RENTON — Max Unger, grizzled vet?
Well, not quite. But on a Seahawks’ offensive line made up mostly of talented but inexperienced players, Unger, who by all normal measures is young and inexperienced himself, practically qualifies as an elder statesman. If not for left guard Robert Gallery,
who the Seahawks signed to add experience, the 25-year-old Unger would be the oldest member of the Seahawks’ starting five.
“Yeah, that is weird,” Unger said. “It’s not that big of a deal though. We’re all pretty young, and we’re figuring it out. It’s no excuse. So what if we’re young? It happens.”
Unger, a second-round pick out of Oregon in 2009, is back to playing center after spending most of his rookie year and injury-shortened second season at right guard. With all of 17 NFL starts under his belt, he ranks a distant second behind Gallery (91) in career starts on Seattle’s line. Left tackle Russell Okung started 10 games as a rookie while battling ankle injuries, and right guard John Moffitt and right tackle James Carpenter are both rookies.
And if the Seahawks’ line is going to figure things out quickly, as Unger hopes, a lot of that will fall on his shoulders. Sure, Gallery is the 31-year-old seasoned pro who knows the blocking scheme best having played for offensive line coach Tom Cable in Oakland. But on any line the center has a lot to do with how well the entire unit functions.
Considering that Unger played just one game last year before suffering a season-ending toe injury, and that in the previous season he started 13 of 16 games at guard, not center, that could be viewed as a cause for concern. Seattle’s coaches, however, see things differently.
“He’s embracing that role beautifully, really sharp,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “He’s not an experienced player, but he’s one that gives us the confidence. He’s going to get it right, he’s going to make his calls, he’s studies so hard and it means so much to him. He’s taking over at a very meaningful spot right there. We look forward to his growth.”
If anything, Carroll admits, they waited too long to move Unger to center. In 2009, under head coach Jim Mora, the Seahawks began the year with Unger at right guard and former first-round pick Chris Spencer at center. Towards the end of the season, the decision was made to swap Spencer and Unger, but when Carroll and his staff took over in 2010, they decided to go back to Spencer at center and Unger at guard.
When Cable came in, however, he immediately evaluated his options and saw Unger as the team’s long-term answer at center. As a result, the team elected not to keep Spencer in free agency, and the Seahawks are sticking with Unger as their center for now and into the foreseeable future.
“Well, honestly I think we missed it last year,” Carroll said. “We started him at guard. The guys thought that was the best place for him with the guys that we had, but going back to the draft and looking at the evaluations — everybody thought he was going to be a really good center. So Tom saw it, he had evaluated him in the draft and seen him as a center, was looking for it and kind of put it together.”
And while everyone is excited to be back on the field after the lockout wiped out offseason minicamps and organized team activities, a return to football is particularly welcome to Unger after he had to sit out almost the entire 2010 season. Unger, who in 2009 became the first Seahawks rookie lineman to start all 16 games since Ray Roberts in 1992, began last season entrenched in the starting lineup. But in the season-opener against San Francisco, he felt something painful in his toe, though it wasn’t enough to keep him out of the game.
Further tests, however revealed a severe case of turf toe — which might be the most understated injury name in sports — and Unger had to undergo season ending surgery.
“It was just a freak thing,” he said. “That’s nothing you can obviously plan for, and it’s something you never really think is that serious. Even I didn’t think it was that serious. I finished the game, did an MRI and it was no good. It was tough.”
But now Unger is back and healthy, and he thinks he is no less rusty than everyone else because of the absence of offseason workouts.
“I’ve been doing this for a pretty long time,” he said. “Football is football, so it’s just a matter of getting that new system. … The concepts are similar, but the verbiage is different. So, it’s just a matter of getting in there and actually doing it. We know what to do in the concepts, now it’s just going on the field and doing it.”
Still, as happy as Unger is to be back on the field, he knows things won’t be perfect for his line, particularly in the early going. An offensive line, more than just about any position group, needs time together to learn to play as a unit. So there have been hiccups along the way — missed assignments, false starts, fumbled snaps — things that won’t be fixed overnight.
“I mean, it’s slow,” Unger said. “It’s frustrating. You want to just get off the ball and just start rocking, but we’re thinking a lot and it’s slowing us down.”
But even at 25, and with almost an entire season missed, the Seahawks expect Unger to be one of the people leading as the line finds its way. It’s a challenge both Unger and his coaches expect him to conquer.
“When you don’t get to play, you never get those reps back that you lost,” Cable said. “So that’s the negative, but he’s a brilliant, brilliant guy and very talented, so his acceleration and learning has been extreme.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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