Seahawks left tackle George Fant out for the year

After starting 10 games last season, George Fant was expected to once again lock down Russell Wilson’s blindside, but an injury has ruled him out for the season.

Last night, the Seattle Seahawks much maligned offensive line suffered a critical blow, as starting left tackle George Fant tore his ACL, officially ending his season. The injury happened only a few minutes into the second quarter of the Seahawks preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings, when center Justin Britt barreled into Fant trying to execute a block.

After the game, head coach Pete Carroll was understandably upset:

"“I’m really, really brokenhearted by George Fant getting hurt. It’s just unfortunate. He’s just done so much, come so far and everybody’s cheering for him and been rooting for him all along. And then he’s gonna be in trouble, you know, getting back this season, got a knee injury that requires surgery.”"

The Seahawks moved offensive guard Rees Odhiambo over to left tackle after Fant left the game. The team will almost certainly have to do some shuffling along the offensive line in the coming days. If they don’t feel comfortable leaving Odhiambo to protect their franchise quarterback’s blindside, they have a list of lineups to choose from, though none of them are pretty.

Luke Joeckel, the former second overall pick from the Jacksonville Jaguars, is currently slotted in at left guard, but has played almost his entire career at left tackle, so maybe we see him kick back out. Justin Britt, who started his career at right tackle, moved to right guard, and is now the starting center is an option. Right tackles Germain Ifedi and Ethan Pocic could also find themselves in new spots.

Whatever arrangement coaches Tom Cable and Pete Carroll settle on, they’ll still feel the loss of Fant, the former All-Conference power forward on the Western Kentucky men’s basketball team. Despite playing only one year of college football, Fant found himself starting for the Seahawks after Bradley Sowell went down with an injury last year.

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Both the team and fans were looking forward to seeing the leap he would make after bulking up from his pre-draft weight of 296 pounds, but they’ll have to wait another year.