Seahawks season trending poorly gets worse as Abraham Lucas placed on IR

This Seattle Seahawks season is not off to the best of starts. The team lost to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 1, are underdogs heading into Week 2 against the Detroit Lions, and now will be without starting right tackle Abraham Lucas for at least four games. Lucas was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday.

Lucas has a knee injury that is not new. He dealt with it some in 2022 and has been able to play through the pain. But the injury was aggravated in Week 1 and Lucas had to leave the game at halftime. Prior to leaving the game, Lucas had not been credited with allowing a quarterback pressure against Geno Smith.

The Seahawks do at least have a bye week in Week 5, but by that time Seattle could be in massive trouble. The schedule gets far worse near the end of the season so starting the year 1-3 or so likely means the Seahawks should start thinking about how good they can be in 2024. Plus, as Seattle threw the ball 60.9 percent of the time in Week 1 (12th-highest in the NFL) not having Lucas in the lineup is worse than simply having a backup take his place who can run-block well.

Seahawks place right tackle Abraham Lucas on IR

Of course, Seattle also lost left tackle Charles Cross in the second half of Week 1 and his availability in Week 2 is in question. Seattle signed 41-year-old Jason Peters this week and Peters was solid even in 2022 for the Dallas Cowboys, but Peters is unlikely ready to play against the Lions. This probably means the players who replaced Cross and Lucas against the Rams, Stone Forsythe and Jake Curhan will start against Detroit.

No offense to Forsythe and Curhan, but they are backups for a reason and there is a steep drop off between them and Cross and Lucas. Lucas was even a bit better than Cross was in 2022, too. He is a great run-blocker and better in pass protection than expected. Not that that will matter for the next four games because Lucas won't be playing, unfortunately.

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