George Fant will need surgery on torn ACL, season likely over

George Fant’s injury looked bad on first glance, and the worst fears have been confirmed. The Seattle Seahawks starting left tackle suffered a torn ACL in the second quarter of the team’s 20-13 win over the Minnesota Vikings, and that means his season is almost certainly finished.

“Really broken-hearted about George Fant getting hurt,” Carroll said in the post-game press conference. “Just unfortunate. He’s done so much, come so far and everybody’s cheering for him and rooting for him all along. He’s going to be in trouble getting back this season. He’s got a knee injury that’s going to require surgery, unfortunately. Kinda takes a little something out of it for everybody.”

It was a case of friendly fire, unfortunately. Justin Britt was helping Luke Joeckel finish his block on Tashawn Bower, and fell into Fant’s right leg shortly thereafter. He was taken off the field on a cart with an air cast on his leg. There’s not much else to be said about the play other than echoing Pete’s thoughts about being heartbroken for Fant. He was by no means Seattle’s #1 choice for left tackle when he was an undrafted rookie last season, but after Bradley Sowell’s injury in October, Fant became the starter. Yes, he looked the part of a basketball-to-football convert learning a position he’d never played before, but the coaching staff raved about him this offseason, he’d been playing well in preseason, had the starting LT job locked up, and then this happens.

Rees Odhiambo was Fant’s replacement for the remainder of the game, and the results were not pretty. He had a couple of holding penalties and a really rough time blocking for either Trevone Boykin or Austin Davis in the second-half. If Odhiambo isn’t going to be starting for Fant in the long-term, we could see Luke Joeckel shift to tackle, with Jordan Roos taking Luke’s place at left guard.