Pete Carroll addresses offensive line, who will compete at what spots to begin

Seattle Seahawks head coach addressed the media on Wednesday at the owners meetings and had plenty to say about the much-discussed offensive line. Since signing Luke Joeckel and Oday Aboushi in free agency, there’s been speculation as to who will be tried at what positions, but Carroll cleared some of that up; at least, for now.

Carroll says that Joeckel will begin at left tackle, and that incumbent George Fant could sit behind him for awhile and learn. He remained positive about Fant’s long-term potential. On the right side, Carroll says the idea of moving Germain Ifedi from right guard to right tackle has been discussed. When Ifedi was drafted with the 31st overall pick in 2016, the team said he was going to play right tackle but by training camp, he was moved to guard. Aboushi will start out his Seahawks career competing to be the starting right guard.

As for 2016 third rounder Rees Odhiambo, Carroll says he will stay on the left side, compete with incumbent Mark Glowinski.

With these announcements, it sounds like the starting offensive line could be Joeckel at left tackle, Glowinski or Odhiambo at left guard, definitely Justin Britt at center, Aboushi at right guard, and Ifedi at right tackle. There’s been no mention recently of last season’s starting right tackle Garry Gilliam, who was given an original round tender and could still leave to join another team. As of now, it sounds like their plans might not include Gilliam. If he signs and returns to Seattle, obviously he will be in the competition.

The team will almost certainly draft at least one or two linemen in April and open up the competition some more, but as of now there are already four roster battles on the offensive line alone. These announcements clear some things up, but it is not even April yet, and all of these updates could change well before training camp opens, and there will definitely be some differences by the time Week 1 gets here.