For Monroe Freeling and the offensive line, the first transition begins on Day 1

“I know what Monroe is made of,” Morgan said. “He’s a competitor. He’s super smart. He’s going to go out there, he’s going to attack this thing, and we have full confidence in him. . . .

“There’s some little things that he’s going to have to get used to, but he’s a young, moldable rookie, you know, a guy that’s going to come in here; he’s going to be coached really well by Joe Gilbert. Joe will do a great job with him. We have full confidence in him. We have full confidence in Monroe, and they’re going to attack it together, and I know Monroe is going to put the work in, and I feel good about it.”

The fact that Morgan and others have seen what this kind of situation looks like before, and have seen it work, helps. For his former teammate, Hall of Honor quarterback Jake Delhomme (in town for the start of camp), it was reminiscent of his first year here, when first-rounder Jordan Gross flipped from the left to the right for his rookie year, allowing veteran Todd Steussie to stay put on the left for a year.

Gross went on to a long and successful career, and the early transition didn’t slow him a bit.

“Everybody knew Jordan was going to transition to the left eventually,” Delhomme said. “I mean, Jordan could have played split end, and he would have done it. But he’s that guy. So he went to right tackle, and he didn’t miss a beat, and Jordan will tell you the first thing he, the only thing he ever worried about was having to block Julius Peppers and how am I going to do this? It was so easy for him. No one knew. No one knew if there was an issue because he just did it seamlessly.”

“Thank goodness we signed Walker, so that works out perfectly because Ickey is not feeling the pressure or rush of ‘I’ve got to get back.’ Thank goodness they drafted Monroe where they did.

“Things have a way of playing themselves out.”