Seahawks very happy with Rees Odhiambo after Chiefs game

While there is no guarantee the Seahawks line will be better with Rees Odhiambo at left tackle in 2017, the player did well enough on Friday to soothe worries. In fact, he did so well in his first start, the Seahawks might think of him as a long-time starter.

I don’t want to use the Wally Pipp analogy here. George Fant wasn’t as productive as Pipp was. Not yet anyway. And Odhiambo has had one preseason start at left tackle this year. And Lou Gehrig became a pretty decent player for years. So I don’t want to jump too far ahead.

But Seahawks fans have to admit, we are breathing a big sigh of relief since Friday. Odhiambo went man-to-man with a good Chiefs front and did really well. Thank…goodness.

Yes, Odhiambo did give up a sack at the beginning of the third quarter. He did the same playing guard in the second preseason game against the Vikings. (Maybe Seattle in the future holds Odhiambo out for the first series of the second half?) The sack was given up on a missed assignment and not because Odhiambo was physically overmatched. Missing an assignment is correctable.

But in the first half, Odhiambo was mostly excellent. The starting unit average 7.7 yards-per-play in the first half. Or two yards more per play than in 2016. Again, this was the Seahawks starting offense against the Chiefs starting defense.

Against pass rushers Dee Ford and Chris Jones, Odhiambo pushed the ends so far out wide they were eventually in no position to get to Russell Wilson. Wilson had a solid pocket to move around in or move up into on the left side.

When Seattle ran the ball, Odhiambo stood up defenders and got a push. Several times running back Chris Carson used this to get through the line into the linebackers.

True, in preseason games teams do not game plan against the other team. But this is left tackle we are talking about. If a guy can block, he can block.

Coach Pete Carroll said after the game, “First time out when he really knew he was the starter and all that, he did a good job.” Carroll did stop short of saying Odhiambo would be the starter week one. New Seahawk Matt Tobin also did well on Friday. But he did so against mostly second-team players. Odhiambo should be expected to start against the Green Bay Packers.

Related Story: How did the Seahawks starters do against the Chiefs?

The question might become, if Odhiambo does well enough this season does Fant ever regain the position?

But again, I am getting ahead of myself. The real question is can Odhiambo duplicate his performance from Friday against the Oakland Raiders game this Thursday? And then do it again the week after that? And the week after that? Then the week after that…