12th Man Rising
FanSided

Seattle Seahawks: Lemuel Jeanpierre returns bringing versatility to offensive line

By Keith Myers

facebooktwitterreddit

The Seattle Seahawks made a bunch of roster moves on Tuesday in preparation for the Thursday Night Football matchup against the San Francisco 49ers. The most interesting of them was that they brought back center Lemuel Jeanpierre.

The move was necessitated by the injury on Patrick Lewis. Lewis replaced Nowak in the starting lineup last Sunday, but then injured his ankle. Lewis is unlikely to play on Thursday, so the Seahawks needed some help.

Back in training camp, Jeanpierre was locked in a tough battle with Drew Nowak for the starting center position. Nowak won, and the Seahawks elected to keep the younger Patrick Lewis as the backup. LJP was released, and has been unemployed since then.

His return gives the Seahawks some flexibility they haven’t had. Lewis is a center, and doesn’t play another position. Mark Glowinski is a guard only. Kristjan Sokoli doesn’t really play any position yet.

Only Alvin Bailey can play multiple positions along the line, but he’s the only backup offensive tackle at the moment. The Seahawks have not been able to use him at LG because doing so would leave them without a reserve tackle.

Jeanpierre fixes this problem somewhat. He can play all three interior line positions. If the Seahawks decided to move Nowak over the LG now, they can do so without leaving the team without a backup center.

Versatile players like Jeanpierre make things much easier on the coaching staff. They can keep fewer reserves active on game day when everyone is healthy. When there’s injuries, those players allows the team to get the best five on the field.

This is a flexibility the Seahawks have lacked, and it is something that they now have with Lemuel Jeanpierre back on the roster.

Next: Can Kris Richard rebound after 2 poorly coached games?

More from 12th Man Rising

Home/Seattle Seahawks News