Tall Stone Forsythe grows up in rocky NFL debut; Seahawks reminded Duane Brown’s not there
Stone Forsythe grew up this past weekend.
For a guy 6 feet 8 and 307 pounds, that’s saying something.
“It was a little rough start for me,” the Seahawks’ rookie sixth-round draft choice from Florida said of his first NFL game Saturday night in Las Vegas. “I was just kind of getting settled in, kind of not knowing who I was going against, stuff like that.
“Those first few series, kind of a couple miscommunications here and there.”
On the fifth play of the preseason, Forsythe either didn’t see or didn’t coordinate with his fellow reserve offensive linemen to block Raiders cornerback Nate Hobbs. Hobbs sprinted directly past Forsythe, close off the left tackle’s outside shoulder. He slammed straight into the chest and chin of backup quarterback Geno Smith for a violent sack.
Smith got a concussion on the hit and left the game a couple series later.
The mistake by the first-time left tackle exemplified why coach Pete Carroll kept his $140 million quarterback Russell Wilson on the sidelines wearing a headset instead of helmet throughout the Seahawks’ exhibition opener. Seattle lost 20-7.
“Yeah, we missed the look,” Carroll said of the sack of Smith, carefully not naming Forsythe. “We should have keyed it. We didn’t. We didn’t do it right, and so he gets pounded on the play.
“It was a really basic pressure that they ran, and we missed it. And Geno got hit. He got hit, you know. He got hit hard. That was a real shame.
“Sorry for that.”
Smith, a former starter for the New York Jets and Giants, never plays during regular seasons. That’s because Wilson has yet to miss a real game in his nine-year career. Carroll’s and new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s plan Saturday night was to have Smith throw the ball all over glittering, new Allegiant Stadium, to give the 30-year-old veteran the chance to show he remains a starting-caliber passer in the league.
That idea backfired. Seattle offensive line had inexperience and ineffectiveness across it. Center Kyle Fuller was the only first-teamer who started Saturday. Fuller’s had one more career regular-season start at the position in the NFL than you have.
With Pro Bowl veteran Duane Brown continuing to stay off the field wanting a new contract that Wilson says is imperative the Seahawks give him, Forysthe was the team’s fourth option to start in Las Vegas. Jamarco Jones, Seattle’s fifth-round choice in 2018, and Cedric Ogbuehi, the former first-round pick by Cincinnati, filled in briefly at left tackle for Brown this month in training camp. But Jones then Ogbuehi got hurt in succession.
So it was Forsythe. And it was bumpy.
Two plays after he got Smith concussed and eventually out of the game in the second quarter, Forsythe got penalized for holding Raiders 2019 first-round pick Clelin Ferrell. That wiped out Smith’s best pass of his painful night, a dart across the middle to Cody Thompson that would have gained 17 yards and put Seattle at the Raiders 25-yard line. Forsythe’s penalty led to a third and 20 at midfield instead. Instead of scoring at least a field goal by Jason Myers to cut into Las Vegas’ early 7-0 lead, the Seahawks punted and stayed scoreless for all of a dismal first half.
Ferrell, listed as a second-team defensive end on the Raiders’ depth chart, often beat Forsythe to the inside. Seattle’s tall rookie continues to work on staying low out of his unfamiliar three-point stance to maintain leverage against shorter, quicker defensive linemen.
Forsythe acknowledges it’s been an adjustment this month for him coming from Florida, where he mainly stood up in a two-point stance in the spread offense so prevalent in college football.
Much of Saturday looked a lot like the last few regular seasons for Wilson and the Seahawks: the quarterback getting besieged by pressure early and consistently throughout games.
Carroll called it “messy.”
It looked like why Wilson so loudly and publicly said in February: “I’m frustrated with getting hit so much.”
“It was really a game that we dedicated to the young guys,” Carroll said. “You noticed that a lot of people didn’t play in this game. The rooks got a shot at it, and they were bustin’ their tails, doing the best they could.
“We just have to be a lot cleaner.”
This Saturday night at Lumen Field, more starting linemen might play, to begin tuning up for the opener. First-team left guard Damien Lewis has been banged up this past week. Veteran right guard Gabe Jackson and starting right tackle Brandon Shell rested in Las Vegas.
Forsythe? Until Jones and Ogbuehi are healthy enough to practice, it’s the rookie as the accidental starter at left tackle. As matter of preservation, that might keep Wilson’s from much, if at all, this preseason.
Brown’s situation shows no signs of ending this week. When asked about it, general manager John Schneider mentioned on the team’s radio pregame show that aired before the game Saturday the Seahawks have 20-plus players whose contracts end after 2021, as does Brown’s. Schneider point: he’s not considering Brown’s desires in a vacuum, that the team needs to fit his wants into the team’s budgeting and needs for 2022 and beyond.
“He’s out there at practice. He helps me every time I come off the field,” Forsythe said of Brown. “He’s giving me some coaching cues, here and there, kind of what I need to do, what I need to fix, what I did good.”
This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 6:58 AM.
