe and Jake Curhan stepped in on Sunday to fill in for Lucas and Cross and are most likely the starters against the Lions. In order to add some depth behind them, Seattle signed 41-year-old Jason Peters to the practice squad, offensive lineman Raiqwon O'Neal from the Tampa Bay practice squad, and McClendon Curtis off the Las Vegas practice squad.
Peters will likely help in future weeks while Curhan and Forsythe should step in immediately and start. Curhan appeared in five games last season in his rookie campaign, while Forsythe made one start.
“It’s always tough to get thrown in there in the middle of the game, first game of the season too,” Curhan said. “So things happen, but I’m confident in my abilities and like I said, it’s a different situation going into a game if you know you’re getting the whole thing versus if you think you got to pop in at a couple of different positions.”
