By Bob Condotta
The Seattle Times
It was truly the most fundamental aspect of moving to left guard that J.R. Sweezy had to get accustomed to Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.
In his first game ever at that position after playing his previous 75 NFL career games at right guard, Sweezy kept finding himself going to the right side of the huddle during the early moments of Seattle’s eventual 24-13 win.
“(I’m) just so used to it,” Sweezy said with a laugh.
He now has to get used to continuing to head to the left side, though.
Seattle coaches liked what they saw so much against Dallas — specifically, a rushing attack that was methodical in grinding out 113 yards while also allowing just two sacks — that they might stick with the guard tandem of Sweezy and D.J. Fluker for a while.
If nothing else, the pairing will be needed Sunday at Arizona with Ethan Pocic — who started the first two games at left guard — still battling an ankle injury.
Fluker missed the first two games because of a hamstring injury he suffered in the preseason, so Sweezy started those two games at right guard, with Pocic at left guard.
Pocic remained out of practice Wednesday, with Carroll indicating that even when he does return, the Seahawks may have to think about what is the best guard tandem going forward.
“It’s going to have to show itself that he’s really ready to go for us to change,” Carroll said of Pocic. “Those guys did a good job, and we don’t need to rush him back under these circumstances. We’re just getting started with D.J. back in and Sweez on the other side. I don’t expect that he would just jump right back in because he can’t practice today. That’s going to be hard for him to get back that fast, but he might be available on game day.”
Expect a Sweezy-Fluker guard tandem — with Justin Britt back at center — for one more week.
Such flexibility is what the Seahawks wanted when they signed Sweezy the first week of training camp after he was released by Tampa Bay in June.
Sweezy started 49 games for the Seahawks from 2012-15 after being drafted in the seventh round out of North Carolina State, where he had been a defensive tackle. He signed with the Bucs in the spring of 2016.
With Fluker and Pocic at the time viewed as the starting guards, Sweezy was brought in to add competition and depth with the thought that he could play on either side, if needed — even if he had never played on the left side before.
Why had he never played the left side before?
Sweezy answered with an answer so basic that he laughed as he finished it.
“Nobody ever asked me to go to the left side before,” Sweezy said. “I would have, but nobody asked me to.”
Seattle’s plan for Sweezy got waylaid when he suffered a high ankle sprain during his first practice back with the Seahawks, though he didn’t really know it at the time.
The injury was to the same leg on which he suffered a broken fibula late last year that contributed to his release from Tampa Bay.
Sweezy said surgery to fix the fibula — which included inserting seven screws and a “tight rope” band — meant “I didn’t have the same kind of symptoms” when he suffered the high ankle sprain as he would have previously.
In fact, the high ankle sprain initially seemed minor enough that Sweezy talked to Seattle media afterward and declared himself “100 percent” healthy. The Seahawks even considered returning him to practice before it was decided that he should have a magnetic resonance imaging test. That revealed the high ankle sprain and led to Sweezy being shelved for the rest of the preseason.
“That was tough,” Sweezy said of being injured during his first practice back with the Seahawks. “It was really tough, but I just stayed positive, and I knew what the outcome was going to be. It was just being patient, just sticking with it, being prepared for it.”
Sweezy did a few drills working at left guard as he began making his way back on the field but took no live snaps. When Fluker got hurt, he then switched back fully to the right side to fill in there.
When Pocic got hurt against the Bears — he played the entire game with the full extent of the injury revealed later — the Seahawks prepped Sweezy on the left side last week. With the Dallas game following a Monday nighter on the road, Seattle had light practices last week.
The result, Sweezy says, is that “I had never had a live rep there (at left guard)” until the first snap against the Cowboys on Sunday.
“After I got into a rhythm it started to fall in to place,” Sweezy said.
It was an effort much appreciated by Seahawks offensive line coach Mike Solari.
“It’s a work in progress,” Solari said. “Credit to him for going to left guard. It’s different. Your footwork is different, your pass sets, your hand placements, your reactions. It’s just a tremendously different skill to be able to do that.”
It’s a skill that Sweezy may get a chance to hone for a while.
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