Seahawks will be without both starting corners, center at Rams. Who’s replacing them?
There are better weekends for the Seahawks to be debuting a fill-in center who’s never played a down on offense for them than a game against all-world defensive tackle Aaron Donald and the Rams.
And there are better times to be down both starting cornerbacks to injury.
Yet that’s where Seattle will be Sunday.
The Seahawks (6-2) declared starting Ethan Pocic out for Sunday’s NFC West game at Los Angeles (5-3). That means Kyle Fuller will start at center.
Coach Pete Carroll said following Friday’s practice: “Kyle’s a good athlete, you know.”
No, we don’t.
Fuller, 26, was on Seattle’s practice squad in 2019. His Seahawks career consists of 12 snaps on special teams in two games this season. That was after the NFL suspended him this summer two games for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.
Pro Bowl cornerback Shaquill Griffin is out for the third consecutive game. He’s still trying to get a strained hamstring healed. Opposite cornerback Quinton Dunbar did not practice all week because of a knee injury.
The team lists him as questionable, but Carroll all but declared Dunbar out, too.
“Really, he’s quieted down. We are tying to do rehab work right now,” Carroll said.
“It’s going to be a while before we get him back.”
That puts his status for the Seahawks’ quick-turnaround game Thursday at home against Arizona in doubt.
And it puts Tre Flowers as one starter, with D.J. Reed a prime candidate to be the other cornerback against the Rams.
Carroll likes Reed’s straight-line speed and quickness to receivers’ cuts and the ball in the air. He showed that in his first two Seahawks games, their last two, playing for injured nickel defensive back Ugo Amadi.
Amadi is coming back this week from a strained hamstring to be the fifth defensive back at Los Angeles. That frees Reed, a former 49ers safety and nickel, to debut outside at cornerback.
Ryan Neal and Linden Stephens are the other options to start at cornerback Sunday. Neal impressed coaches as the strong safety for the four games All-Pro Jamal Adams missed last month with a strained groin. Stephens played the fourth quarter of last weekend’s loss at Buffalo for the hurting Dunbar.
Fuller played his first two seasons in the league for Houston and Washington. His only two NFL starts have come at tackle, a total of 40 snaps over two games in 2017 for the Texans. He played 145 snaps total on offense in 11 games for the Texans as rookie seventh-round draft choice and Washington in 2018.
“He’s a physical kid. He’s played quite a bit of football, now, in the league, so we’ve seen him for years,” Carroll said.
The coach said Fuller’s emergence behind Pocic is why the Seahawks felt they could trade B.J. Finney with a draft pick to Cincinnati last month to acquire defensive end Carlos Dunlap. Seattle signed Finney this spring to a contract with $4.5 million guaranteed to replace injured and released Justin Britt as the team’s starting center, but Pocic beat him out early and decisively in training camp.
So now, in need, it’s Fuller debuting.
“He’s ready to go. He’s been right there at the edge of getting in there and playing,” Carroll said.
“We’ve had some first-time guys play against these guys in the past.”
Namely Jordan Simmons. During the 2018 season, playing on his college field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Simmons started on Seattle’s line that moved Donald and the Rams’ defensive front around as the Seahawks gained 273 yards rushing in a 36-31 loss.
Simmons has been Seattle’s trusted, fill-in guard ever since. He’s started the last two games at left guard with 33-year-old veteran Mike Iupati out with a back injury. Iupati returned to practice this week and was not listed on Friday’s injury report, making him likely to start against the Rams Sunday.
“For the most part, they are going to line him up on the guard,” Carroll said of Donald. “But he’ll probably find his way (over center).”
Donald has 12 career sacks against Wilson and the Seahawks. That includes eight sacks in their last four meetings.
“Kyle will be ready to go,” Carroll said. “He’s going to do a good job for us.”
Play caller Brian Schottenheimer says the Seahawks’ offense will run its full array of plays with Fuller, as if Pocic was at center.
“Kyle Fuller’s a guy we’ve got a lot of confidence in,” Schottenheimer said.
The play caller used the same word as quarterback Russell Wilson—”unbelievable”—to describe Fuller’s first training camp with the team, in August.
“Probably one of the most improved players that we had,” Schottenheimer said.
“We don’t have any question he’ll play well.”
Pocic played all 65 of the Seahawks’ plays on offense last weekend in their loss at Buffalo.
“He reported some symptoms after the game,” Carroll said. “The guys took a look at him...and could tell he had something that happened, an episode in there. So we took (and) are going to take great care of him, make sure that we do well to get him back, take whatever time it takes. You know, this is a very serious area that we are always concerned about.”
Lead back Chris Carson (sprained foot) and second runner Carlos Hyde (strained hamstring) are both questionable to play in L.A. They got hurt Oct. 25 in Seattle’s overtime loss at Arizona. That again leaves Travis Homer, rookie DeeJay Dallas and last week’s practice-squad signee Alex Collins as the only fully healthy running backs.
Carroll said Carson ran Friday, will again on Saturday and on Sunday in hopes of perhaps behind able to play against the Rams.
The coach said Hyde practiced some on Friday. How he responds Saturday will help determine if he can play.
Defensive tackle Bryan Mone is out for the game with a high-ankle sprain.
Carroll confirmed the team will call up former All-Pro defensive tackle Damon “Snacks” Harrison from the practice squad before Saturday’s deadline to do so. He will make his debut for the Seahawks Sunday.
“I’m really excited to see him play,” Carroll said.
K.J. Wright is questionable, officially. But Carroll said the linebacker and longest-tenured Seahawk looked good practicing Friday on his previously injured ankle. It appears Wright will start again at Los Angeles.
This story was originally published November 13, 2020 at 2:56 PM.
