RENTON — Reporters who cover the Seahawks learned quickly after Abraham Lucas arrived in 2022 that when a question was asked, an answer would generally be delivered with equal amounts directness and candidness.
The former Washington State standout and now Seahawks starting right tackle could, in fact, be accurately termed Honest Abe.
So it was again Wednesday when Lucas met the media following the team’s Organized Team Activity at the VMAC for the media’s first session with Lucas since the 2024 season, detailing not only his hope he is past the injuries of the past two seasons but also his optimism about Seattle’s new run-first offensive identity.
Last season was another challenging year for Lucas. He was limited to seven games while still recovering from knee surgery following the 2023 campaign, when he played just six games.
“Obviously, I wanted to play,’’ Lucas said. “But unfortunately there are things in life you can’t really control. So, it’s just up to you on how you want to respond. I took precautions to not let things get to my head. It’s probably the reason why I don’t have a Twitter — because I don’t need to deal with all that crap. But it’s like, ‘OK, I had surgery, so now we’re going to go after the rehab and we’re just going to get back to getting right.’ Things take a while to heal depending on what you injure. It was tough, but I’m still walking. It’s not amputated or anything.”
Lucas is, in fact, doing more than walking these days, again working as the starting right tackle during OTAs.
“I don’t know if anybody’s ever really 100% healthy,’’ he said when asked if he feels fully recovered. “I’m playing — that’s a good sign.”
Under more prodding, Lucas said he feels “night and day’’ better than last season. “It helps when you’re not in a brace and you can actually walk without crutches,’’ he said.
Getting as close to 100% as he can by September would obviously greatly benefit the Seahawks.
Lucas, the 72nd overall pick of the 2022 draft, seemed on his way to being a long-term pillar of the line when he started 16 games as a rookie as Seattle made a surprising run to a wild card playoff spot.
But a knee injury that crept up the following season placed an unexpected hurdle in his career and contributed to significant struggles for the line the past two seasons.
In Lucas’ absence the Seahawks were forced to start five other players at right tackle over the past two seasons, including signing 41-year-old Jason Peters out of retirement to get two starts in 2023.
Others who stared at right tackle the past two years were: Stone Forsythe (10 starts), Jake Curhan (four), Michael Jerrell (three) and George Fant (two).
Lucas finally returned midway through last season with Seattle going 5-2 in his seven starts before he sat out the final game against the Rams.
Now the hope is he is back for good, teaming with fellow 2022 draftee Charles Cross on the left side to give the Seahawks a reliable set of bookend tackles as they integrate a new offensive scheme emphasizing an outside zone running attack.
The hope also is that scheme of new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, which in general calls for more athleticism and quickness from linemen, will prove a better fit for what the team has on hand as the Seahawks look to revive a running attack that last season ranked 28th overall and 17th in yards per attempt at 4.2.
“Just downhill running off the ball, establishing the run,’’ Lucas said of the team’s offensive plan for 2025. “I know we had a lot of criticism for that, so moving into this year, we’re looking to really get after it in the run game specifically.”
To Lucas, the more important change is one of attitude.
“Everybody wants to run the ball,’’ he said. “But when you come in and it’s kind of a nonnegotiable that we’re running the ball. We put a fullback in the backfield, we’re changing it up, we’re doing things differently. It’s like an old-school mentality with a new-school principle sort of thing. Definitely just looking forward to getting after that.”
Asked if that commitment is different from the past few years, Lucas said: “I’ll put it like this: we’re trying to be elite at very few things, but those few things are what the offense is going to be based around, and that’s the run game. We’re going to be elite at the run game. That’s the philosophy with it. So, it’s not some hodgepodge of just a bunch of different stuff we’re just throwing in. We’re going to be elite at the basics and make sure that they work, so we can do it against anybody.”
If the Seahawks can do that, Lucas says the line can be “however good we want to be. We have the right coaching, the right tools. The identity has definitely changed from last year to this year. It’s on us as far as we want to take it.”
It’s a season that looms as pivotal for the career of the former Archbishop Murphy standout as he enters the final season of his original four-year rookie contract.
Most Read Sports Stories
Thanks to having earned a proven performance escalator for overall playing time, Lucas will make just over $3.4 million in 2025, about double what his original contract called for. That accounts for about half of the $7.3 million overall value of Lucas’ four-year deal.
Unless he is signed to an extension, he can become a free agent next March.
Seattle already has exercised a fifth-year option for Cross that guarantees him $17.56 million in 2026. That means the Seahawks may be content to let Lucas play out the 2025 season and then assess things.
Lucas, though, said any thoughts about his future are not for the present.
“I don’t really know too much about how that process works,’’ said Lucas, who has been able to spent this offseason concentrating on strength training and conditioning instead of rehab and said he is weighing in at 325 pounds. “I’m just trying to learn as much as I can in the offense so I can be crystal clear on it and confident in it going into the season this year.”
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta covers the Seahawks for the Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout the year.