Ohio State's offensive line struggles make a bit more sense when you realize Jack Mewhort was drafted in the second round, Andrew Norwell made the Panthers as an unrestricted free agent, and Corey Linsley will start for the Green Bay Packers tomorrow night against the defending Super Bowl champions.
It's going to be a bit of a baptism by fire for the rookie, as his first defensive assignment comes against Seattle's 6'1" 310 lbs nose guard, Brandon Mabin.
Mabin had two sacks last against the Packers during Green Bay's last trip to Seattle in 2012. Could he be up for a repeat performance?
Bruce Irvin, a Seattle linebacker, thinks so:
“If I’m a rookie and I’ve got Brandon Mebane my first game – he’s one of the best nose tackles in the league – it’s going to be big for [Linsley],” Irvin said. “I’m gonna pray for him. It’s going to be a long night, man.”
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“We’ve just got to take advantage of it,” Irvin said. “All the weaknesses he shows us, we have to expose it and hopefully [Mebane] gonna do what I know he gonna do to him.”
Linsley could certainly draw easier assignments than an underrated part of Seattle's dynamite defense, but these are the sorts of challenges an NFL starting center faces on an almost weekly basis.
Linsley fell all the way to the fifth round in the 2014 draft, and although he's starting due to J.C. Tretter's injury, Linsley has already proven plenty of doubters wrong.
Perhaps Bruce Irvin is the next on the list.
