Tackle is a problem: Jason Peters, 41, from his Texas couch to Seahawks starter Sunday?

Jason Peters was putting on his shoulder pads for his first Seahawks practice. It was another, countless practice of his seemingly endless football life.
A new locker neighbor came over to the 41-year-old former Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro and Super Bowl champion.
“Hi, I’m Noah Fant. I play tight end,” Peters’ new teammate and neighbor on Seattle’s offensive line said. “Nice to meet you.”
Then the 41-year-old and 25-year-old went outside to practice next to each other.
That’s the state of the Seahawks at tackle entering NFL week two.
Seattle put Abe Lucas on injured reserve Tuesday. The team decided its starting right tackle’s “old knee,” as coach Pete Carroll has called it, needs at least the minimum of four games on IR to get back to playing condition. The earliest Lucas could return is Seattle’s Oct. 22 game against Arizona.
Lucas to IR came soon after Carroll made it sound as if starting left tackle Charles Cross won’t play either for Seattle (0-1) Sunday when they take on the Lions (1-0) in Detroit. Cross was carted off Lumen Field during the Seahawks’ opening game last weekend with an injury to the big toe on his right foot.
“They’re both hurting,” Carroll said of Cross and Lucas. “It’s going to be hard for them (to be able to play Sunday). It’s going to be a challenge.”
So here comes Peters, off his couch in east Texas.
Former Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro tackle Jason Peters, 41, gets a trainer’s help with pads then stretching at the start of his first practice with the Seahawks Sept. 13, 2023.
Former Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro tackle Jason Peters, 41, gets a trainer’s help with pads then stretching at the start of his first practice with the Seahawks Sept. 13, 2023. Gregg Bell/The News Tribune
And here comes Raiqwon O’Neal. Carroll confirmed the Seahawks were signing O’Neal, the undrafted rookie tackle from UCLA, off the practice squad of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It’s conceivable Peters and O’Neal could be protecting Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith from raging Lions and trying to nail down silent line calls in the deafening noise of a sold-out Ford Field Sunday.
Or it could be McClendon Curtis, another undrafted rookie tackle who can also play guard. Seattle signed him, too, on Wednesday, off the Las Vegas Raiders’ practice squad.
Welcome to the Seahawks’ current offensive line.
Seattle Seahawks head coach walks the sidelines before the second half of the NFL game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen Field, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023, Seattle, Wash.
Seattle Seahawks head coach walks the sidelines before the second half of the NFL game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen Field, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023, Seattle, Wash. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com
Jason Peters was home in Texas
Peters was at home in Queen City, Texas, 25 minutes south of Texarkana, last weekend doing what tens of millions of Americans were doing.
“I was watching football,” he said Wednesday.
“This is my first year not being there in the opener, in 19 years.”
Why did he leave home to fly across the continent to crank it back up again? Why was he practicing Wednesday for the first time since he played his last game, his only start last season for the Dallas Cowboys on Jan. 8?
“Twenty (seasons) sound better than 19, don’t it?” Peters said.
“Seattle’s got a good team, man. Feel like you can make a run in the playoffs. And get to the Super Bowl, be honest. They got a good team. I watched them last year.
“Why not come for 20 and get a ring?”
He — and his new team coming off a 30-13 loss at home to the Los Angeles Rams — are a long way from that.
As all the other Seahawks began practice around him Wednesday, Peters was down on the grass on his back. A trainer was extensively stretching Peters’ torso and back that haven’t been in a three-point stance in eight-plus months.
Is it conceivable Peters, after just three practice days with the Seahawks this week, could be their left tackle against Detroit?
“You would think you would give him a couple weeks to get ready to go,” Carroll said. “I don’t know if we can afford to do that.”
Peters said he could play this week. Uh, maybe.
“I mean, maybe this Sunday,” he said. “Maybe, a couple weeks.”
He’s not worried about learning the Seahawks’ offense. After 19 years of NFL offenses, it’s just the same stuff in different terminology, he said.
“I’ve just got to get a feel for the pads,” Peters said. “I haven’t had them on since January, so that’s going to take some time.”
As Carroll said, the Seahawks don’t really have that.
“He’s such a remarkable player. Look at his film from last year, you can’t tell how old he is,” Carroll said of Peters’ Cowboys tape.
“He’s a long-term left tackle. But the flexibility is there, and his feet move beautiful. A handful of plays, he looked pretty darn good today. He looked quick and light on his feet.”
Seattle’s incumbent options
Stone Forsythe and Jake Curhan finished last weekend’s opening game as Seattle’s tackles. The drop-off from the starters to them are as steep as any position on the team between the first- and second-teamers.
The Seahawks thought they were set at tackles not just for this season but for the next three years with Cross and Lucas starting. Cross has started the first 19 games of his career since the Seahawks picked him ninth overall in the 2022 draft out of Mississippi State. Lucas, from Washington State, missed one start last season as a rookie third-round pick, in week 17 with his sore knee.
Forsythe was Seattle’s third of three draft choices in 2020 out of Florida. He has made one career start. That was as an injury replacement two seasons ago. He has often struggled in practices and preseason games getting off the ball quickly to reach fast pass rushers off the edge.
Seattle Seahawks offensive tackle Stone Forsythe (78) stretches before the start of an NFL game against the New York Jets at Lumen Field in Seattle, Wash. on Jan. 1, 2023.
Seattle Seahawks offensive tackle Stone Forsythe (78) stretches before the start of an NFL game against the New York Jets at Lumen Field in Seattle, Wash. on Jan. 1, 2023. Cheyenne Boone Cheyenne Boone/The News Tribune
“Just staying ready,” Forsythe said Wednesday. “Third year being the swing (backup tackle on both sides), always ready to go in. I’ve been working on mentally preparing different this year, just staying ready. I felt like that’s the better step I took this year.
“Just positive thoughts, mental process, mental rehearsals. Just visualizing what I have to do in different situations. Just staying ready on the sidelines so if it comes up I’m ready to go.”
Curhan, signed by Seattle in 2021 as an undrafted free agent from the University of California, made his only five NFL career starts at right tackle his rookie season. That was when then-starter Brandon Shell was out with a shoulder injury and then COVID-19.
Seattle Seahawks offensive tackle Jake Curhan (74) tries to hold back Chicago Bears linebacker Demarquis Gates (43) and Chicago Bears defensive end Trevis Gipson (99) during the first half of the Seahawks second preseason game at Lumen Field in Seattle, Wash. on August 18, 2022.
Seattle Seahawks offensive tackle Jake Curhan (74) tries to hold back Chicago Bears linebacker Demarquis Gates (43) and Chicago Bears defensive end Trevis Gipson (99) during the first half of the Seahawks second preseason game at Lumen Field in Seattle, Wash. on August 18, 2022. Cheyenne Boone Cheyenne Boone/The News Tribune
He said it last weekend’s game entering in the middle of it on no notice for Abrams at right tackle was less than ideal for him and the offense that gained just 12 yards after halftime.
“It’s always tough to be thrown in there in the middle of a game,” said Curhan, who has also practiced at guard for Seattle. “And it was the first game of the season, too.
“Things happen. But I’m confident in my abilities. It’s a different situation going into a game getting the whole thing versus if you think you’ve got to pop in at a couple different positions.”
Peters has no such issue. He has been a left tackle his entire career, and an excellent one. He’s been selected for the Pro Bowl nine times. He’s been an All-Pro twice.
Of course, his last Pro Bowl season was 2016 with the Eagles. His last All-Pro year: 2013.
Former Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro offensive tackle Jason Peters in an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019, in Philadelphia. The Seahawks signed Peters, 41, to their practice squad on Sept. 12, 2023.
Peters said he hadn’t talked to the Seahawks before, well, Sunday. That was in the hours after Cross and Lucas both left Seattle’s opening-game loss injured.
“Out-the-blue surprise,” Peters said. “If it would have been someone else I might still be home watching football.”
This story was originally
Published September 13, 2023, 3:29 PM.
Profile Image of Gregg Bell
Gregg Bell is the Seahawks and NFL writer for The News Tribune. He is a two-time Washington state sportswriter of the year, voted by the National Sports Media Association in January 2023 and January 2019. He started covering the NFL in 2002 as the Oakland Raiders beat writer for The Sacramento Bee. The Ohio native began covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season of 2005. In a prior life he graduated from West Point and served as a tactical intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, so he may ask you to drop and give him 10.