Bumpus: What can help Seahawks’ O-line this week despite injuries

The Seattle Seahawks will likely have a very different looking offensive line this week than they were anticipating.

Seattle Seahawks take hit on O-line with both tackles ailing with injuries

In their 30-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams last Sunday, the Seahawks lost both their starting offensive tackles.

Right tackle Abraham Lucas was the first to leave the game as a result of a knee injury, while left tackle Charles Cross was soon sidelined with a toe injury.

The aftermath of those two injuries has been pretty noticeable as Lucas was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday, knocking him out of Seattle’s next four games. To help with depth, the Hawks signed future Hall of Famer Jason Peters, who is 41 years old, to the practice squad, while signed undrafted rookies Raiqwon O’Neal and McClendon Curtis off the Tampa Bay and Las Vegas practice squads, respectively. The Seahawks also have Jake Curhan and Stone Forsythe in the mix at offensive tackle, both of whom played last Sunday for the injured Cross and Lucas.

Whether any of the three new additions play this Sunday in Detroit is unclear, but it is clear that Lucas will not be on the field while Cross is also unlikely to play.

Former NFL receiver Michael Bumpus thinks there are a few things that should help Seattle’s new-look offensive line against the Lions.

One of those involves quarterback Geno Smith.

“Here’s what Geno has to do this week: You’ve got some different tackles starting this week … You have to slow your cadence down at the line of scrimmage,” Bumpus said during Thursday’s Bump and Stacy on Seattle Sports. “Your cadence is when Geno walks in line of scrimmage (and says), ‘Blue 48 … down, set.’ So what that does, it makes a defense show what they’re going to do when we’re talking about the second level. Are they going to blitz? Are they rotating the safeties? Let the offensive line identify the box so they know what’s going on, especially when you have two potentially new tackles out there.”

Bumpus also thinks facing the Lions’ defensive scheme can help, too.

“Last week, the Seahawks saw a 3-4 (defense) … The advantage of that is that you can blitz from depth,” he said. “When you blitz from depth, you have a linebacker blitz from three or four yards out, so they can get lost in the mix. It’s hard for these offensive lineman to see them … Because he’s blitzing from depth on the other side of the field, it’s just hard for these linemen to see it.”

The Lions, meanwhile, run a 4-3 defensive scheme.

“Which means four down-linemen and you’ve got three linebackers, so your assignment is right in front of you most of the time,” Bumpus said. “They’re still going to blitz (linebackers) from depth, but it’s easier for you to kind of identify what’s going on because there’s less to do on that second level. So Geno, just slow it down a little bit at the line of scrimmage and allow these guys to identify (things). But this week because of the front that you’re gonna see, your assignment should be right there and you have a bit more help. It’ll be easier for that running back to help out in pass protection.”

Listen to the second hour of Thursday’s Bump and Stacy at this link or in the player near the top of this story.

More on the Seattle Seahawks

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•  Rost: Is Seahawks’ biggest concern offense or defense right now?
• Salk: Blaming Pete already? Seahawks coach’s style has tradeoffs
• Bumpus: What should Seahawks do to fix issues on defense?
• Video: Wyman’s Football 101 – Where Seahawks’ pass D went wrong
• Carroll on Seattle Seahawks’ rough opener: ‘We gotta get our act together’

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