Seahawks can find solutions to the Germain Ifedi situation
I can’t see the Seahawks going into the regular season depending on Germain Ifedi at right tackle. Luckily, there is more than one answer to this situation.
This is not a character assassination piece on Seahawks tackle Germain Ifedi. He’s certainly taken enough abuse on social media. Just check out Twitter, if you’ve somehow missed comments that bring in flower pots. Ifedi is overmatched, there’s no doubt of that. There’s also no reason to say say anything more than that. The situation is that the Seahawks need better production at his position. Happily, there’s more than one solution.
One of the better solutions is to simply stay in house. Tuesday, Pete Carroll announced that George Fant would compete at right tackle. “The comp is on,” as Carroll put it after practice. As always, Bob Condotta has a great writeup on the move of Fant to right tackle in the Seattle Times. While some may doubt that it was always the plan to let Fant get comfortable again by starting at his old spot before moving to the right side, I absolutely believe it.
Fant started ten games at left tackle as a rookie in 2016 and played pretty well. I mean, for a guy who had almost no experience at the position, he was incredible. Why would you slot him as a backup, and not let him compete to start on the other side? Especially when the incumbent has struggled for two seasons, and in preseason this year?
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Fant can win the job
So George Fant is a great solution. Is he a Pro Bowler? Of course not; at least, not now. Who knows how good he can be with another year of development, especially under Mike Solari’s tutelage? He’s definitely capable of playing better than Ifedi. He just has two weeks before the start of the season, but I won’t be a bit surprised to see him earn the starting job by the time the Seahawks fly into Denver.
Of course there’s still Isaiah Battle to consider. He’d been making his own push in preseason until he was hampered by a knee injury. Battle was back on the field Tuesday though. While he’s bounced around the league quite a bit over the past few years, he’s looked decent when on the field. So Ifedi has plenty of competition in Renton already.
Another possible solution is a trade, of course. Apparently the Seahawks have a defensive back who wants to play somewhere else. Like maybe Dallas, for instance. The Cowboys happen to have a lot of good offensive linemen, too. I’d rather have Cameron Fleming or La’el Collins than the second round pick the Cowboys will never give up. Unfortunately, there’s some question about Dallas guard Zack Martin‘s health right now, and both Fleming and Collins can play guard, too.
But listen, if the Seahawks can allegedly offer to trade a second round pick they don’t have to the Colts for Jacoby Brissett – a player they would hope never sees the field – surely they would make a decent offer for a starting right tackle. Right? I mean, do you want to spend draft capital you don’t even have on a backup quarterback, or on a guy who makes sure you don’t ever see the backup play? There are a lot of solutions for the Seahawks out there. Keep the faith,12s.