For the second year in a row, tackle Stone Forsythe will be starting in a hostile environment in Detroit, and his teammates and coaches have a lot of faith as he prepares for his third straight start.
When it comes to players taking on bigger roles due to injuries, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald wants to feel like his team is deep enough that he's excited to see what that player does, not worried about who isn't available.
"We want to create enough depth where if we are stressed at a certain position, you can't wait for the next guy," Macdonald said. "Like 'I can't wait to see you play.' That's the feeling we want to generate around here."
That was true for Macdonald last week when safety Coby Bryant saw an increased role, in part due to an injury to K'Von Wallace and in part because the Seahawks played more dime defense (six defensive backs), as well as on the defensive line where players like Johnathan Hankins and Mike Morris saw more playing time than usual after Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II both exited with injury. And on the other side of the ball, Zach Charbonnet, starting in place of an injured Kenneth Walker III, rushed for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
And perhaps no player has embodied that mindset Macdonald is looking for from his backup players than tackle Stone Forsythe, who is preparing to make a third straight start in place of an injured Geore Fant, who opened the season starting in place of an injured Abraham Lucas.
Forsythe, a 2021 sixth-round pick, took over for an injured Fant in Seattle's Week 1 win over the Broncos, and he has steadily improved in each of the past two games.
"I think the film kind of speaks for itself," Macdonald said. "We talked about how he started out in Denver, and then I think since then, you've just seen a steady improvement. If we can get that from our whole football team, we're cooking. So he's right there. He's worked tremendously hard. I think he's improved tremendously, and we got a lot of confidence in him."
As well as Forsythe has played so far, he has not faced a test this season like the one he'll face on Sunday when he'll be asked to block Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson on a regular basis. Hutchinson, the No. 2 overall pick in 2022, recorded 21 sacks in his first two seasons, earning Pro-Bowl honors last year, and he's off to a great start this season, piling up a league-leading 6.5 sacks in three games. And Hutchinson has done most of his damage lined up on the left side of the Lions' line, meaning he'll go against Forsythe on most plays.
"He does a little bit of everything," Forsythe said. "He's got speed, he's got bull, he's got power, he can spin. So he's got a little rolodex of everything."
Of course, filling in for an injured starter in a raucous Ford Field is nothing new for Forsythe. Last season the Seahawks lost both starting tackles to injury in the opener, meaning Forsythe started at left tackle with Jake Curhan at right tackle in a Sunday night game that served as Detroit's home opener. And despite everything the Seahawks and their line had working against them, they were able to earn a road victory behind a huge day for the passing offense. With two backup tackles doing a great job, Geno Smith was able to throw for 328 yards and two scores while being sacked only once and hit only once.
Asked what he remembered about that memorable performance, Forsythe deadpanned, "We won, and it was pretty loud." But Forsythe can also take a lot of confidence into this game, both because of how he played against the Lions last year, and also because of the way he has played in two starts this year.
"You try not to take all those factors into account going into a game like that," he said of last year's game in Detroit. "You've just got to worry about silent count, keep focusing on what you've got to do. We knew those guys, what they had. They've got some dudes over there again this year. So I was just trying to focus on myself, be the best version of myself."
Normally, heading into a hostile environment to face a Hutchinson-led pass rush with the No. 3 option at right tackle would sound like a dangerous scenario for an offense, but with what Forsythe has shown so far this year, as well as how well he handled things in Detroit last season, the Seahawks have a lot of confidence in Forsythe in that spot.
"I thought he played tremendous last year, and he has continued to grow," Smith said. "Just his calm demeanor, just the way he approaches every single day at practice, knowing that he's the guy who's got to step up and go and do his thing, and we count on him to do that. Last year he performed extremely well against those guys, and they have a really good pass rush, and I thought Stone really held his own, and we expect the same from him. He's a great player, he's a young guy who's still learning, still growing. He's got all the tools—a 6-8 tackle, that's exactly what you look for—but we're looking forward to his performance."
