RENTON — The Seattle Seahawks are putting a lot of faith in Garry Gilliam.
The player penciled in to start at left tackle has little pedigree, is going through a position change, and he’s coming off surgery. Yet none of that deterred the Seahawks from handing Gilliam the keys to the most important position on the offensive line.
Gilliam’s switch from right to left tackle is one of the most important storylines of Seattle’s preparations for the 2016 season, and the Seahawks believe Gilliam has everything it takes to protect quarterback Russell Wilson’s blind side.
“He is really excited about this season,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said.
“He has just grown so much, so quickly. He’s really looking forward to the challenge on the left side, it’s kind of where we always pictured him.”
It took faith for the Seahawks to anoint Gilliam their starting left tackle, considering:
— The third-year player was an undrafted rookie out of Penn State who played tight end in college until his senior season, and he has only one season as an NFL starter under his belt.
— Gilliam’s experience is primarily at right tackle, where he started every game last season, and he’s now having to master the nuances of playing on the left side, where he’ll face the fastest pass-rushers in the league.
— Gilliam didn’t even have the opportunity to delve into the position switch full-time during the offseason, being forced out of all of Seattle’s offseason on-field activities because of surgery to have a cyst removed from his knee.
But while Gilliam’s resume may not be the strongest to replace former Pro Bowler Russell Okung, who signed as a free agent with the Denver Broncos, the Seahawks have seen enough from Gilliam to believe he’s the answer at left tackle.
Gilliam was not a surprise choice to replace Okung. He served as Okung’s back-up at left tackle in 2014 before making the right-tackle position his own last season. When the team chose not to sign a free agent left tackle or select a left tackle in the draft, Gilliam was the natural option.
“After game five last year he did extremely well,” Seahawks offensive line coach Tom Cable said.
“Then the athleticism, he’s a former tight end, all those things, they kind of showed up when we lost Russ [Okung]. You have the opportunity to draft a left [tackle] if there’s one there, if he’s not then you use the guys on your football team. So he’s the right answer for us, based on his experience last year and his athleticism.”
The biggest issue so far for Gilliam in his transition from right to left tackle has just been getting on the field. In addition to missing out on offseason activities, he’s been limited in practices so far during training camp, though he’s seen his number of snaps increase as camp has progressed.
“I feel wonderful,” Gilliam said.
“My knee feels great, no issues there, no hesitation. They’re holding me back for a little bit and slowly getting more reps. But besides that everything feels great.
“I thought maybe it was something from a past injury, maybe some scar tissue that got knocked loose or something,” Gilliam added.
“It kind of bothered me a little bit last season, but not too much — I was able to play, obviously. Then through the offseason as I was continuing to do stuff my knee wasn’t able to bend a lot. So we got some imaging done and saw there was a cyst in there, went in and cleaned it out, quick 20-minute procedure.”
Gilliam plays a different style than Okung, and Cable invoked a basketball analogy to explain the difference in what fans will see from Seattle’s left tackle this season.
“Garry is like a point guard, to put it that way,” Cable said. “Russ would be like a power forward. So [Gilliam] is going to be niftier, he’s going to be a little quicker, change direction faster.”
That speed should serve Gilliam well as he faces the best pass-rushers the NFL has to offer.
“I’ve been told that’s usually where the faster rushers are at, and I’ve been told I’m a fast offensive tackle,” Gilliam said.
“So that’s a pretty good matchup. But every person is different, every person can throw a changeup at you. My job is to block the person across from me who I’m supposed to block, and I don’t care what they’re doing or how they’re going to do it, I’m just going to do my job.”
It’s an important job, but the Seahawks have faith that Gilliam can handle it.
________
The [Everett] Daily Herald is a sister paper of the PDN. Sports writer and columnist Nick Patterson can be reached at npatterson@heraldnet.com
