Pete Carroll: George Fant, Dion Jordan should be ready for training camp

The loss of expected starting left tackle George Fant to an ACL tear in 2017 had major consequences for the Seattle Seahawks. They had to move second-year guard Rees Odhiambo to tackle, pushing Oday Aboushi and Mark Glowinski into more work inside, none of which went well. Not Odhiambo at tackle and not anyone at the guard positions. Eventually, the Seahawks had to give up two day two draft picks to acquire Duane Brown from the Houston Texans, the current left tackle.

But Fant is nearly all the way back and he could prove to be one of the most valuable backup offensive linemen in the division, if not much wider than that. Head coach Pete Carroll on Thursday emphasized that players who were at mini-camp should indeed be ready for the start of training camp.

That included Fant, as well as Dion Jordan (who recently had knee surgery), the recently-signed Brandon Marshall, and Mo Alexander. KJR’s Curtis Crabtree noted that their workloads could vary, however.

Seattle is expected to start Brown and Germain Ifedi at the tackle spots, plus Ethan Pocic and D.J. Fluker at the guard positions, but we’re all too familiar with how quickly things can change, because of injuries or otherwise. Fant was not a good player relative to starting NFL standards in 2016, but we are also well aware of the obstacles he was facing as an undrafted free agent rookie who hadn’t played organized football in years. Soon he’ll be a full year removed from his surgery and he’s been looking like he’s in good shape per his Instagram.

He could backup either tackle position or potentially fight for a job at guard. There’s little question that he’s one of the most gifted athletes in the league from a big person perspective, it’s just a matter of him getting important reps in practice with the 1s and 2s. By all accounts he is not yet at 100%, but he could be getting there by August.