Abe Lucas to IR: How Seahawks respond

A breakdown on the Seahawks 3 new offensive tackles and how to gameplan to beat the Lions defense in spite of it

After the Seahawks signed Jason Peters, I wrote that I was expecting Charles Cross to go in injured reserve and I practically glossed over the Abraham Lucas injury as a minor hiccup that was less likely to impact the team this week. In hindsight, I don’t know why I did that!

The Seahawks placed Lucas on IR on Wednesday (right after putting Kenny McIntosh on IR) and have added two offensive tackles to the active roster: Raiqwon O’Neal and McClendon Curtis.

It’s amazing how much work is put into 53-man roster projections each offseason: Before we’ve even reached the second game of the season, Seattle has already added three new offensive linemen (those two plus Ben Brown) and will soon activate Peters from the practice squad. Including Drake Thomas and Kyu Blu Kelly, over 10% of the Seahawks 53-man roster will be players who weren’t with the team before September.

And we don’t even know yet how probable it is that Cross will be able to avoid IR. This is starting to feel like the “getting the team together” scene in MacGruber, which is followed by this:

I linked some Lions-related videos from Woodward Sports in this morning’s episode of Seaside Joe and then I watched another this afternoon, which is how I found out that Detroit also has a question at left tackle: Taylor Decker (ankle) could miss this game and backup Matt Nelson, a converted defensive tackle who has only ever played at right tackle, might start this Sunday. Lions writer Mike Payton doesn’t expect the team to move Penei Sewell over this time if Decker is out, so that potentially exposes Jared Goff to pressure on the left side.

The Seahawks didn’t take advantage of their opportunity against left tackle Alaric Jackson in Week 1. Will Clint Hurtt and the mythical pass rushing coach B.T. Jordan have a better plan in Week 2?

But that’s for the defensive side of the ball. The real news this week is on the offensive side, so what is Seattle going to do to respond to Abe Lucas going on IR and potentially not having Charles Cross either against the Lions? I’ll give a debriefing on the new tackles and how the Seahawks may be able to overcome a one-sided war if Jake Curhan has to block Aidan Hutchinson on Sunday.

For those thoughts and for Wednesday’s article covering the 6 biggest questions of the week for Seattle, plus many more bonus posts, join the Regular Joes club for as little $5.