Kristjan Sokoli is now a guard — and might get into the competition there quickly. On Sunday, coach Pete Carroll said it might be time to start winnowing down the competition at center after saying that if the team had to play a game today, Lemuel Jeanpierre would get the start. On Monday, one of the backup centers — rookie Kristjan Sokoli — was playing left guard.
Sokoli, though, wasn’t just playing guard but doing so with the first unit throughout practice to see what he could do. Alvin Bailey has been running as the starting left guard, a spot that is open after James Carpenter signed with the Jets in the off-season. OL coach Tom Cable said after practice the team wants to make sure Bailey earns the job. “We’re going to create competition for him,’’ Cable said. “Kristjan Sokoli has shown, a lot like J.R. (Sweezy) three years ago, that he has a real knack for playing this game. He has to understand that he’s going to have failures and to not let it get him down or not struggle with those emotionally. Just put it behind him, learn from it and move to the next one. But he’s really talented. We have a number of guys I think who are going to challenge Alvin for that spot.”
Asked how Sokoli did in his first time at guard, Cable said: “He did fine. He had some failures, but then on top of that, the goods were like, Wow. That’s pretty cool.” Sokoli was a sixth-round pick who played defensive line at Buffalo, but like Sweezy three years ago, is being moved to the offensive line.
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