The last time Joey Hunt lined up at fullback was in high school, but that's exactly the position the Seahawks' backup center found himself in for the first snap of his NFL career.
Hunt, who Seattle selected in the sixth round of the 2016 draft with the No. 215 overall pick out of TCU, has been active for each Seahawks game this season. Yet Sunday's 26-24 win over the visiting Atlanta Falcons marked the first time he has seen the field, as he lined up at fullback on a 2nd-and-goal play from the Falcons' 1-yard-line with Seattle trailing by seven late in the fourth quarter.
"We started doing that this week [in practice], but it's something I've done while growing up playing football back in the day when I was younger," the El Campo, Texas native Hunt said of his initial NFL play at fullback. "They just asked me if I would do it, I said, 'for sure.'"
The Seahawks used what Hunt called a "jumbo" package on the play, an aptly-named new-look formation that featured all of Seattle's active offensive linemen on the field, including backup guard/tackle J'Marcus Webb and right tackle Garry Gilliam reporting eligible as a tight end.
"We were all out there," Hunt said. "It was real cool to have all of us out there. It was awesome."
The beefy strategy worked, as running back Christine Michael ran behind Hunt's lead block to punch it in for a 1-yard score that pulled Seattle within one, 24-23, after a blocked extra point.
"Go block somebody," Hunt said of what was racing through his mind on the touchdown play. "I didn't do as good as I wanted to do, but we scored, so that's the main goal."
Fellow rookie offensive lineman Germain Ifedi, the team's 2016 first-round pick and starter at right guard, added with a smile of Hunt's play at fullback: "It was good since we scored. Joey gets a plus for that since we scored. It was great."
Needless to say Hunt's unique first play will stick with him for a while.
"My first NFL snap in a regular season," he said. "It was awesome to be part of that."
