Pocic was an All-American center at Louisiana State but the Seahawks want to see how he can play at other positions along the line during this rookie minicamp and going forward.
The first day of rookie minicamp always brings with it a built-in buzz, and not just for the group of 60-plus players anxious to make their mark. (So anxious that Seahawks coach Pete Carroll had to warn them Friday to not all try to take the first shuttle bus to the facility at 6 a.m., because everyone wouldn’t fit.)
“They’re just so bright-eyed,’’ marveled Carroll.
But the eyes of Carroll and his staff were pretty bright, too, as they gauged the new crop of talent — the 12 draft picks (including wide receiver Kenny Lawler from 2016), 15 undrafted free agents, and 41 tryout players who ran through a spirited 90-minute workout on Friday.
For Carroll and company, there’s the eternal search for the prodigy, the hidden gem, and the future role players who will augment the veterans.
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“We know we have a nice football team coming back, and now we want to see, what can these guys do to help us,’’ Carroll said.
Which is why Ethan Pocic will rank among the players most closely scrutinized during this three-day session. It doesn’t take a football savant to know that Seattle’s offensive line underperformed last year, and that the success of its reformation will go far in determining the Seahawks’ fate in 2017.
Offensive-line coach Tom Cable has been bursting with enthusiasm as he contemplates the advancement he expects from Seattle’s young returning players, coupled with the new blood that will join them. And Pocic is prominent among the latter, having been selected in the second round in the recent draft out of LSU, where he helped carve holes for Leonard Fournette as an All-American center.
The Seahawks love Pocic’s versatility, and at 6-foot-6, 317 pounds, feel he has the tools of a tackle, which is where he will play almost exclusively during this minicamp. That sets up what figures to be one of the most intriguing battles of training camp with Germain Ifedi, last year’s No. 1 pick, to be the starting right tackle.
The loser of that competition may well end up in the starting lineup at guard, but those decisions were not at the forefront on Friday, when players were flying around a mile a minute (less so the lineman — more like 100 yards a minute). And Pocic caught Carroll’s eye as much for his preparation as his execution.
“He’s already studied his tail off to get here, you can tell,’’ he said. “He’s a bright football player, really tuned in, just all of the right signals in the first day and a half he’s been here as far as being ready to apply himself. He had a great experience at LSU. He’s played a ton of football, and it shows.”
Pocic has long been under the tutelage of his big brother, Graham, a standout lineman at Illinois who had some NFL sniffs. He’s also been working out with former NFL (and Seahawks) center Kevin Mawae, a recent Hall of Fame finalist, and took up the offer of Seahawks center Justin Britt, shortly after the draft, to pick his brain.
“He just reached out, congratulated me, told me if I had any questions to ask him,’’ Pocic said. “So I talked to him on the phone a little bit, maybe 10 or 15 minutes just to get a little background on everything. He’s a big help, definitely.”
When Pocic got his Seahawks playbook in the mail about three days after the draft, he dived into it. And after arriving in town Thursday — his first visit to Seattle, having not been brought in for a workout, partially to not telegraph to other teams their interest — Pocic did some cramming “big time,” he said, trying to learn the line calls and verbiage.
“Getting the calls down was big, and learning how to phrase defenses,” he said. “Everyone does it differently.”
Carroll said they want to see Pocic at tackle because that’s the position they’ve seen him the least — and because his prime college position, center, is the one of least need for Seattle with Britt’s emergence.
“We’ve seen so much of him playing center, I don’t think right now that’s where he needs to focus,’’ Carroll said. “I know he can back up just based on what we’ve seen. We’re going to work him there because we want to fortify that, but really we want to see him in other spots as we go through.”
Competition along the Seahawks line will abound once the full squad reports, with Mark Glowinski and Oday Aboushi vying at right guard, and Luke Joeckel, George Fant and Rees Odhiambo grappling for two spots on the left side.
That’s how it shapes up now, anyway. As we well know, plans and blueprints can change quickly when it comes to the Seahawks’ offensive line. They hope Pocic will eventually become a leader of the group, as he was at LSU, where “when he barked, they listened,” Tigers offensive-line coach Jeff Grimes told the Chicago Sun Times.
Rookies don’t do much barking, and a lot of listening, on their first official days as a pro. Not surprisingly, Carroll saw nothing but sunshine on a gloomy, drizzly afternoon that forced the practice indoors.
“I don’t think anybody had a problem today,’’ he said. “Everybody did good stuff, across the board.”
That included Pocic, the latest bright hope for an offensive line that will worry fans until they prove it’s unfounded.