The Seattle Seahawks held media availability following Wednesday’s OTA practice, with right tackle Abe Lucas a welcome sight at the podium after knee problems sidelined him the previous offseason.
“I don’t know if anybody’s ever really 100 percent healthy,” Lucas said. “I’m playing, that’s a good sign.”
Lucas missed 11 games in 2023 and another 10 in 2024, with a knee tendon issue the primary culprit for his lengthy absences. With surgery long completed, Lucas is touting how well he feels physically.
“Night and day,” Lucas said. “It helps when you’re not in a brace and you can actually walk without crutches. You guys have seen, I post on social media me lifting and it sends everybody into a frenzy, which I think is kind of funny. But I’m doing good work, so I’m excited about it.”
[And lest you think he’s slimmed down](https://twitter.com/MikeDugar/status/1927848989669609741), he hasn’t.
“Everybody thought I was like 280. I’m 325. Rest assured, I’m good.”
One of the keys for the Seahawks offense this year is to fix a rushing attack that has been anywhere from stuck in neutral to running in reverse. The hiring of veteran offensive line coach and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is a strong indicator of how Seattle wants to change its offensive approach.
“Everybody wants to run the ball,” Lucas said. “But when you come in and it’s kind of a non-negotiable 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.”
As simple as it sounds, Seattle wants to be great at the simple stuff in order to accomplish its goals.
”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,” Lucas said. “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.”
Lucas is going to be an integral part of the Seahawks’ latest attempt at building a quality offensive line. The foundation of the next great Seattle OL started with him and Charles Cross from the 2022 draft class. While Cross has only missed a few games, Lucas’ health has been anything but pristine. When asked how this has affected him mentally, Lucas held a levelheaded viewpoint.
“Obviously, I wanted to play, but unfortunately there are things in life you can’t really control,” Lucas said. “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.”
Watch the full video of Lucas’ media session below.