RENTON, Wash. — When the Seattle Seahawks were terrorizing the rest of the NFL in the early 2010s, they had a unique blend of great players with unique personalities. From Richard Sherman to Kam Chancellor to Michael Bennett to Red Bryant, that locker room was packed with alphas both on and off the field.
The Legion of Boom is no more — linebacker Bobby Wagner, the last guy on the boat, was unceremoniously discarded in the 2022 offseason and signed with, of all teams, the Los Angeles Rams. And the offense that set the league alight isn’t quite what it used to be — not with Russell Wilson in Denver, and Marshawn Lynch wherever he is — through it did look pretty good on Monday Night Football.
For the Seahawks to redefine their franchise in a positive way, they’ll have to get some new alphas with their own ways of doing things. And it appears they did just that when they selected Washington State right tackle Abraham Lucas in the third round of the 2022 draft.
One thing that stood out to me about Lucas — beyond the college tape that had me ranking him as the fifth-best tackle in this class — was a story presented to me by NFL.com’s Eric Edholm, a longtime friend of the program.
Washington State OT Abe Lucas was bored at 3 am as a freshman and started ripping this song on his Fender in his dorm
Got a noise violation for it
“Still worth it,” Lucas said
Adjust the rankings, @NFL_DougFarrar pic.twitter.com/dZxhkqCsCV
— Eric Edholm (@Eric_Edholm) March 3, 2022
As I have been a guitar player since age 13, and my tastes tend to lean metallic, this certainly piqued my interest. I was beholden to avoid adjusting Lucas’ ranking based on his musical taste for professional reasons, but this is when you start rooting for a guy.
My first encounter with Lucas happened last Thursday, as I visited the Seahawks’ facility to get the lowdown on Monday night’s matchup with Russell Wilson and his Denver Broncs. I got that, but as legendary director Marty DiBerghi said at the beginning of “This is Spinal Tap,” I got more… a lot more. I was able to talk with Lucas about football, guitars, metal in general, and the art and science of the perfect pancake block.
Lucas is a local native who played his high-school ball at Archbishop Murphy High School in Everett (about 30 miles away from Lumen Field), so when we say that Abraham Lucas is the most interesting man in Seattle, it’s a homegrown thing.
Read on, and you’ll understand.
Lucas is both a technician and a mauler.
By my count, Lucas had four pancake blocks in his inaugural NFL preseason. This is highly impressive, as there are Pro Bowl tackles who don’t have five pancake blocks in an entire season. Especially since Lucas came from more of an Air Raid-style offense where power wasn’t the primary need, this came as a shock to a lot of people.
Moreover, this was not a preseason fluke. On Seattle’s first offensive play against the Broncos on Monday night, a run for no gain by Rashaad Penny, Lucas took to the second level of Denver’s defense, and bulled linebacker Jonas Griffith (No. 50) over safety Justin Simmons (No. 31). Now, he’s not just pancaking — he’s bowling.
Hey, remember all those pancake blocks Seahawks RT Abe Lucas had in the preseason?
This is the first play from scrimmage last night. pic.twitter.com/jEOpr3MuHN
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) September 13, 2022
I asked Lucas to get into the technique and the psychology of the perfect pancake block, and he paused for a beat.
“Technique-wise, it’s just everything you work on in practice. So, it’s nothing super- super-… like, extraordinary. I mean, I would explain it, but it would take a long time, because there’s a lot of stuff that goes into it with the footwork and the hand placement.
“The mentality? I just have the mentality to do my job. You know? Some people like to really get after it — to really get amped up. I just approach the game like, ‘This is what I’m going to do. I’m going to do my job, and when that stuff comes, you just kind of keep it going. You finish the play.’
“So, that’s how I’ve always approached it.”
I assured Lucas that, here at Touchdown Wire, we’re not afraid to get into the weeds when it comes to the technical aspects of football.
“I just try to be balanced the whole way through — to just make sure there’s no unnecessary movement with my feet, which I’m still improving on. And then, not leaning over once you hit the guy. Being able to drive your back leg through. Most of my stuff has come off the back side of a mid zone, so that’s different from front zone and outside zone. Those are a few of the points to make note of, I guess.”
I then showed him this play on my phone from Week 1 of the preseason against the Pittsburgh Steelers, when he took another linebacker with the number 50 to the woodshed — this time, it was Pittsburgh’s Delontae Scott.
“The initial call has me working with the guard, but then, the man I’m supposed to be going to disappears, so I’m turning back, looking for somebody to cross my face. He was in my path, so I just grabbed him and took him.”
Which is nice, I opined, if you can do it.
“Yeah, no complaints from me.”
The Stayer dorm story is true, and Lucas is a guitar nerd.
Now that we had the football stuff out of the way, it was time for me to put on my journalist hat and get to the bottom of the Slayer story. I asked Lucas if it was true, and he confirmed it.
“I’ve been a guitar player for a little while, so I got back [to the dorm] from a night out. I’m not going to say I was inebriated — of course not — but I was sitting there, my guitar was there, and I hadn’t played that previous day. I plugged it into my amp, and it was pretty early in the summer, so there wasn’t a lot of people. My dorm room was small, so if I turn it up really loud, the room gets super-loud, so I placed the face [of the amplifier] out the window, so the sound would go out the window, and not into my room.
“Then I was like, ‘Okay, it’s bedtime,’ and I went to bed. The next day, they were like, ‘Hey, was that you playing guitar? You need to keep it down!’
“‘Sorry, that’s my fault.’ But it was worth it. It was a good time.”
We’ll have to see if Lucas gets any more noise violations in King County than he did in the Palouse.
Lucas told me that he owns an black Epiphone electric Les Paul-style guitar (“It’s like a little shorter one”), and another guitar he bought recently, but he can’t remember the model.
“I have a couple others. I have an old Strat that I haven’t played in years, then I have a black Epiphone acoustic guitar. So I’ve got a few.”
(Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Epiphone Abe Lucas model? It has to happen).
What about the legendary amplifier?
“I can’t remember the name of my amp. It’s one of those big box ones, though. You crank it up, it gets loud.”
Lucas had talked in the preseason about his favorite bands, mentioning Alice in Chains a lot. So, I asked him about his favorite guitar players. First, Lucas wanted to make it clear — he’s not just a metal guy.
“I’m really into all types of music. At least in my experience, as a guy who likes to play guitar, I look more at the composition of music. That’s why I can appreciate heavy metal, because it’s complex in some cases. Not like jazz or classical, or anything like that, but I’m into all types of music. I have a lot of different playlists I go through on my phone.”
As far as his favorite guitarists, Lucas started at the top, with a notable Seattle native.
“I would say that my favorite player has to be Jimi Hendrix, just because of everything he did for guitar. And then, kinda keeping it strictly in the rock world, Adam Jones from Tool. I like him a lot. There’s a guy I really appreciate — the guitar player from Bad Brains…”
Dr. Know?
“Yeah. There’s a video of him on YouTube from 1982 at CBGB’s that’s pretty freaking cool. And then, I have a few others.”
And with that, it was time for Lucas to head to practice. Football practice, not guitar practice.
He may have to teach D.K. Metcalf how to play the guitar.
During his press conference last Thursday, D.K. Metcalf, Seattle’s star receiver, was asked how he spent his offseason. Metcalf said that he doesn’t watch football (“I play it enough. I’m up here from seven to five. I don’t need any more football”), and he played a lot of Call of Duty.
*Kyler Murray Contract Joke Incoming*
Metcalf also tried one other new avocation, albeit unsuccessfully.
“I tried to play the guitar and I lasted probably three, four days. I put it down, tried to pick it back up, but I’m back to square one. I have to be consistent with it.
“I’m not going to say I’m not very good at that. You’re putting words in my mouth. No, I just got to be more consistent, that’s it.”
So. what kind of guitar?
“I don’t know. I know it’s a black electric guitar. Yeah, it looks cool, I’ll say that.”
At that point, I had to bust in and tell Metcalf that he’s got an experienced guitarist right in his own locker room, and he might want to ask Lucas for lessons instead of trying to learn from YouTube.
I may have also mentioned the noise violation. Metcalf was not aware
“What’s your name?”
I told him.
“I’m gonna tell him that Doug told me.”
As the ’85 Bears would say, I’m not here to cause no trouble. So, I told Lucas that Metcalf needs a guitar buddy.
“Oh, I get it. Because I was frustrated when I started. So, I can give him tips if he wants.”
