After jolting week Germain Ifedi shows Seahawks he may be the starting right tackle, after all

Those who say preseason games don’t matter didn’t have the week Germain Ifedi just had.

The Seahawks’ right tackle has been so unpopular across the Pacific Northwest he could be wildfire smoke. Los Angeles Chargers Pro Bowl pass rusher Melvin Ingram sped through and around Ifedi last weekend in California. That followed a 2017 season in which Ifedi led the NFL in penalties while routinely troubled by pass rushers.

All that led to Seattle coach Pete Carroll declaring this past week Ifedi’s job was open for competition two weeks before the regular season begins.

Friday night at Minnesota, Ifedi made his own declaration: I’m not yielding anything.

In the locker room, he was smiling after a game. For a change.

A week after Seattle’s first-round draft choice from 2016 stomped off the field in Carson, Calif., angry at himself, Ifedi had a starring role in Seattle’s best offensive drive of the preseason. It was a sterline series that showed the Seahawks may be able to play like new coordinator Brian Schottenheimer wants them to this season—and that Ifedi is likely to be the starting right tackle to begin the season, after all.

Ifedi drove his Vikings defender 5 yards off the ball twice on two running plays during Seattle’s crisp, 12-play, 75-yard mix of run and pass in the second quarter.

“I try. I try,” he said, grinning and chuckling when I asked him late Friday night about blowing up those defenders.

“I do my best.”

On his second plow, on a first and goal from 6-yard line, Ifedi advanced to Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr, who after reading the play was charging into the inside run gap the Seahawks were targeting. Ifedi met Barr at the 4-yard line in the running lane Chris Carson was eying. Ifedi rocked Barr off his plant foot with a two-hand shiver to the chest plate of Barr’s shoulder pads. Then pushed the three-time Pro Bowl linebacker back 4 yards, to the goal line. It was as if Ifedi was a fullback leading the tailback.

That created a hole as wide as I-5. Carson galloped through it for a 6-yard touchdown, and the Seahawks’ starters had a lead that lasted until the reserves blew it in the fourth quarter of the 21-20 loss.

That play was as many rushing touchdowns as Seattle running backs scored all last season. And it came against the starters for what was the NFL’s No.-1 defense last season.

“I thought we were able to get a lot of our run stuff going pretty good today when I was in there,” Ifedi said. “That’s a really good (Vikings) front that we faced. It was missing (three-time Pro Bowl end) Everson Griffen; we’ll see him down the road.”

The Seahawks and Vikings, the defending NFC North champions who came within one game of the Super Bowl last season, meet on Dec. 10 in a Monday night game at CenturyLink Field.

Ifedi made his bid Friday to still be the starter by then.

“I’m just happy to take a step against that team,” he said.

Carroll was as pleased late Friday as he’s been since, oh, about November—before a late-season fall plus an offense that had absolutely no running game kept the Seahawks out of the playoffs for the first time in six years.

“I thought it looked pretty clean,” Carroll said of Seattle’s offense against Minnesota. “We felt at the line of scrimmage in all three (preseason) games that we haven’t really had a chance to dig in. I think we had 26 plays with the first group, and that’s barely a half.

“But it felt like we had some crispness to us. The running backs were hitting the line of scrimmage.

“It feels like we are going in the right direction.”

Run blocking hasn’t been Ifedi’s problem in his first two seasons with former line coach Tom Cable’s zone scheme and this preseason with new coach Mike Solari’s more power-based, man-blocking system. It’s his pass protection. His issues there against quicker defenders have often been exposed for all the world to see on the right edge of Seattle’s line. Quarterback Russell Wilson has spent much of his last two seasons running away from pressure from opposing rushers swarming his right side.

Friday, Ifedi got away with a holding penalty on an incomplete pass when he tackled Danielle Hunter when the Vikings defensive end was about to speed around him to the outside. Minnesota’s defensive players and coaches couldn’t believe Ifedi didn’t get flagged for that.

The Seahawks’ opener Sept. 9 is at Denver, where Broncos All-Pro Von Miller will be coming off the edge like a storm off the front slopes of the Rockies.

Friday’s performances by Ifedi, the line and the starting offense as a whole is the best sign yet this summer that the Seahawks may be ready. Or at least are a whole lot readier than they looked last week at this time.

“Yeah,” Wilson said before he boarded the team’s flight that landed home Saturday morning, “I definitely think we are ready.”

Carroll was as pleased as he’s been since, oh, about November. That was just before a late-season fall and having zero running game pushed Seattle out of the playoffs for the first time in six years.

“I thought it looked pretty clean,” Carroll said late Friday. “We felt at the line of scrimmage in all three games that we haven’t really had a chance to dig in. I think we had 26 plays with the first group and that’s barely a half, but it felt like we had some crispness to us. The running backs were hitting on scrimmage.

“It feels like we are going in the right direction.”

Ifedi played the first two drives against Minnesota. Then George Fant replaced him on the starting offense, as Carroll promised he would.

Fant finished the half. Then Ifedi returned with the starting offense for the first two drives of the second half. Fant finished the last 1 1/2 quarters.

Fant said he and Ifedi are “excited” and supportive of each other in this competition for the right-tackle spot.

“Very excited, man, me and Germain both,” he said. “We push each other. We’ve been pushing each other since we walked into (the NFL) together (as Seahawks rookies two years ago).

“We are both excited about the challenge. Even then (when Carroll this past week announced the competition was on at right tackle) he was excited for me and I was excited for him. So it’s going to be a great competition.”

That was after the former college basketball power forward at Western Kentucky—he was wearing Hilltoppers gear in the visitors’ locker room late Friday—got his most extensive playing time since his season-ending knee injury 12 months ago.

He was also playing right tackle for the first time. Seattle’s starting left tackle for 10 games as an undrafted rookie in 2016 moved to right tackle this week, to challenge Ifedi.

He said after the game his knee felt fine, that he felt capable of whatever he’s asked to do.

Fant is 12 months removed from having his knee remade. And he’s days into learning a new side. He said he finds himself converting play and protection calls from his familiar left side to the right in split seconds before snaps.

“Yeah, it’s tough, man. It’s hard,” Fant said. “You’ve got to get the plays and some of the calls, and just switch it. Really think about it.

“That’s the one thing I need to focus on the most, work on that. Luckily, I’ve got some people over there that are helping me out a lot.”

For those reasons, plus Friday’s performances, Ifedi remains most likely to start the opener in Denver in two weeks. It’s just not enough time for Fant to prove he’s both healthy and comfortable with his new side. This competition is assuredly going to remain on well into the regular season.

As for Ifedi, he is showing signs he may be better suited for Solari’s physical straight-ahead schemes in run blocking than Cable’s zone system of angles and finesse. The pass protection remains an issue—Ifedi got away with just tackling Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter on an incomplete pass by Wilson in the second quarter Friday.

But his redemptive night in Minnesota seems to have changed the Seahawks’ previously dreary outlook on Ifedi.

“We get paid to block people, no matter how, where, what style, what is called,” Ifedi said. “Whatever they are running—whether it’s zone, man, gap, pull, no pull—we are always ready.

“It’s just good to see it come together. It’s just good to see us all do our assignments well, and just finishing.”

Of drives. Of blocks, Of Ifedi’s jolting week.

“The finishing has been better this preseason,” he said. “It’s been a lot more apparent.”

This story was originally published August 25, 2018 at 1:20 PM.