Seahawks’ unlikely steadying force lately on a shaky O-line has been ... Stone Forsythe

This time last year, the Seahawks were heading to Detroit.

Few thought Seattle’s injured, struggling offensive line starting backup Stone Forsythe at tackle had a chance against sack man Aidan Hutchinson and the Lions. Especially not inside roaring Ford Field. The needs on the line were so deep the Seahawks were looking at 41-year-old tackle Jason Peters as a possible replacement off his couch. He’d be the NFL’s oldest active player.

One year later, the Seahawks are heading to Detroit. Few think Seattle’s injured, struggling offensive line starting backup Stone Forsythe at tackle has a chance against sack man Aidan Hutchinson and the Lions. Especially not inside roaring Ford Field. The needs on the line are so deep the Seahawks are looking at now-42-year-old Jason Peters as a possible option off his couch. He’d be the NFL’s oldest active player.

Well...

“You try to not take all those factors into account going into a game like that,” Forsythe said at his locker before practice Wednesday. “You’ve just got to worry about silent count. Keep focusing on what you do.

“I mean, we knew those guys, what they had. They got some dudes over there, (and) again this year. So I was just really trying to focus on myself, be the best version of me.”

Asked what his memory is of his second NFL start, last September when the Seahawks played at Detroit, Forsythe said: “That we won.

“And it was pretty loud.”

It’s going to be rockin’ again in Motown Monday night.

The Lions (2-1) are a favorite to reach the Super Bowl out of the NFC. They are three games into their answer season from losing the conference title game at San Francisco in a game they led in the second half. Hutchinson and Detroit’s defense are top 10 in the NFL through three weeks. Quarterback Jared Goff and the offense are top four.

Forsythe will make his third consecutive start for the Seahawks at right tackle. He’s become the surprise steady performer the last two weeks on an unsteady line.

It’s a low bar.

The start he made last year in Detroit, Seattle won 37-31 in overtime . It was one of only four times in 20 games counting the playoffs that Hutchinson, the Lions’ Pro Bowl defensive end, did not have a sack or even a hit on the quarterback.

Forsythe repeatedly, well...Stone-walled Hutchinson on the Seahawks’ winning drive in overtime.

Stone Forsythe, Plan C

Abe Lucas is supposed to be starting at right tackle right now for Seattle. But he remains out indefinitely and hasn’t practiced or played since January. He had offseason knee surgery. He remains on the physically-unable-to-perform list.

Lucas becomes eligible to go off the PUP list onto the active roster next week after the Detroit game. Will he?

“I don’t want to put a timeline on Abe right now,” coach Mike Macdonald said this week . “We have kind of an in-house timeline with him, and we’re working through it. But, I’m not going to put a timeline on him right now.”

George Fant is the number-two right tackle. He injured his knee 13 plays into Seattle’s opening win over Denver three weeks ago. He went on injured reserve last week.

Forsythe struggled coming into that Broncos game on little notice. In his two starts since, the fourth-year veteran and sixth-round choice in the 2021 draft has been solid on an otherwise shaky Seahawks offensive line the last two games.

“I think the film kind of speaks for itself,” Macdonald said. “We talked about how he started out (against) Denver, and since then you’ve seen steady improvement. If we can get that from our whole football team, we’re cookin’.

“So he’s right there. He’s worked tremendously hard.

“I think he’s improved tremendously, and we all have confidence in him.”

Stone Forsythe grows--in the desert

Forsythe, 26, was often slow off the ball and beaten around the edge in his first three NFL seasons.

Then he had the best of his four Seahawks training camps this summer. He consistently won one-on-one pass rush drills against defensive edge rushers, starters and reserves alike. He performed well in the three preseason games.

He credits the work he did this offseason into summer at LeCharles Bentley’s O-Line Performance center in Chandler, Arizona, just outside Phoenix.

The former two-time Pro Bowl center with the New Orleans Saints, now 44, started what he bills as the “world’s first invitation-only training club designed solely around the needs of NFL offensive linemen” in 2008.

Forsythe, from Winter Garden, Florida, and the University of Florida, now lives in the Phoenix area during offseasons, to train at Bentley’s OLP.

Asked what drills he did at the O-Line Performance center to get ready for this season, he smiled.

“Not doing 110s (-yard sprints) and gassers,” he said.

But when Fant got his leg rolled up on at the end of a play and Forsythe entered for the 14th offensive play early in the opener, he struggled. Late in a dreadful first half for the O-line against Denver, edge rusher Jonathan Cooper turned Forsythe around and ran through him for a sack of Geno Smith.

But at New England the following week, Forsythe and left tackle Charles Cross shined. Guards Laken Tomlinson and Anthony Bradford plus center Connor Williams struggled.

“You know, the second half of the Denver game really felt like we came off the ball, ran the ball. Well, obviously, we didn’t run the ball to our standard in the New England game,” Seahawks offensive line coach Scott Huff said.

“We want to be balanced at the end of the day. We want to give (Smith and offensive play caller Ryan Grubb) the option to run or throw. So I think just, we need to be more consistent with our communication and fundamentals.”

Last weekend in Seattle’s 24-3 win over Miami, Cross got beaten three times by outside pass rushers. One resulted in Smith’s interception from his end zone that the Dolphins converted into their only points.

Meanwhile at the opposite edge of the line, Forsythe was the Seahawks’ best offensive lineman against Miami.

Huff stressed to him the last two games a point the 6-foot-8, 314-pound Forsythe has heard for pretty much his entire football life.

“I just had to play with better pad level,” Forsythe said, “and just get my hands on those guys.

“I was worried about too much stuff that game,” Forsythe said of replacing Fant in the opener.

“But that cleared up. I’ve got a better attack plan.”

Forsythe has since been focusing on getting his hips lower to have better leverage against shorter defensive linemen. In that way, he doesn’t have to dip too far against Hutchinson Monday. Detroit’s monster pass rusher is 6-7.

“He’s a little bit everything,” Forsythe said. “He’s got speed. He’s got bull (rush). Got power. He can spin. So, a little Rolodex of everything.”

He’s in the final year of his rookie contract. His team that drafted him again is looking at Peters. Macdonald said Wednesday it may be a week or so if the Seahawks decide to sign the 42-year-old tackle as a free agent again.

Monday night against Hutchinson and the Lions, again, could help the Seahawks coaches decide if they need to.

“It’s getting better every year, that’s how I feel,” Forsythe said of his NFL and Seattle career. “Just stack days, stack games, stack years, everything. Just trying to get better each week, and build off that.”

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