Things are about to get a little crazy for 12s and the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle will play two games in five days next week, including one on Thanksgiving Day evening. If you haven't already told family and friends to plan on eating early, now might be the time.
Seattle will also face two NFC West rivals in those two days. In Week 11, the Seahawks will try to get payback against the Los Angeles Rams who beat Seattle in Week 1. Then on Thursday, Seattle will take on the San Francisco 49ers who Seattle currently shares the NFC West lead with. Neither game is likely to be an easy victory for Seattle.
The hope is that Seattle wins both games, of course, but getting one is a must. Seattle is 6-3 and 8-3 would look beautiful. 7-4 would look a lot better than 6-5. A week from now, we will know a lot more about the 2023 Seahawks. But here are some things we know right now.
Seattle Seahawks and Thanksgiving
Rookie Derick Hall didn't wait long to start giving back to the community. Heck, let's safely assume that Hall has been good deeds for a long time now. He and his One Percent Foundation recently held a Thanksgiving food drive in his hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi. The vent was held to help 350 needy families have food for a Thanksgiving celebration.
Hall got some help from Extend a Hand Help a Friend and Mississippi Power for the food drive. His One Percent Foundation was so named because as an infant Hall was given a one percent chance to live after the Seahawks linebacker was born premature. And even better, his mom was a big part of the food drive.
In other Thanksgiving-related news, the Seahawks announced this week that the halftime entertainment for the game against the 49ers will be Steve Aoki. Aoki is known for his high-energy and highly entertaining performances. He is not from Seattle, but if you happen to be at Lumen Field in Seattle on Thanksgiving, you should see a fantastic show at halftime (let's just hope that isn't the best part of the game for 12s).
Not to bring up the Russell Wilson trade, but...
...our fellow FanSided site, Predominantly Orange, posted an article recently about how one piece the Seahawks ended up with as a result of the trade is doing brilliantly. But before we go there, we should give some credit to Russell Wilson in 2023. He was atrocious last year and 2023 started off the same way for the Broncos. But Wilson is having one of his better seasons as he currently is fourth in quarterback rating (104.0), fifth in lowest interception percentage (1.5), and is currently on pace for a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 34-8.
But where 12s should be really happy is that Boye Mafe was chosen by Seattle in 2022 with one of the draft picks they got back from Denver in the trade of Wilson. Mafe is currently on a run of seven straight games with a sack and has 15 total pressures and 7 tackles for loss in 2023 as well. Is he having a Pro Bowl-type season? Possibly. There are a lot of good edge rushers in the NFL.
But this year, Mafe has certainly been Seattle's best and most consistently productive edge rusher. He is also still just 24 years old (he turns 25 on November 30 and Seattle just happens to play the Dallas Cowboys on that day. Maybe Mafe will have a special day on his special day. We can hope anyway.
When might Seattle get right tackle Abe Lucas back?
Seattle really needs Abe Lucas back. In 2022, he and left tackle Charles Cross became the first two rookies to start at tackle for an NFL team since the early 1970s, and Lucas was arguably the better of the two. The Washington State product is huge and mean, just like an NFL offensive lineman should be.
But due to a knee issue that Lucas has had for some time, he hasn't played since Week 1. He was placed on injured reserve earlier this season and this week has finally been activated to be able to go back to practicing. But to begin the week he was only a limited participant so Lucas playing in Week 11 seems pretty unlikely.
Plus, since Seattle plays two games just a few days apart probably means Seattle isn't going to rush Lucas back for Sunday only to have him sit out Thursday. If anything, having Lucas against a very good San Francisco 49ers defense on Thanksgiving Day would likely be more beneficial than having him ready against the Rams.
In his place in Week 10 was veteran Jason Peters and Peters was quite good. Still, Lucas is hopefully the Seahawks' long-term right tackle. The only real concern is that head coach Pete Carroll has said that Lucas's knee problem is "chronic." For a guy only in his second year in the NFL, a chronic knee problem sounds very bad.