Ethan Pocic, the Seahawks' starting center in 2020, has dealt with a hamstring injury for much of training camp. He only returned to practice last Tuesday.
This was not the plan heading into the offseason. Head coach Pete Carroll told reporters on Tuesday that he envisioned a “real nose-to-nose battle” between Pocic and Kyle Fuller.
“We were gonna even up those reps and just see what happened at the end of the fight,” continued Carroll. “And know that we were generating a really good, competitive spot.”
Instead, Kyle Fuller—who started one game for the Seahawks in 2020—has had the opportunity to impress on his own.
“Kyle has had a really good camp with us and has just done everything else, every step of the way, and done a beautiful job for us,” Carroll described.
Fuller was signed to the Seahawks’ practice squad in 2019, then tendered as an exclusive rights free agent this past offseason.
At the 2017 NFL combine, the 6-foot-5, 307-pound Fuller measured in with 341/8-inch arms—perfect for what the Seahawks covet on the interior of their offensive line. The Baylor alum ended up being taken by the Texans in the seventh round of that year's draft. Houston then moved him to guard despite Fuller spending his entire career at center. Now 27 years old, he's back to working at center in Seattle.
Pocic, in contrast, re-signed with the Seahawks on a one-year, $3 million deal that, even in the reduced cap year, hardly indicated the starting center job was guaranteed for the 2021 season, let alone the future. The 26-year old was selected by the team in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft.
Fast forward to this year's draft and Seattle notably chose not to take one of the center prospects in what was widely regarded as a talented class. However, the team was limited by its small total of just three picks in the event.
More telling is that, in the 2020 offseason, the Seahawks aggressively pushed Pocic by signing B.J. Finney to a two-year, $8 million contract in free agency. Finney lost the job himself through poor conditioning and Pocic re-gained the starting spot essentially by default.
“Pocic is a solid center," I wrote in a training camp preview earlier this summer. "However, his weaknesses are consistent and cap certain elements of the offense. For instance: he struggles one-on-one in pass protection or in the run game, which could really frustrate [Shane] Waldron as he tries to get his center to reach block dudes one-on-one on outside zone runs.”
Carroll was candid when asked about possible concerns over Pocic missing time in Shane Waldron’s new offense.
“Only in that he didn't have a chance to compete at the spot like he would like to have,” Carroll replied.
The direct competition with Fuller was not able to take place due to Pocic’s injury.
“It didn’t work out that way.”
However, Carroll has not given up hope of some form of “nose-to-nose” battle taking place.
“If we can get Kyle some play time, we'd like to do that,” the Seattle head coach said. “So I don't know if that will happen or not.”
Regardless, the moral of Carroll’s message was that Fuller is ranked ahead of Pocic as we enter the final stage of preseason football. When questioned over whether Fuller could be the Seahawks’ starting center, Carroll’s response proved revealing.
“Oh yes, he could. Yeah, he could easily be the starting center for us and we'd feel very good about that. But the great thing about it is he's still got Ethan sitting right there to push him. And he's known the whole time, you know, we've talked straight up about this competition and how it was going to come down here in camp. I mean, man; he has not taken anything but forward steps the whole time.
"So yeah, he can run the line of scrimmage, run the offense, communicate with [Russell Wilson] and the guards and Mike's [Solari] done a really nice job of bringing him along, and really it's no hitches."
That doesn’t sound like a backup. No, it appears more like Carroll's "Always Compete" philosophy producing a new center for the 2021 Seahawks' offensive line. Fuller will hope to improve on some of the sketchy pass protection reps he has experienced in the first two exhibition games.
“We want that Wally Pipp thing to happen,” was how Carroll addressed the news of Pocic’s hamstring injury to begin training camp earlier this summer.
In 1925, Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig took Wally Pipp’s role in the starting lineup as the latter suffered from a headache. Shortly thereafter, Pipp left for the Reds, while Gehrig went on to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.
Ahead of the Seahawks’ preseason finale against the Chargers this Saturday, Fuller is on the verge of playing the role of Gehrig to Pocic's Pipp—on a much smaller scale, of course.
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