The Seahawks signed Johnathan Hankins this offseason to be an early-down run stuffer.

The 325-pound defensive tackle, who is in his 12^th NFL season, has made a long career out of doing the dirty work in the trenches that often gets overlooked.

It isn't a role that always comes with a ton of attention or accolades, but it does garner plenty of respect within the team. That's the case regardless of how much a particular gameplan calls on Hankins, but his value was even more obvious last week when, in the first half of a win over the Dolphins, the Seahawks lost defensive linemen Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II to injuries. That means Hankins, along with Jarran Reed, Dre'Mont Jones and Mike Morris, all had to put in some extra work, with Hankins playing 33 of the Seahawks' 61 defensive snaps. Both in terms of total snaps and percentage of playing time, it was Hankins' biggest workload since Week 9 of last season when he was in Dallas, and just the fourth time in the past three seasons he has played more than half of his team's defensive snaps, something he did on a regular basis prior to 2022.

"He played great," defensive coordinator Aden Durde said of the 32-year-old Hankins. "We spoke about it last week, but when you've got an older guy like that, the blocking schemes and those things, he's had so many reps of those. In games like that, when you see unscouted runs and stuff like that, he can react now. He can come back, and give you clean feedback. I feel like he really pushed himself last week. I think he played 33 snaps, and he normally plays probably in the range of like 18 to 22. To take on that, he's done a great job for us."

Hankins finished last weekend's game with three tackles and a quarterback hit, a performance that included a third-and-1 stop, a tackle for loss, and is almost always the case for an interior linemen, plenty of other crucial plays that didn't show up in the stat sheet, including multiple run plays in the red zone he helped wreck at the line of scrimmage before teammates got there to make the tackle.

Through three games, Hankins has three tackles for loss, tied for second in the league among interior linemen behind Green Bay's Devonte Wyatt, who has five.

"There's a reason why you play 12 years in the league," Durde said. "He's a constant pro, he goes through the process, he loves football, he loves the everyday grind of it. It's a cool thing to see. You can see he's helping the young guys."

Said Hankins, when asked about his tackles for loss, "I guess just playing 12 years, understanding what I'm getting. To me, it isn't really that complicated, but just playing a little bit more aggressively, having a better feeling of the defense and with T-Dot (linebacker Tyrel Dodson) behind me and just trying to be impactful and help guys out there."

With Williams and Murphy both ruled out for Monday night's game in Detroit, Hankins will again be asked to take on a bigger role once again, particularly against a physical, talented Lions offensive line that leads the way for one of the league's best rushing attacks.

The game will also be a homecoming for Hankins, who grew up in Detroit, where he starred at Southeastern High School. He also will serve as one of the team’s four game-day captains on Monday night. Hankins said he is expecting "at least 20" friends and family members to be attendance, though he cautions some of those thinking they'll get prime seats may need to think again.

"People think they're going to get 50-yard line, first two rows," he said. "I said 'That's not me, sorry.' But most definitely my parents would be there for sure."

It was in Detroit where Hankins earned the nickname Big Time Hank, a play off of his last name, his size and eventually, his path to Ohio State and the NFL.

"My oldest brother was Hank, and then my second oldest brother, obviously they called us by Hankins, our last name," he said. "But I guess they would say Big Time because I was the one that made it to the big leagues and fulfilled everything I dreamed about, but it was just a name."

Big Time may just be a nickname, but it also describes Hankins' play in his first year with the Seahawks as he prepares to head back home and face his hometown Lions.