Last season’s injuries behind, Seahawks’ Duane Brown feels ‘amazing’ entering second half
Duane Brown smiled at the question Thursday during a Zoom call with reporters. What’s the toughest yoga pose for the Seahawks’ All-Pro left tackle?
“I don’t really like any of them,” Brown, who is 6-foot-4, 315 pounds, said with a laugh. “But, they’re necessary. … Downward dog in itself is like, being 315 pounds, just putting all that pressure on your shoulders and making me sweat.
“I watch people that are a lot smaller do it with ease and just sit in that pose forever. I don’t understand it.
“But, no, it’s been great. It’s been great.”
Brown, who turned 35 over the summer, added yoga to his workout routine this offseason, looking to focus on flexibility ahead of his 13th season in the NFL.
Brown battled knee and biceps injuries during the 2019 season, and had knee surgery last December before ultimately returning and playing every offensive snap of the Seahawks’ season-ending loss at Green Bay, but said Thursday he physically feels “amazing” entering the second half the season. He’s played nearly every offensive snap through Seattle’s eight games this season.
“I think earlier in the year I had a couple challenges that I was trying to work through, but as the year has gone on … my health has improved,” Brown said. “So, very blessed and fortunate to have that happen.
“I’m able to move a lot better over the last few weeks than I was at the beginning of the season, so just trying to keep that going. The team has done a great job of just managing everything and keeping me as fresh as possible for Sundays, but I’m feeling great.”
And, yes, the yoga has helped.
“Definitely,” he said. “It made me more flexible, opened my hips up more, which in turn took pressure off my knees … Learning about the anatomy, how everything is correlated, it definitely helped me out a lot.”
Brown’s durability helps the Seahawks out a lot, too.
The veteran anchors an offensive line that blocks for the third-ranked offense in football. The Seahawks’ 415 yards per game trail only the Cardinals (422 yards per game) and Chargers (420) entering the week.
Russell Wilson tops the league in passing touchdowns (28) and ranks fourth in passing yards (2,541), while DK Metcalf ranks second in receiving yards (788) and tied for second in receiving touchdowns (eight).
So, even with shifts in personnel and lack of practices and preseason games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the line has produced, which Brown attributes to the individual commitment the linemen have made this season, how prepared offensive line coach Mike Solari keeps them each week and the full offensive effort.
“Everyone has just been working (their) tails off,” Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys, a lot of inexperienced guys at their positions, and just trying to build that camaraderie. If you don’t have the experience it’s kind of kind of difficult to do that week in and week out, but we’ve been really committed to just every day improving, talking, communicating a lot, kind of just learning each other’s strengths and weaknesses and kind of how to overcome those as a collective unit.
“Other than that, it’s been a team effort. Russ has done a great job of (identifying) different defenses, getting the ball out on time, receivers are getting open, running backs are running hard. It’s a team effort, but I’m really proud of the guys and how we’ve approached every week.”
Though last week’s loss against the Bills caused some concern — Wilson was sacked a season-high five times and Buffalo tallied 11 quarterback hits — Brown said the offense is focused on correcting the issues ahead of Sunday’s meeting with the Rams in Los Angeles.
“We’re very aware that we’ve been doing a pretty solid job, but last week was unacceptable, and we’re all up to the challenge of correcting that,” he said.
“Russell is extremely important to our team and our success. And, for me, I hate seeing him get hit. I relayed that message, everyone’s relayed that message and we’re all committed to correcting everything that happened last week going into this week.”
The Rams’ defense — and five-time All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald — will certainly offer its challenges.
Through eight games, Los Angeles has allowed 291.9 yards per game to opposing offenses, which ranked second in the league behind Indianapolis (290) entering the week. No other team is allowing less than 300 yards per game.
“We know the challenge that LA’s defense brings, so we’re locked in,” Brown said.
