Seahawks looking for healthy O-line after bye week.

The Seahawks returned to practice  Monday afternoon looking to build on their early season success.  A 3-1 record finds the Seahawks firmly in second place in the  NFC West.  An interesting position is that below the Seahawks is the 2-3  Rams who beat Seattle to kick off the 2023 season. Above the Seahawks is a 5-0 San Francisco team that looks unbeatable after handing out a 42-10 beat down on the  Dallas Cowboys.

  With the season at the quarter-pole mark, HC Pete Carroll was asked about the 49ers  and the team’s early bye. When it came to the 49ers Carroll was quick to heap praise and move on.

“ They are freaking good,” as for the early bye Carroll was more descriptive.

“ I feel the most prepared coming back this week. I’m way ahead. If you remember, I never gripe one way or the other when the bye comes because you can’t do anything about it, so we just try to make the most of it. For us right now, we like all of the conversations, we have guys having a chance that have been banged up early in the year that have a chance to get back out. We’re going to take full advantage of that.” Carroll said during Monday’s press conference.

“We’ve been making it through with guys stepping up and doing a nice job and we’re proud of that, but this will give us a chance to get a little healthier and we’re going to try to bank on that as we move forward. You never know how it’s going to go, but it seems like we can take full advantage of it right now and we’ll try to get better.” 

OL IS GETTING HEALTHY

The Seahawks have had to shuffle their offensive line due to a rash of injuries. Right tackle Abe Lucas has been placed on the injured due to a knee on September 13 and is eligible to return after four weeks. Jake Curhan was inserted and has played admirably.

Left tackle  Charles Cross injured his toe in the third quarter of the Rams game and has been inactive ever since.   Stone Forsythe has started the last three games.

Starting guards  Phil Haynes and  Damien Lewis suffered game-ending injuries in the team’s win over the Giants. For Haynes, it was a calf and an ankle for Lewis. Rookie Anthony Bradford replaced Haynes in the first quarter.  Lewis’s injury caused some dramatic in-game adjustments. Center Evan  Brown slid into the  into the right guard position and rookie Olu Oluwatimi finished the game at Center.

 On  Monday  Carroll was optimistic  Haynes and  Lewis could return to action this week.

“Both of those guys have a chance to be okay this week. We’ll see how they go. It’s going to take us a bit before we know, but both guys have a chance.”  Carroll was also optimistic about the return of  Cross.

 “He was on the practice field today. He worked today and he looked quick and nifty. We’ll see how he does when we come back once we get through the week and see if he can maintain the practice level that will allow him the chance to play.” 

TEAM IDENTITY  THROUGH SELF SCOUTING

In addition to using the bye to get healthy Carroll and his staff spend a lot of time self scouting and searching for ways to improve.

“Everything we can think of. We’re looking at it from our perspective, looking at it from our opponent’s perspective, looking at it from a historical perspective, and just trying to gain as much as we can and use this week to make sure that we get a little better and a little smarter.” 

TAKING TIME TO ANALYZE DATA

The gathered data is useful, but  Carroll quickly pointed out that with only four games into the season, it is too early to make major assessments and judgments.

 “It’s still early in the year, you’ve got four games under you, teams aren’t quite sure yet. You have to get past the first four or five games to know. In both directions we can’t account on everything that we’re seeing. You have to make some assessments and you make some judgements on it to move forward, but it’s not really locked in yet. We need a few more games before our team and other teams will be more committed to what they’re doing, and we’ll see them come back around to that first cycle. It’s still important, we can’t afford not to know. We do everything like it will tell us all of the secrets, but it’s not always quite that way.” 

It is early days but the NFL season is  can get away from you if your not careful. Up next for the Seahawks is a second consecutive road game.  A  confident 2-3 Cincinnati Bengals team will await the Seahawks at Paycour Stadium. The  Bengals are coming off a confidence building 34-20 win over the  Arizona Cardinals.

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