How will the Seahawks support Michael Bennett, what does Pete Carroll want to see from his team and what will the offensive line look like?
Answering a few final questions before the Seahawks play their second of four preseason games Friday night against the Minnesota Vikings at CenturyLink Field (7 p.m., Ch. 13):
1. How will the Seahawks support Michael Bennett?
You might not need reminding that Bennett sat for the national anthem before Sunday’s win against the Chargers in Carson, Calif.
Bennett said after the game he plans to sit all season and has reiterated that in a few interviews with national outlets since then, though coach Pete Carroll intriguingly said Tuesday that he had not been told that and did not know if Bennett would sit all season.
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Teammates, meanwhile, said they would show support for Bennett with some indicating there might be some sort of a team-wide gesture of support for Bennett.
“We are going to have a conversation here shortly and again, we try to do things as a team and as a family,” receiver Doug Baldwin said Tuesday. “We will see how we can support Mike in this situation.”
So what have the Seahawks come up with?
Carroll was intentionally vague on that front Thursday.
“We have,” he said. “Wait and see.”
Last year, the Seahawks decided to stand on the sideline with locked arms as a team gesture after some players considered sitting for the anthem before the season opener against Miami. That came after cornerback Jeremy Lane sat for the anthem in the final preseason game against the Raiders — Lane did not sit again for the anthem the rest of the season.
The team locked arms Sunday before the game against the Chargers, everyone besides Bennett, who sat behind them on a bench.
2. What does Carroll want to see from his team against the Vikings?
As is usually the case early in the preseason, Carroll gave a vague answer.
But here’s what he said about his goals for the game:
“We are hoping to continue to grow and see areas of emphasis and concern, and kind of get it taken care of so that we are making progress. We are looking for progress, really, and there’s a million different areas of that. We don’t want to go take a big step and take a step back and all that. We like to make steady progress, moving forward. We are looking for really good plays on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. We are looking for great effort. We want to see guys fly around and tackle really well and get down field and chase the football and show the kind of effort that we like to stand for. Special teams’ effort last week was really good, but that was last week. We like to come back again and see our guys really jacked up and show the great effort that, again, we are looking for. There’s a lot of stuff to go along with that.”
Two things I think Carroll would really like to see:
— More production from the conventional running attack. Seattle’s tailbacks had just 79 yards on 28 carries against the Chargers, 2.8 yards per carry, with quarterbacks Trevone Boykin, Russell Wilson and Austin Davis accounting for the other 54 yards on just eight carries.
— Better play from the No. 1 defense, which allowed the Chargers to drive 75 yards on 13 plays on the opening possession before each side’s starters basically then took the rest of the night off.
Carroll was vague about how long the starters will play Friday, other than to say they would play more than they did vs. the Chargers. But if the usual form holds it won’t be a surprise to see them play into the second quarter.
3. What will the offensive line look like?
Four-fifths of the starting offensive line will look as it did last week — left tackle George Fant, left guard Luke Joeckel, center Justin Britt and right tackle Germain Ifedi. The one change will be at right guard, where Mark Glowinski will get the start in place of Oday Aboushi.
Right guard, though, has been a rotation all camp, and this is more of the same, with Glowinski getting his chance this time to work with the starting unit and Aboushi rotating in later.
Carroll on Thursday reiterated that Fant and Joeckel on the left side is becoming pretty set — Britt has been starting center all along. Ifedi also has a leg up on the right-tackle competition, but the team will need to see a bit more out of him to fully commit to that publicly, as rookie Ethan Pocic also continues to get work on the right side.
Pocic also will get some looks at right guard, and the Seahawks could fiddle with the combinations on that side. Right guard remains wide open and could turn into a rotation during the season.
Here’s what Carroll said Thursday about the offensive line:
“Luke Joeckel is going to start at left guard. George is starting at left tackle, and we think that that’s a really good combination there at the left side. I feel really good about that right there, going into the next game. We are always growing with information, but I see Luke as our starting left guard, and I see George as our starting left tackle right now. There’s still a big battle going on at the right side, both guard and tackle. You’ll see Pocic will play a little bit at a couple spots in this game to demonstrate his flexibility and his versatility, which is really good. That’s not as settled as the left side.”