The Seahawks lost both their starting tackles in Week 1. While Charles Cross returned not long after, the team has been without its starting right tackle since the opener. After missing half the season, Abraham Lucas is on his way back.
Lucas received a return designation Wednesday, per The Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar, coming back to practice for first time in more than two months. A knee injury sidelined Lucas against the Rams. It is now a possibility the second-year blocker makes his return for the Week 11 Seahawks-Rams rematch.
[RELATED: Week 11 Injured Reserve Return Tracker]
Voyaging to the playoffs despite starting two rookie tackles, the Seahawks were naturally expecting the Cross-Lucas tandem to improve in its second season. Lucas’ injury put those plans on hold. The Seahawks have turned to Stone Forsythe as their RT replacement. Jason Peters, who is in his age-41 season, has been rotating in as well. The team signed Peters in the wake of the Cross and Lucas maladies, and the 20th-year lineman has played over the past three weeks. Peters played 55 offensive snaps to Forsythe’s 25 against the Commanders.
Seattle chose Cross ninth overall and bookended him with Lucas, who went 72nd. The Washington State alum started 16 games. Together, Lucas and Cross played more than 94% of Seattle’s offensive snaps, becoming a crucial reason for Geno Smith‘s Comeback Player of the Year campaign and the 2022 Seahawks edition’s surprising playoff appearance.
As the Seahawks became the rare team to turn to two rookie tackles, Pro Football Focus graded Lucas just inside the top 40 among tackles last season. The team made changes at center and right guard this season, with Austin Blythe retiring and the team cutting Gabe Jackson. PFF has not viewed the replacements — free agency addition Evan Brown and former backup Phil Haynes — as especially effective thus far, ranking Haynes 55th among guards and Brown 26th at center. These showings have prompted the advanced metrics site to rank Seattle’s O-line 25th after Week 10. Lucas’ return would certainly stand to help matters, but the team has some issues to iron out at the midpoint.
We can use you back!
They’re going to somehow win the NFC West, aren’t they?