Advertisement

Competing--now to start for Seahawks--nothing new for rookie Abe Lucas. He’s 1 of 7 kids

For the last three weeks, Abe Lucas has been competing in a three-man derby become a Seahawks starter as a rookie.

For all 23-plus years of his life, Lucas has been competing at something. Heck, for him simply eating dinners at home was a contest.

The third-round draft choice from Washington State and Everett has lived Seahawks coach Pete Carroll’s “Always Compete” mantra since 1998.

That was the year Lucas was born.

The offensive tackle is one of Julie and Kelly Lucas’ seven children.

“Oh, yeah, we were all super-competitive with each other growing up,” Abe, the second-oldest Lucas kid, said Sunday before his latest practice as the Seahawks’ starting right tackle.

“My mom (an office receptionist), she is a FIERY competitor. My dad (a technology expert) is competitive, too, but he’s more quiet. So I’m more like him, just because I naturally just kind of like to go with the flow.

“I can remember the times we were just going at it and getting in trouble because we were so upset we would lose.”

He and his siblings raced down their street south of Everett, on the border with Mill Creek near Archbishop Murphy High School. That’s where he starred in football and basketball (16 points and 14 rebounds per game as a senior).

The seven Lucas kids constantly raced down their street on bikes, on foot, on whatever.

“We’d get competitive playing hide and seek,” he said, laughing.

“Even now, when I go home, we’re all competing.”

In what?

“Everything,” he said.

“Even if you are just having a conversation, the competitiveness to get the last word in, and winning, it’s there.”

So is this chance to win his biggest competition yet.

The battle at right tackle

Carroll says weeks into his NFL life the 6-foot-6, 322-pound Lucas is “really equipped, physically” to become Seattle’s new right tackle. Jiu-jitsu and other martial-arts training have helped Lucas become quicker than most his size.

Lucas was the starter opposite rookie left tackle Charles Cross on Sunday for the third consecutive practice (Monday was a Seahawks players’ day off from the field).

Last week Jake Curhan and Stone Forsythe alternated days as the starting right tackle. Curhan started five games there for the Seahawks last season when since-departed veteran Brandon Shell was injured. The team drafted Forsythe in the sixth-round in 2021 out of Florida to be the potential heir to Duane Brown at left tackle.

The Seahawks left Brown and Shell unsigned after last season, then drafted Cross with their highest pick in 12 years (ninth overall) to be the new left tackle. That’s why Forsythe has moved to the competition with Curhan and Lucas at right tackle.

Three practices this week then Seattle’s preseason game at Pittsburgh will go a long way to finding a winner.

“It’s on, man. It’s really on,” Carroll said.

“It’s a three-way competition. Abe has done a nice job so far. He’s really equipped physically. He has a great body to play right tackle, now. He’s strong. He’s physical. He has a good lower unit. He has good quickness. He’s a good athlete. He has the talent that you need to play there.

“We have to see if he can make the right decisions at the right time, use the coaching, use the system properly to help him battle. Jake is a real battler. He just fights your tail off. And Stone has played over there and looked better at times than I thought he would at the right side.

“So, it’s a good competition. We’re going to be OK at right tackle.”

Lucas said he’s been working on not getting too excited about his last three days as the starter.

“I’m really not trying to get too caught up in depth-chart stuff, necessarily, but just on getting better every day, you know?” he said. “Just taking advantage of what I get.

“I mean, obviously there is adrenaline and emotion attached to it and all that,” Lucas said, “but the more you can stay more calm, cool and level-headed the better I’ve found it’s going to work in your favor.”

WSU schemes helped him

Lucas was regarded as one of the better pass protectors at tackle in college football his last couple seasons at Washington State. Coach Mike Leach had Lucas as redshirt sophomore starting every game, pass blocking 55 times per week versus 16 runs, in the Cougars’ Air Raid offense in 2019. That was the last full season Leach led WSU.

Leach left to coach Mississippi State before the 2020 season. Nick Rolovich arrived from Hawaii to give the Cougs a new run-and-shoot offense. That had Lucas run blocking more. Lucas and Wazzu got up to an average of 31 runs per game with 35 passes per game last season.

Seahawks scouts and coaches liked that no tackle in college football pass blocked more than Lucas in 2019, and that last season Lucas was in a balanced offense with zone run-blocking principles similar to Seattle’s.

“They really worked hand and hand together,” Lucas said of the Air Raid and Run-and-Shoot preparing him for the NFL.

But he never had to block Darrell Taylor in college.

Taylor sped past Lucas a couple times in practice Friday. They would have been sacks of Geno Smith had Taylor been allowed to hit the quarterback.

Then again, Taylor has been speeding past every Seahawks would-be blocker in this camp.

In Saturday’s mock game the starting outside linebacker in Seattle’s new, faster, more versatile 3-4 defense that fits him often flew around Curhan. The first time was for a would-be sack of Smith on a 4th and 6. Then Taylor beat Curhan and steamed free at the quarterback again, causing Smith to flinch. He threw a pass late and behind Penny Hart incomplete.

In between those plays tight end Colby Parkinson had to hold Taylor to keep him out of the backfield. Officials penalized Parkinson for that, ruining the drive.

“It’s a lot different. It’s a lot faster than my college days,” Lucas said of the speed of Seahawks pass rushers such as Taylor.

“And, I mean, the challenge just takes it up to another level. But with that you just get it movin’ and improve.

“It’s mainly technique. Technique, technique. Fundamentals, fundamentals.”

It sounded like he was reciting a line from Andy Dickerson, his new Seattle line coach.

“If you have good fundamentals, never get bored with those, you are going to be a good player for a long time,” Lucas said.

He played most of his WSU career standing at the snap, in a two-point stance. That was to more quickly get into his many pass-blocking sets. The stereotypical NFL knock on an Air Raid offensive lineman — one on most college linemen now — is he is isn’t used to or good at firing off the ball from a three-point stance, with his hand on the ground.

Lucas, who turns 24 in October, couldn’t wait to show NFL teams before this spring’s draft he can block effectively out of a three-point stance.

“I was really excited to put my hand in the dirt,” he said, “simply because I know there’s a lot of doubt that I can do that, so I use that to say, ‘Well, I CAN do that here, and get better at it.’”

Now Lucas has a prime chance to start opposite Cross. If Lucas wins the job the Seahawks will become the third team in more than 50 years to start two rookie offensive tackles in an NFL season opener. Sports Illustrated reported the 2009 Jacksonville Jaguars and 1982 St. Louis Cardinals are the only teams since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger to start two rookies as offensive tackles in week one.

Whenever Lucas is done playing football — he hopes in decades, not years — he’s got a fallback plan that belies his calm, go-with-the-flow vibe.

“I play guitar,” he said.

“It was always my dream to be either a professional football player — or in a kick-ass heavy metal band.”