12th Man Rising
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Seattle Seahawks: Losing Russell Okung creates problems (Updated)

By Keith Myers

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There was one piece of big news on the official injury report of the Seattle Seahawks this week, and it wasn’t good news. Starting left tackle Russell Okung is doubtful with a toe injury.

While the doubtful designation officially means that a player has a 25 percent chance of playing, that hasn’t been the case for the Pete Carroll-era Seahawks. Being listed as doubtful means that Okung won’t play.

Okung has a long injury history. He’s never once played a full 16 game season. That’ll be the case once again this year.

Without Okung, Seattle’s already-poor pass blocking will take another hit. Backup tackle Alvin Bailey struggled mightily last week against San Francisco. Aaron Lynch just ran right past him over and over again.

The Seahawks will have to give Bailey some help in this game or Russell Wilson is likely to get killed. Both Greg Hardy and Demarcus Lawrence present major problems for Bailey in pass protection.

With Bailey in the starting lineup, the Seahawks will be in the unfortunate position of not having a backup offensive tackle. If either Bailey or right tackle Gary Gilliam gets hurt in this game, the Seahawks will have to do some major shuffling on the offensive line.

In that case, LG Justin Britt will almost certainly move outside to RT. Gilliam or Britt would play LT. The Seahawks would then bring in a backup at LG. So a single injury could cause changes at three positions along the offensive line.

That is hardly ideal. Hopefully that is a situation that we do not see on Sunday.

Update: After the above text was published, the Seahawks issued a correction to their injury report.

Not only was it not a toe injury, but he’s not doubtful. If Okung plays, that is obvious a great boost for the Seahawks.

Next: Seahawks mostly healthy for Cowboys

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