RENTON, Wash. -- Four days before the regular-season opener, the Seattle Seahawks suffered their first significant injury of the summer.
Starting right guard and first-round pick Germain Ifedi suffered a high ankle sprain and is expected to be out at least three weeks. The Seahawks play the Miami Dolphins, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers and New York Jets the first four weeks of the season before an early bye.
That means matchups against interior linemen such as Ndamukong Suh, Aaron Donald, Arik Armstead, DeForest Buckner and Muhammad Wilkerson.
The offensive line has been this team's biggest question mark all offseason. According to OverTheCap.com, the Seahawks have $9.05 million committed to their entire offensive line in 2016. That's easily the lowest number in the league. No other team is below $14.1 million.
Below is a look at where things stand at all five positions going into the opener.
Left tackle - Bradley Sowell signed with the Seahawks as a free agent, and to his credit, he won the starting job this summer. The coaches believe that Sowell can succeed in an offense that runs the ball as much as the Seahawks, but he has not started a game since 2013 and is an unproven player.
Left guard - Mark Glowinski has had an excellent training camp and preseason. The second-year player started one game as a rookie but is probably the lineman the coaches have the least concerns about.
Center - Justin Britt switched from left guard to center this offseason and has been one of the pleasant surprises of the summer. But he has never started a regular season game before at center. With Ifedi sidelined, one option the Seahawks have is to move Britt back to guard, but that would mean starting rookie sixth-round pick Joey Hunt at center. That would be a big ask, considering Hunt is 6 feet, 295 pounds and would be getting his first NFL action against some of the best defensive tackles in the game.
Patrick Lewis started nine games at center for the Seahawks last year, but the team waived him last month, and he signed with the Buffalo Bills.
Right guard - There are three options here: J'Marcus Webb, Rees Odhiambo and Britt. Webb started 13 games at right guard last year for the Oakland Raiders before making the move to right tackle for the final three. The Seahawks have been adamant all offseason that right tackle is Webb's best position, but he might be their most logical option at guard.
Webb dropped hints on Twitter that he could be switching positions. If Ifedi were healthy, Webb would be looking at a backup spot.
Odhiambo, meanwhile, had an inconsistent preseason, which is to be expected for a rookie. But he could get a shot.
Timing is everything here. The Seahawks had veteran Jahri Evans on the roster until last weekend, and he had been taking reps at right guard with the second team. They cut Evans, and he re-signed with the New Orleans Saints.
Right tackle - Garry Gilliam started the summer at left tackle but got moved back to the right side, where he started 16 games last season.
One more note: If the Seahawks plug Webb in at right guard, their three backup offensive linemen will be rookies (George Fant, Odhiambo and Hunt).
