Seahawks’ shifting offensive line getting healthier as it prepares for Cardinals

RENTON, Wash. – A year ago, the Seattle Seahawks started only four offensive-line combinations in 17 regular-season games, perhaps an underappreciated reason for the team’s surprising success.

They have matched that total in just five games this season because of injuries that have meant only one of the team’s opening-day starters – center Evan Brown – has played in every game.

The injury report for most of this week as the Seahawks prepared for Sunday’s 1:05 p.m. game at Lumen Field against Arizona looked ominous as four of the five players who started last week against the Bengals were either out or limited.

By Friday, the health picture began to look a little better as it was possible that all but one of the players who were out or limited this week could play Sunday – and potentially all of them depending on how things shake out.

The Seahawks listed three offensive linemen as questionable – Brown (hip), guard Phil Haynes (calf) and right tackle Jake Curhan (ankle).

Coach Pete Carroll referred to all three as game-time decisions.

Brown and Curhan practiced Friday on a limited basis, and Carroll sounded optimistic they’ll play.

“He looked like he could play today,” Carroll said of Brown. “We’ll see how he is tomorrow. He got some work today. We’ve got to figure it out. He hasn’t had a long time to nurture … what he’s dealing with. We’ve got to see how this affects tomorrow and see where he is all the way to Sunday.”

Of Curhan, who has started the past four games at right tackle with Abe Lucas out, Carroll said, “He did all right, practiced, took some reps.”

In more concrete news, left tackle Charles Cross (ankle), who was on the report earlier in the week, did not have a game designation, meaning he is good to go as is left guard Damien Lewis, who missed the Bengals game with an ankle injury.

If Haynes can’t play, the Seahawks could go with rookie Anthony Bradford at right guard. He started in the win over Carolina and last week.

That could give them an offensive line of, from left, Cross, Lewis, Brown, Bradford and Curhan.

That would be a fifth alignment this year.

With Bradford playing some and Cross back for his second game after missing three because of a toe injury, the Seahawks would seem in better shape than last week.

If Curhan can’t go, the Seahawks could start Stone Forsythe – who started the three games Lucas sat out – at right tackle.

If Haynes can’t play and they don’t want to go with Bradford, the Seahawks could elevate 20-year vet Jason Peters off the practice squad.

Peters signed after the opening loss to the Rams when Cross and Lucas were injured. While most of his career has been at tackle, he has played some guard and has been taking snaps there of late. He battled a quad injury last week, but Carroll said Friday that he practiced this week.

“He took plays,” Carroll said. “He took snaps during the week. He got that accomplished. We’ll check with him, too, all the way up to game time to see where he is.”

If Brown can’t go, the Seahawks would start rookie Olu Oluwatimi at center. Oluwatimi has not started a game this year but did play 44 snaps against the Giants.

“He’s very comfortable in that home at center,” Carroll said. “I think he’s going to keep growing and do well.”

Carroll said all the moving parts have made it challenging for the line to play to its full potential, saying he felt it caught up to the Seahawks in Sunday’s 17-13 loss at Cincinnati.

“We’re putting it together with guys we didn’t anticipate starting with,” Carroll said. “There’s some reasons why, but our guys have done everything we’ve asked of them in terms of their toughness and preparation and really even their execution and their assignments and all of that stuff.

“They’ve given us a chance to be the next guy up and they’ve come through, so we’re fortunate.”

The Seahawks’ stability in 2022 meant all five starting offensive linemen played 89.4% or more of the snaps for the season.

This year, they have only one offensive linemen who has played that much: Brown, who has played 98.17%.

“It’s definitely going to be hard,” Brown said this week of developing the desired continuity up front when the group has had to continually shuffle lineups. “You play next to someone for a couple of weeks, you start to learn the ins and outs of exactly how they do everything. It’s kind of a feel thing. So when parts change it’s definitely hard and you’re learning on the run. But every team has to do it. It’s part of the game.”

Wide receiver Metcalf will be game-time decision

Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf hasn’t missed a game in his five-year NFL career, playing in all 71 and starting 70.

The one he didn’t start was the fifth game of his rookie season in 2019 against the Rams, a contest in which Seattle began the game with just one receiver on the field, Tyler Lockett.

So Metcalf’s listing on the injury report as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals at Lumen Field with hip and rib issues might seem like nothing to worry about too much.

Metcalf was also listed as questionable for a game against Carolina this year with a rib injury that dates to the Detroit game and then turned in his best game of the season with six catches for 112 yards.

Metcalf also practiced Friday on a limited basis after sitting out Wednesday and Thursday, which has been the custom since the Detroit game.

Carroll insisted Friday that Metcalf is a game-time decision and there’s a chance he won’t play.

“He’s pretty sore still,” Carroll said. “He’s still working at it. It’s going to be all the way up until game time.”

Carroll said the hip injury suffered in Sunday’s 17-13 loss at Cincinnati is the bigger concern than the ribs.

Metcalf left the Week 6 game late in the third quarter to have his hip examined in the locker room but returned and caught two passes for 39 yards on Seattle’s second-to-last drive.

In better injury news, Lockett — who sat out practice Friday and was limited Wednesday and Thursday with a hamstring injury — had no game status designation, meaning he is expected to play.

Seattle added to the receiver depth on its 53-man roster this week by signing Cody Thompson off the practice squad. That gives Seattle five receivers on the 53.

Thompson has played in all five games as either a practice-squad elevation or on the 53 (having been on both). But Thompson’s presence on the 53 also means Seattle could elevate another receiver off the practice squad for depth on game day if needed, the two most likely candidates being Cade Johnson or Easop Winston Jr.

If Metcalf can’t play, then it would also mean larger roles for rookies Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Jake Bobo.

Metcalf’s history of durability and fighting through injuries to play, though, indicates it would take a lot for him not to play.

That he practiced some Friday also seems a step in the right direction.

Still, the injury designation caps an interesting week for Metcalf, who drew some criticism for a penalty for unnecessary roughness in the second quarter Sunday for shoving the Bengals’ Cam Taylor-Britt after the whistle and far downfield from the play.

It was his fifth penalty of the season. On Wednesday, Carroll said that Metcalf has “got to clean it up and we have to make sure that we’re aware of how they’re calling stuff. He’s a very aggressive player and very physical and it stands out and he draws attention because of that. We’ve got to be cleaner. He knows it and he’s got to get it done.”

Metcalf then took to the podium shortly after Carroll said those words and said he didn’t plan to alter his approach.

“I’m not going to change the way I play,” he said. “… I don’t feel like I was a problem or I need to make progress in a certain area. Football is a violent sport and it’s my one opportunity to be violent on game days. I’m just going to continue to do that.”

Carroll, asked Friday if he thinks the team’s message to Metcalf about the penalties is getting through, said only: “He knows. He knows.”