Seahawks place former WSU standout Abraham Lucas on IR; fellow tackle Charles Cross doesn’t practice
RENTON, Wash. — The Seahawks may have to outscore one of the best offenses in the NFL — the Detroit Lions — without their starting offensive tackles, Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas.
The Seahawks placed Lucas, who is dealing with a knee injury, on the injured reserve Wednesday. That means he must miss four games and cannot return until a home game against Arizona on Oct. 22.
Coach Pete Carroll said Monday that Lucas is dealing with “patella area soreness,” and the team did not think he needed surgery.
Cross left the Rams game in the third quarter with a toe injury and did not practice Wednesday.
Talking before practice — and before the team made the move to put Lucas on IR — Carroll said he wasn’t sure either would be able to play against the Lions on Sunday.
“It’s going to be hard for them (to play),” Carroll said. “It’s going to be a challenge for them.”
That Cross did not go on IR means the team seems to think he won’t need to miss significant time. Carroll called it a “sprained big toe” on his right foot.
The Seahawks have taken some significant steps to beef up their tackle position in the last few days.
They announced Tuesday they had signed 19-year veteran Jason Peters to the practice squad. Peters took part in a walk-through and practice Wednesday.
Shortly before practice began, the Seahawks announced they had signed tackles Raiqwon O’Neal and McClendon Curtis to the 53-man roster. Each are rookies who were signed off practice squads — O’Neal from the Buccaneers and Curtis from the Raiders.
Carroll said the team views O’Neal as a left tackle, where he started 13 games last season.
The team announced Curtis’ signing after Carroll met the media. Curtis, who played at Tennessee-Chattanooga, started 38 games in college, most at right guard, but also played left tackle and left guard.
The moves give the Seahawks 11 offensive linemen on the 53-man roster, as well as Peters and Greg Eiland on the practice squad.
The Seahawks hope they can find a combination that can help them beat the Lions, who last year scored the fifth-most points in the NFL and last Thursday went into Kansas City and beat the defending Super Bowl champs, 21-20.
The most likely scenario if Cross can’t play is the Seahawks will go with Jake Curhan at right tackle and Stone Forsythe at left tackle. They took over those spots in the second half against the Rams.
Curhan started five games at right tackle in 2021 and played that position primarily during his college career at Cal. Forsythe has never started a game at left tackle but did start a game at right tackle when Lucas sat out Jan. 1 against the New York Jets.
The offense struggled in the second half against the Rams with Lucas and Cross sidelined, gaining just 12 yards in the final two quarters. It was fewest in a half since an infamous 24-0 loss to the Rams in 1979 when the Seahawks were held to a total of minus-7 yards, still the fewest in a game in NFL history.
Carroll said Wednesday that having a week to practice as the starter should help Curhan and Forsythe.
“Both guys got thrown in late in the game, but they know our system really well, and they will work better when they put a whole week behind them. When they’re out there communicating and all that, it will be better,” Carroll said.
Curhan agreed.
“It’s always tough to get thrown in there in the middle of a game, and the first game of the season, too,” he said. “Things happened. But I’m confident in my abilities. It’s a different situation going into a game if you know you are getting the whole thing versus if you think you’ve got to pop in at a couple of different positions.”
Peters is the wild card in the situation.
A nine-time Pro Bowler who was the left tackle when the Eagles won the Super Bowl in the 2017-18 season, Peters played 10 games last season with Dallas, as well as in their wild-card playoff game.
He has not been with a team since and said he was unsure if he would play this season until the Seahawks called on Sunday when he was at his home in east Texas (his hometown is listed as Queen City).
“Twenty (years in the league) sounds better than 19, don’t it?” he said of deciding to play again. “Seattle’s got a good team, man. And I feel like we can make a run in the playoffs and get to the Super Bowl, to be honest.”
Asked how soon he could play, Peters said, “I mean, maybe this Sunday, maybe a couple weeks. Just got to get a feel for the pads. I haven’t had them on since January. That’s going to take some time.”
Carroll said Peters “looked pretty darn good out there” during the walk-through, but noted the obvious — a walk-through is a lot different from a game.
“You would think you give him a couple of weeks to get ready to go,” Carroll said. “I don’t know if we can afford to do that. We’ll see what happens here as we take it one day at a time here and work with him. He’s a really interesting guy, and we’re lucky to have a guy like this come to us at a time like this.”
While Peters has played mostly left tackle in his career, he played on the right side and some guard with Dallas last season. He said he is willing to do whatever the team needs.
“I can still play,” he insisted. “If that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t have came here or suited up.”
That the Seahawks are already at this point one week into the season is a far cry from a year ago, when Cross played all but two snaps and Lucas all but one game after drafting them to fill obvious holes in their offensive line. Guard Damien Lewis also started all but one game and center Austin Blythe all 17.
In all, the Seahawks started just four difference OL combinations in 2022 and were able to go with their preferred starting OL for all but four games.
That offensive-line stability was a big reason the Seahawks finished with a top-10 offense and as one of the surprise teams in the NFL at 9-8
But a game in, the Seahawks are already going to be working on a second OL starting five, and it is unclear when their opening-day starting five will be together again.