NFL Notes: Russell Wilson’s latest injury shines brighter light on Seahawks’ O-line situation
RENTON - For four years, Russell Wilson’s elusiveness, creativity and indestructibility masked any and all issues on the Seahawks’ offensive line.
That mask is off now.
Seattle’s $87.6 million franchise quarterback has his third injury of the six-game-old season. The team listed him as limited in practice Wednesday with a pectoral-muscle injury of unknown severity on his right, throwing side.
It’s the first time in Wilson’s five NFL seasons the Seahawks listed Wilson as anything other than a full participant on a daily practice report.
He wasn’t limited in any practice following the sprained right ankle he got getting stepped on by Miami’s Ndamukong Suh on a sack in the opener Sept. 11. He wasn’t limited after the sprained medial collateral ligament he got in his left knee Sept. 25 while getting sacked by San Francisco’s Eli Harold from behind. That injury likely would not have happened had Wilson not had the sprained ankle that kept him from sprinting away from trouble as he had over his first four, injury-free seasons.
Last Sunday night, Arizona’s Chandler Jones came around Wilson’s back side to his throwing shoulder and hit him in the fourth quarter of Seattle’s overtime tie. Jones knocked the ball from Wilson’s right hand with such force the resulting fumble bounded 20 yards before Seahawks guard Mark Glowinski covered it at the 1-yard line. That ruined another Seattle drive.
That may be by location and severity of the hit the play on which Wilson got his latest injury.
Coach Pete Carroll is the team’s lone source of public information on injuries. He did not mention Wilson’s latest one when he talked before practice. He is unavailable to the media until after practice on Friday.
This pectoral injury likely won’t keep Wilson out of Sunday’s game at New Orleans. After all, he has yet to miss a practice let alone a game in his career.
But it does keep the spotlight on the source of Wilson’s health issues: the shaky offensive line.
This is not the best time for an undrafted rookie college basketball player to be starting as Wilson’s most important, backside protector.
Yet that is what George Fant is poised to become Sunday against the Saints. The last time he started a football game? For the Lincoln Heights Tigers in his hometown of Cincinnati. That was a Pee Wee-league team.
Oh.
Fant was a power forward at Western Kentucky. He didn’t go out for football until 14 months ago, and after that barely played. He appeared in a few WKU games on special teams. He practiced some at tight end.
“I went to learn,” he said.
The Seahawks had zero game tape of him blocking anyone. They signed him in May based off a Pro Day workout in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Fant wowed Trent Kirchner, Seattle’s co-director of player personnel, with his athleticism and his 6-foot-5, 296-pound frame. Fant worked out at linebacker, defensive end, defensive tackle, tight end and tackle.
But starting an NFL game five months later, at the line’s most important spot?
Asked if he could have ever imagined this in his wildest dreams, Fant looked up from his locker seat, shook his head with a bushy goatee at the bottom and said, “Nah.
“No.”
Neither could the Seahawks.
“Yeah, he has surprised us from the first day that he stood on the practice field,” Carroll said. “He just physically understood how to do the stuff that we were asking him to do. There was no way we could have anticipated he would jump to it as quickly as he did. We’re really excited about him. He’s way ahead of the curve in that regard.
“Very unusual transition that he’s made.”
Starting left tackle Bradley Sowell missed practice from the sprained medial collateral ligament he got in his knee at Arizona. Sowell surprised the team by asking to practice Wednesday because he felt no pain, but the team decided to limit him to getting into a stance and the exercise bike during practice.
“He’s made a really quick recovery,” offensive line coach Tom Cable said. “We’ll see (Thursday) where he’s at.”
Cable and Carroll did not rule out Sowell from playing in New Orleans. But Carroll said Fant, who replaced Sowell for the final half of the fourth quarter and all of overtime in Arizona, is “ready to play.”
The Seahawks appear to be choosing Fant over rookie third-round draft choice Rees Odhiambo, who has yet to appear in an NFL game, or veteran J’Marcus Webb. Webb is the backup guard and tackle who started 32 consecutive games at left tackle in 2011 and ’12 for Chicago.
Fant and former Western Kentucky basketball star Chastity Gooch had their first son, Jayden, shortly before that March tryout. So, yes, his unexpected, $450,000 Seattle salary this year is coming in mighty handy.
“He’s doing something like you want in life. He’s got a family and he’s got children,” Cable said. “So he’s got an opportunity and he’s just grabbed the opportunity and doing the best he can with it.
“What made us gravitate to him? Long-armed athlete – and that’s really about it. Because there was no background.”
Fant kept saying Wednesday, “I’m just blessed. Grateful for the opportunity.
“How far have I come? I’d say a lot.
“I mean, I’ve never played offensive line before.”
Quick kicks
Cowboys QB Tony Romo participated in throwing drills at practice Wednesday for the first time since he broke a bone in his back in a preseason game at Seattle in August. While he almost certainly won’t play against Philadelphia on Sunday, it’s the biggest step in his latest return from injury. … Chiefs CB D.J. White had surgery for a fracture in his hand that happened in Kansas City’s win over New Orleans and will miss Sunday’s game in Indianapolis. The Chiefs don’t know how long White will be out. … The Jets placed QB Geno Smith on injured reserve with a torn knee ligament. Smith injured the ACL in his right knee in the second quarter of the Jets’ 24-16 win over Baltimore on Sunday. An MRI on Monday revealed the severity of the injury , and a second examination on Tuesday apparently confirmed the torn ACL, which will end Smith’s season.