Rushers study Seahawks’ new left tackle Odhiambo
GREEN BAY - One can only imagine the immediate reaction of Seattle Seahawks quarterback
Russell Wilson when his starting left tackle, George Fant, suffered a torn ACL in an exhibition game in mid-August.
The offensive line was porous to begin with, evidenced by the 41 sacks allowed in 2016, and now Wilson needed a replacement to shield his blind side.
So in stepped Rees Odhiambo, a second-year player from Boise State whose main contribution when the Green Bay Packers pummeled the Seahawks last season was a handful of snaps as an extra offensive lineman. Odhiambo played in nine games as a rookie, counting playoffs, and made zero starts. He played more snaps on special teams (35) than he did from scrimmage (33).
Eight months later, at age 25, the third-round pick is preparing to face outside linebackers Clay Matthews and Nick Perry for a baptism by fire Sunday.
“That’s his natural position,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “That’s where he’s played all along when he was growing up and we rolled him at left tackle and left guard throughout camp and all offseason in anticipation that we may need him there.”
The relative youth and inexperience of Odhiambo creates an interesting week of preparation for Matthews and Perry, who will alternate playing left and right throughout the game.
Film of Odhiambo is scarce given the date of Fant’s injury. He played 51 snaps in the second exhibition game against the Minnesota Vikings after Fant tore his ACL and then 45 snaps in the third game and 12 in the fourth.
“Everything that he’s done up to now will definitely help (but) you can only take so much with you from film,” Perry said. “Once you get into the game, you get into the feel of what he’s doing, if things hold true.
“Just like every game, you just adjust to what he’s giving you, and my approach is just being aggressive and allowing them to play off me a little bit more. I try to attack and get him to take the bait.”
Dialing in: The Packers left open the possibility that they will sign defensive tackle Quinton Dial to a long-term deal, but for now they have him under contract for one-year, $775,001.
The veteran minimum is $775,000 for someone with five years experience in the NFL. The Packers tacked on one dollar in order to make the deal eligible to be extended before the start of free agency next season, according to a source with access to NFL Players Association salary data.
Dial would have to agree to any extension, but if he plays well, the Packers at least will have first crack at signing him.
Although he signed for the minimum, Dial will receive much more.
His deal he signed with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 included $1.4 million in guaranteed base salary. The contract had offset language that means the 49ers have to pay him the difference between the $1.4 million and what the Packers pay him.
The Packers’ other two signings, with linebacker Ahmad
Brooks and guard Lane Taylor, did not break the bank.
Brooks signed a one-year, $3.5 million deal that includes a $1.75 million signing bonus. Brooks’ base salary is $1 million and he will have a chance to earn another $750,000 total through per game roster bonuses.
In addition, he has $1.5 million in not likely to be earned incentives. His salary cap number is $3.5 million.
Taylor’s three-year extension is worth $16 million and includes a $5 million signing bonus. Bennett emotional: Martellus Bennett fought back the tears almost 20 minutes. He was standing at his locker, fielding question after question about the brother he’ll block Sunday afternoon, but the conversation rarely touched football.
The Packers tight end was between meetings earlier Wednesday when he saw the video of his big brother, Michael Bennett, face down in handcuffs after a shooting incident following last month’s
Floyd Mayweather- Conor
McGregor fight. Michael had one member of the Las Vegas Police Department straddling his back and another stood over him on a ledge, aiming his gun.
It’s easy, Martellus said, to look past the rash of national anthem protests throughout the NFL this past year. People focus on the action associated with protesting, not the reason.
From the outside, Michael Bennett is the Seattle Seahawks Pro Bowl defensive end. Martellus Bennett? He saw his brother lying on pavement, asking a police officer what he’d done wrong, believing his skin color made him a target.
“You just think, ‘What if?’ You know?” Martellus said, voice cracking and tears running. “Two seconds this way, two seconds that way, the whole thing is different. So for me, I’ll just be happy to see my brother. Because there’s a chance I couldn’t see him.”
The Packers open their season against the Seahawks, pitting brother against brother. It will be the sixth time the Bennetts have played each other in the NFL. For the entire family, this meeting will bring deeper meaning.
Michael Bennett released a lengthy statement Wednesday on Twitter revealing his ordeal.
“I’m very proud of Michael and the way that he handled it,” Martellus said. “There’s a lot of guys who told him not to say anything. It may be a distraction. You’re alive, you lived through it, why tell anyone your story? For me, I think that’s the wrong way to go about it.”