Russell Wilson to Seahawks fill-in center Joey Hunt: ‘Joe, I know you got this.’
Out of nowhere, Joey Hunt was in the game.
As Hunt walked onto the field to replace Justin Britt at center last weekend, the injured starter gritted through his pain to give Hunt a brief pep talk.
Hunt then walked 20 or so yards early in Sunday’s game at Atlanta, into the Seahawks’ huddle. There, Russell Wilson turned to Hunt.
“Joe, I know you got this,” Wilson told his new center.
Then the quarterback flashed his leadership to the other nine players in the huddle, saying, “Y’all know Joe’s got this, right?”
“Everybody said yes,” Hunt recalled this week.
“That’s awesome just to get that reassurance,” Hunt said.
A sixth-round draft choice from Texas Christian in 2016, Hunt has spent 3 1/2 years preparing, he says, every week as if he’s going to the starter, just in case.
Case has arrived.
Britt is out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in a knee suffered when he got his legs got rolled up on during the sixth play of Seattle’s win at Atlanta last weekend. He is having season-ending reconstructive knee surgery.
Hunt is now the starter for the rest of this season, beginning Sunday against Tampa Bay at CenturyLink Field. It could be his audition for 2020, too.
Britt, 28, has one year, 2020, remaining on his contract. He has a hefty $11.67 million salary-cap charge scheduled for next year. That’s the fourth-highest on Seattle’s roster. It’s a huge price for a veteran who may not be ready to play until next mid-season. The Seahawks could renegotiate with Britt, a locker-room favorite especially along his offensive line, for a more team-friendly cap charge. Or they could save $8.75 million against next year’s cap by releasing him.
In the cold calculations of NFL teams with their salary caps, how Hunt does in the last eight regular-season games plus any playoff games could help Seattle decide about Britt.
“It’s exciting to be able to play football. I love football. Excited to be on the field,” Hunt said. “But I don’t want to play under these circumstances.
“Prayers up for Britt. I feel terrible for him. He’s a great teammate and a great person.”
The Seahawks (generously) list Hunt as 6 feet 2 and 299 pounds. He is four inches shorter and at least 16 pounds lighter than Britt. He is shorter and lighter than most NFL centers.
Yet coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider didn’t aggressively seek a new starter center in a trade before Tuesday’s league trading deadline because:
One, the price for acquiring one was steep.
“You’d be surprised that it wasn’t wide open,” Carroll said.
Two, Hunt has been in the Seahawks’ system for so long he intricately knows the protection calls the center must make with Wilson to the entire line and backfield just before the snap, after reading defensive fronts and any imminent blitzes.
“Right now, it’s more important that we’re making the calls and everyone’s a complement to what’s going on and we know what we’re doing,” Carroll said.
“I’m not concerned about him, at all. Joey’s been with us for a long time. He’s been in games for us over the years. He’s started a few games. He has done as well as somebody can do in this role of being the backup guy to give us the confidence that he can handle it. We’ve just seen him play so consistently in practice and the work he’s done.
“He’s never backed off of reassuring us that he’s ready to go. He’s a really good technician. He’s really strong underneath. He’s got great leverages he plays (with), and he knows how to play the position. It’s his time.”
His time is coming at a challenging one, especially for a relatively undersized center. Hunt’s fourth NFL start in four years, his first one as Seattle’s full-time center, is going to be a few feet from the Buccaneers’ massive, dangerous defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea, from the University of Washington.
That’s 653 pounds of issue right over Hunt’s nose Sunday at CenturyLink Field.
“It wouldn’t matter who is playing center with Vita Vea over there on the other side,” Carroll said. “He’s a remarkable player. We’ll give him a lot of respect.”
Vea and Suh are large—we mean, very large—reasons Tampa Bay is first in the NFL in rushing defense allowing just 68.6 yards per game. But not many teams have challenged the Vea, Suh and the Bucs with the run. Tampa Bay has faced the fourth-fewest rush attempts in the league this season. The Rams ran it just 11 times (for 28 yards) last month, falling behind 21-0 early at home and throwing 68 times in Tampa Bay’s 55-40 win in Los Angeles.
The Buccaneers have lost three straight games since then.
Expect the Seahawks with Chris Carson and his second-leading rushing attempts in the NFL (159 through eight games) to test Tampa Bay’s run defense perhaps as San Francisco did (32 rushes) in beating the Bucs in the opener.
Even with the smaller Hunt filling in for Britt.
Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said Thursday he will call and the Seahawks will run everything with Hunt as the line’s anchor as they did with Britt.
“No. I don’t worry about Joey, at all,” he said, echoing his boss almost verbatim. “Joey is so smart, so quick.”
Schottenheimer likened Hunt’s advantage to that of a shorter, quicker wrestler against bigger foes on the mat.
“He’s got great leverage,” Schottenheimer said. “I mean, I don’t worry about Joey at all. He’s a guy that’s going to battle and he’s going to get us declared right and going to the right people. He’s a really good football player.
“He has the quickness to get on people. Again, it’s the size element. He reminds me of Scott Wells (a 6-2 former center for the Rams). I had Scott in St. Louis. The wrestler background. Low. Can get a target. Sometimes when you get on those bigger guys, you are able to control the block because you can beat them to the punch, if you will.
“So I really don’t worry about him, in that regard. There’s really we can’t do with Joey.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2019 at 7:24 AM.
