George Fant Becoming the Seahawks Long-Term Left Tackle?

Last offseason the Seattle Seahawks signed undrafted free agent George Fant. No one predicted that Fant would become the starter at left tackle by the end of his rookie year. This was not due to an unxpected injury; the Seahawks clearly thought their best option was Fant.

Fant could be cementing his position this offseason

Fant only played football in college during his senior year. Even then, he played tight end and not very much. He was involved in some special teams situations as well. Fant did not even play high school football. If someone were to tell an NFL fan that their team was going to start a player at possibly the most important offensive line position as a rookie and that player had not played any football in many years, that fan might choose to no longer follow football. This is exactly what happened with Fant.

As a senior is college, Fant weighed 250 pounds. In 2016, Fant played at 290 pounds. This offseason he has bulked up to 320 pounds. The Seahawks have not made any moves since the end of 2016 that would mean Fant is no longer the starter. Sure, the team signed Luke Joeckel, but it appears Joeckel will be the starter at left guard. Seattle did draft Ethan Pocic, but there is little chance he is the starter at Fant’s position this season. The current makeup of the offensive line in 2017 would be Fant at left tackle, Joeckel at left guard, Justin Britt at center, Mark Glowinski at right guard and Germain Ifedi at right tackle. Unless Fant performs worse than expected this season, I would expect him to be the starter at left tackle in 2018 as well.

https://twitter.com/Seahawks/status/872509002441150464

After finished yesterday’s OTA session, Fant spoke to the media and talked about adding size, his second-year adjustment and working with former Seahawk Walter Jones on his technique. As far as adding bulk, Fant said

"A lot of working out in the weight room, protein, changed my diet. Things I needed to do to get stronger. Just eating more in general. I was watching my portions of food before, but now I’m just kind of eating. You can just kind of eat. Also, my mom lives with me now, so she’s got that good Southern food for me.I mean, I can’t be at 290 getting bull-rushed. I knew I needed some weight for sure."

Expecting the second year jump

Fant said he already felt much more comfortable and the experience was completely different this year compared to last.

"It feels completely different. I was actually laughing about it earlier today, about how I can actually understand what’s going on around me and be able to make a play, make a call to let Justin (Britt) know something’s coming or let Russell (Wilson) know something’s coming.You’ll see a pattern going on, so I found the pattern and I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to address these things,’ so that’s what I did,There were things where something happened to me, and I just tried not to let the same thing happen to me again, but some stuff you can’t control, you can only do what you know."

Fant also addressed his relationship with Hall of Famer Jones

"Just having conversations with him, just sitting down with him since halfway through the season last year, just sitting with him talking, Just taking what he says, taking it in, soaking it in, then applying it to my game at some point."

The point in all of this is, Seahawks fans should get used to Fant. He will be the starting left tackle in 2017. Let’s hope he is successful. If Seattle is right, this is a great thing for 12s.