New tackles. Silent snap counts. Evan Brown’s in the center of Seahawks’ hopes at Detroit
Evan Brown won’t admit it. Not publicly, anyway.
But this is a particularly special game for him.
“I’m going to say no. For the media, I’m saying no,” Brown said.
He laughed.
Yet Seahawks at Lions Sunday is more than just a Michigan homecoming for Brown.
So much more.
Geno Smith. DK Metcalf. Tyler Lockett. Kenneth Walker. Bobby Wagner. The debut of top rookie Devon Witherspoon. All of those are getting more attention regarding the Seahawks’ big task Sunday in Detroit.
All of them may not prove to be as important to Seattle avoiding an 0-2 start as Brown. The former Lions center is returning to Ford Field after signing a one-year contract with the Seahawks this spring.
Brown is going to be orchestrating Seattle’s game within the game Sunday.
He’s been doing All-Pro multitasking this week to play this gam...these games.
Brown’s task this week: Get two new starting tackles coordinated with recognizing the Lions’ defensive fronts and blitzes, and on his protection calls, before the snap. Then having Seattle’s four other offensive linemen synchronized for the silent snap counts the Seahawks will be using to combat the roaring of a sold-out Ford Field crowd pumped over the Lions’ home opener coming off a win over the defending Super Bowl-champion Chiefs last week in Kansas City.
“It’s going to be a madhouse,” said Seahawks Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs, who was drafted by and played his first 4 1/2 NFL seasons with the Lions.
Seattle offensive coordinator and play caller Shane Waldron said of Sunday inside Ford Field: “This environment, we know, is going to be as loud as it gets.”
Oh, yeah, Brown’s got to communicate the protection plan to slow Aidan Hutchinson, Detroit’s second pick in the 2022 draft who had 9 1/2 sacks as a rookie, and the Lions’ many blitzes at quarterback Geno Smith.
Brown also is giving teammates whatever he can remember and share about the Lions’ defense this week.
All while the Seahawks seek to improve their offense that scored zero points and gained just 12 total yards — nine of the game’s final play — while getting outscored 23-0 in the second half of their 30-13 loss to the Rams in the opener.
Seattle will be starting two fill-in tackles flanking Brown Sunday. Right tackle Abe Lucas went on injured reserve Wednesday with a knee injury. Left tackle Charles Cross has an injured big toe on his right foot; coach Pete Carroll said Friday Cross won’t play in Detroit.
Seattle signed 41-year-old former Eagles All-Pro tackle Jason Peters this week, to their practice squad. He was on his couch watching football last Sunday when the Seahawks called, so he likely needs more time to acclimate before playing in a game. The team also signed back Greg Eiland to the practice squad. They signed two more tackles off practice squads, undrafted rookie Raiqwon O’Neal from Tampa Bay and McClendon Curtis from Las Vegas.
That’s four tackles that weren’t on the team last weekend.
Carroll said Jake Curhan and Stone Forsythe, the backup tackles who finished the opener last weekend, will start in Detroit. Brown has never started a game with either one of them.
Curhan have five career starts, as a fill-in as an undrafted rookie in 2021. Forsythe, Seattle’s sixth-round pick that year, has made one career start in his three years in the NFL, week 16 last season.
Other than that, it’s been a normal week for Brown.
He beat out rookie Olu Oluwatimi early in training camp. He’s Seattle’s ninth center in the nine seasons since the team traded Pro Bowl center Max Unger to New Orleans for tight end Jimmy Graham in 2015.
“You do a little bit of rotating, so you get some reps with those guys. But it’s definitely different, I’d say on the fit side of it, the communication,” Brown said of all the new tackles at once this week.
“Communication, most time, is going to stay the same. But anytime you are working with somebody new...it’s definitely different. Different fits. Different stuff with those guys.
“At the same time, it’s just next-man-up mentality.”
Silent-count system
Brown said the trick to running the offense with a silent count and using hand signals for protection calls is “staying consistent with our operation and how we do it.”
Even though this is Brown’s first season with Seattle, this process to silent snap counts has become relatively routine for the team’s new center. Brown is in his third consecutive season as a full-time starter in the NFL. He’s been with five teams in six seasons since the Giants signed him as a rookie free agent from SMU soon after the 2018 draft. So he knows how to play as an offensive linemen in loud NFL stadiums.
Plus, it’s not like offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and line coach Andy Dickerson have been working only this week on installing Seattle’s silent-count system.
“(It’s) the understanding of what our tempo and what our cadence is when we go on the road,” Waldron said. “We have that toolbox to use when we go on a road environment and making sure that we are all on the same page. Knowing that snap count, and all 11 are firing off the ball is so imperative in these noisy environments.
“With silent counts and early cadences, we really start that in (spring) OTAs and minicamps. ...We really space that out and time for that, whether it’s every other week or every other practice, and really working hard to get the music cranking out here working on the silent count over the course of the last several months.”
The Seahawks will have multiple versions of their silent calls Sunday at Ford Field, so the Lions defense “can’t roll with just one head bob the whole time, or they’re going to be timing it up, and—good luck,” Brown said.
“You definitely have multiple things you work with.”
The sequencing of the silent count is called in the huddle with each formation and play call by Smith. Then Brown passes the count down the line to the guards next to him, you in turn pass it down to the tackles next to them, and, if they are there, tight ends. Often a guard lifting his leg is a trigger for Brown to then snap the ball, varying seconds later.
The fact that Smith is 32 years old and in his 11th season as a quarterback on his fourth NFL team helps this week in coordinating all this, too.
“It’s special. It’s just us...it’s going to be hostile,” Smith said. “We know that the Lions have been talking up this season for the entire offseason and their fans are going to be excited. They won a big game last week. Home opener. We’re expecting those guys to come out and show up for the team.
“We can handle that. We’ve been in those situations. It’s going to be a huge test for us, but we’re ready for it. I believe we’re ready for it.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2023 at 12:42 PM.
