Carroll `really fired up' about tackles
Cross, Lucas make impression on Seahawks coach at team's rookie mini-camp
RENTON, Wash. — Asked what stood out after the Seahawks completed their threeday rookie mini-camp Sunday, coach Pete Carroll began with the two first-year players who may be the most important in 2022 — offensive tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas.
“The tackles jump out right off the bat,'' Carroll said. “Both guys look well-equipped physically, they look like they can move like we would hope they can move. They're both bright kids and will pick up their stuff. So the process is underway. I was really fired up about that.''
Three rookie mini-camp workouts, including the final one Sunday that was mostly a walk-through, is, of course, not a whole lot to go on. Coaches usually say you can't judge linemen until pads go on in training camp and full contact is allowed.
The Seahawks will learn a lot more about each in the coming weeks as the rookies join the rest of the team in the off-season program.
But for now, the Seahawks seem content with what they have at offensive tackle with Cross (the ninth overall pick out of Mississippi State) and Lucas (third round out of Washington State) joining holdovers Stone Forsythe, Jake Curhan and Greg Eiland, each second-year players.
Those five are the only players listed as tackles on the Seahawks' roster, which after the signing of 14 undrafted free agents last week is at the off-season max of 90.
Asked Sunday if he thinks the team has enough depth at tackle, Carroll said “yeah.''
Both of last year's regular starting tackles — left tackle Duane Brown and right tackle Brandon Shell — remain unsigned, and the Seahawks could theoretically sign one of them or another veteran.
Carroll said Sunday he's excited for the competition at tackle, which seems to shape up as Curhan and Lucas on the right side and Cross and Forsythe on the left.
Curhan, an undrafted free agent a year ago out of California, started the final five games of last season at right tackle after Shell was sidelined with a shoulder injury, a stretch in which the Seahawks rushed for 170 or more yards four times.
Forsythe, a sixth-round pick in 2021 out of Florida, played just 14 snaps a year ago with Brown playing every game. But with Brown often sitting out practices during the regular season to rest his knee, Forsythe got ample work with the first team.
“It's a great opportunity for Stone,'' Carroll said. “This is his chance. And Jake got to start a resume last year playing and did a nice job. So they'll come back. And I've already talked to these guys, they see the game differently already as they do it. You know from freshman to sophomore year it just flips so much. So we'll see if they can take advantage of what they see new. I know Jake, he was really fired up about coming back and just not being in the blur of camp and all that. So we'll see how it goes.''
With there being no question that Cross and Lucas look the part, what may be the biggest key is how well each adjusts to working in an NFL offence after each played in spread style attacks in college.
Each spent the bulk of their careers playing in Mike Leach's Air Raid — Leach coached Lucas for the first three years of his college career at WSU and Cross for his last two at Mississippi State — where neither had to do much getting in a threepoint stance and doing the type of run blocking that will be a staple of the Seattle offence.
But Carroll said during the draft he felt the bigger factor in the team's attraction to each for now is that they proved proficient in pass blocking in college, maybe the biggest priority for tackles who have to protect the edge.
And Friday he said he has few worries that each will be able to adjust to playing out of a three-point stance.
“Shoot, you would never have even known (they had so little experience being in a three-point stance),'' Carroll said. “I already had a chance to look at half of the film of some of the teamwork that we did. They've been working hard at it, they look very comfortable, and they'll get better. I saw a couple of flinches and stuff, which is really normal.
“But like I said, these guys are too good athletically. They are really comfortable in their bodies, they can move, they are well-proportioned, they are quick and they can run fast for big guys. It's just not going to be a big transition like we might think, and I don't think that the experience of being in the offence that they've been in is going to be a detriment at all.
“The area that we would most be concerned about is pass protection and being able to pick up the speed. These guys have had thousands of snaps of protecting the edge. They knew they had to, the coach put them in that position, that was their style, the guys coming were all rushing the passer. So I think we are fortunate that they have come through that program.”
Still, few teams in NFL history have likely entered a season with a tackle corps that has a combined five starts (all from Curhan) and 419 snaps and none older than 24 years old.
How well the Seahawks can pull that off — or will possibly be forced to adjust — figures to be as big of a key to the success in 2022 as anything else aside from the quarterback position.