Seahawks long term center could end up being Pier-Olivier Lestage
By Lee Vowell
The Seahawks found some hidden undrafted free agent gems since Pete Carroll and John Schneider came to Seattle in 2010. Doug Baldwin is the most glaring example most likely. But Poona Ford is another. And center Pier-Olivier Lestage could be the latest who ends up making a huge impact on future Seattle seasons.
I have a feeling that one way or another, Lestage is going to be paid to play football somewhere in 2021. Maybe it won’t be with the Seahawks, though it should be, and maybe it won’t be in the NFL, but Lestage would simply go back to Canada and play in the CFL and have a very good career.
Lestage is 6’3″ and 310 pounds. He mostly played guard in college at the University of Montreal but also showed he could do well at center. This is where I think Lestage ends up in Seattle. Maybe he has enough faith in himself – and he appears to have since he took a chance by coming to the NFL as a UDFA instead of taking the safe route and being drafted by a CFL team – to stick around as a practice squad player with the Seahawks. Lestage is unlikely to make the active roster in 2021 but that is OK.
Seahawks likely found a UDFA steal with Pier-Olivier Lestage
12s should expect the long game to be played with Lestage. Seattle doesn’t need a center this coming year. They have one in Ethan Pocic. But Lestage likely already has more athletic ability than Pocic. Plus, as Lestage college coach Marco Iadeluca stated, Lestage’s “work ethic is unbelievable.”
And that is the important part for Lestage. He has the size to play in the NFL, especially as a center, and he likely has the physical ability for a man his size, but what he doesn’t have is experience against high-level competition. No offense to Canadian college football but it isn’t Power 5 United States college football. If Lestage had played in the U.S. he wouldn’t have gone undrafted. Some team would have chosen him.
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And this is why the Seahawks will get another steal by signing Lestage, a center who can snap the ball equally well with both hands who called out his team’s assignments in college and is a physical blocker who loves to pave the way on running plays. Lestage won’t play for Seattle in 2021 probably but by 2023 he could be starting.