For starters, it’s scary assignment

RENTON, Wash. – Eli Manning has had a front-row seat this season to the NFL’s version of a demolition derby.

Charlie Whitehurst, on the other hand, won’t be so lucky.

It’s not that Whitehurst would pass up a chance to make his first NFL start, but Sunday’s game against the New York Giants is about as far from a soft landing as Whitehurst could possibly get.

Through seven games, the Giants have 24 sacks. Even more frightening if you happen to be a quarterback not named Eli, they’ve knocked five opposing quarterbacks out of games. Think about that. Five quarterbacks in seven games. Based on that, Whitehurst, who is starting in place of Matt Hasselbeck, sidelined by a concussion, has less than a 29 percent chance of making it through Sunday’s game in one piece.

“Yeah, it’s scary for opposing quarterbacks knowing that going into the game they got over a 70 percent chance of getting knocked out,” said Manning, the one quarterback in the NFC who can sleep well knowing Osi Umenyiora won’t be coming for him this season. “That’s never a good thing. They’re playing great football and everything was legal and sound and I’m all for them playing great football. You never want to see anybody get hurt in this league, especially quarterbacks; you’re kind of in a fraternity rooting for other guys to stay healthy. So you don’t want to see anybody get hurt, but you do like them getting sacks. … I’m happy we don’t face our own defense.”

And while facing the Giants, who rank second in the league in total defense, second in pass defense and third in run defense, would be a tough task for any quarterback, Whitehurst is being thrown into what looks, on paper anyway, to be a no-win situation.

Not only does Whitehurst have to face one of the league’s best defenses in his first NFL start, he is doing it with several Seahawks out with injuries. Starting left tackle Russell Okung, who has a high ankle sprain, is “about as doubtful as you can be,” coach Pete Carroll said, and Okung’s backup, Tyler Polumbus, will be a game-day decision with a knee sprain.

Even if Polumbus can play, Carroll said, he would be a backup, leaving Chester Pitts to make his first start since suffering a season-ending knee injury in the second week of the 2009 season. Pitts played last week in place of the injured Ben Hamilton, but that was at left guard, the position he has played for most of his NFL career. It has been since the 2005 season that Pitts played left tackle other than a few snaps in last week’s game when Polumbus went down.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the Seahawks gave up eight sacks last week.

“I’ve got a lot to worry about and I’m not going to worry about that,” Whitehurst said of protection.