Seahawks will miss D.J. Fluker, but the O line will be just fine
The Seahawks got bad injury news on powerhouse guard D.J. Fluker. The good news is, this isn’t the end of good offensive line play in Seattle.
While the Seahawks made a lot of good news for themselves in their big win against the 49ers, it wasn’t all good news. D.J. Fluker was carted off the field with a hamstring injury in the fourth quarter of the game. Riding off in a cart is never a good sign, and today’s news completed the picture. Pete Carroll said Fluker is expected to be “out for a while”, as reported by Brady Henderson of ESPN’s NFL Nation. Not great news, but not as bad as one might think at first.
“Out for a while” in Pete-speak is at least two weeks, if not more. You may recall he initially said K.J. Wright would be “back really quick” when he went down with his knee injury. Wright’s played in just three games so far this year. Pete Carroll is a hell of a coach, but he’s no orthopedist. So be prepared for the worst on Fluker.
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The good news – I did mention good news – is the Seahawks should be better prepared to handle the loss of Fluker than they were in the first two games this year. When the 342 pound road grader was declared out for the second Rams game, Jordan Simmons started at right guard. Despite adding about 20 pounds to his frame, Ethan Pocic just didn’t have the mass that Seattle wanted at the spot. John Boyle of seahawks.com reported these comments from Pete Carroll after the game:
"“We wanted to make sure we had a big guy, a big solid guy who could hold up against their guys. We thought he would be the best fit for this matchup. Another game, another time, we might not go that way, but in this one we thought that’s the way we would go that would be best for us.”"
You may recall the Seahawks “only” ran for 273 yards in that game, led by 108 yards from rookie Rashaad Penny. The passing game didn’t suffer too badly either. Russell Wilson was sacked four times, but he also threw three touchdowns without a single interception. That’s pretty good line play from a guy who’d only played six snaps up to that point, all on special teams.
Next up for the Seahawks, the Minnesota Vikings. They definitely have one of the league’s better defensive lines. 12s certainly know what Sheldon Richardson can do. I’m not about to say I’d rather have Simmons in there than Fluker. There are limits even to my idiocies. But having seen Simmons hold his own against the Rams, I’m not as worried as I might have been.