On Tuesday, the Seahawks acquired All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts, adding one of the NFL's best offensive linemen to Seattle's group up front.

"We're really excited to have the opportunity to acquire Quenton Nelson," head coach Mike Macdonald said Thursday. "I think John (Schneider) and his team did a great job of making that happen and we're excited for him to join our squad, join the 12s. Also, I think our offensive line probably played their best game of the season this past Sunday night. And I just want to be clear; this isn't like a commentary on any of our personnel or anything like that."

With the addition of Nelson, who will be playing left guard, Grey Zabel will move over to the starting right guard spot. Throughout his time at North Dakota State University, Zabel played at a few positions across the line, including left guard, left tackle and right guard.

Zabel said there were "a lot of emotions" about moving to the right guard position, but he sees this as an opportunity for himself.

"At the end of the day, I'll do whatever's best for the team," Zabel said. "Get to learn from an unbelievable player, person, leader, as Q (Quenton Nelson) is. And at the end of the day, it's going to be such a growing experience for me, kind of move positions as well as be able to learn from a guy like that. And at the end of the day, just become a better football player."

Nelson is in his ninth season in the league and was named first-team All-Pro in each of his first three seasons and has been named second-team All-Pro three times. He's also been selected to the Pro Bowl in every season of his career, joining Hall of Famer Joe Thomas as the only two offensive linemen in NFL history to make the Pro Bowl in each of their first eight seasons.

That kind of dominance is something that a young offensive lineman like Zabel has looked up to.

"There was a lot of film study done in the past year and a half of watching Quenton and his ability," Zabel said. "So you try and be as much as you can like him, but you got to understand what he does is kind of one-of-one at the old guard position. So just to try and be as close to him as possible."

Zabel added: "[Nelson's] an unbelievable player. You always strive to be like a guy like that. His run blocking is unmatched. He's an unbelievable pass blocker as well too."

Macdonald said they took into account Zabel's past experience at right guard when deciding to shift him to that position.

"That'll help with the learning curve," Macdonald said. "But there's a process that's to be had and we got the right guys for the job, but we understand it's a process as well and we got to attack the heck out of it."

Along with the learning curve will be the natural chemistry of playing alongside someone new.

"That's another thing that you look at is trying to mesh and vibe as well as you can with Abe," Zabel said. "But Abe's an unbelievable tackle to begin with. So you're going from an elite tackle to elite tackle going from left side to right side. So I'm fortunate in that way, and I know me and Abe are going to do our best to mesh and gel as fast as we can and go out there on [Monday] and play some good football."

With Seattle moving Zabel to right guard, Anthony Bradford will serve has the primary backup for both guard spots going forward.

"It's not an easy situation," Macdonald said of the move. "I thought Anthony played really good football for us and he has, and he's earned a significant role on our team, a starting-level role. And so it's one of those 'through not around' type of things with AB (Anthony Bradford) that is not easy. So really no way to sugarcoat it. And I think he believes us when we say this is how much we love him as teammates. The guys love him in the locker room. He's a fantastic teammate. We don't expect him to be jumping for joy in the situation because that's not realistic, but he's going to be a great teammate and he's going to stay ready and we know how this league works. I mean, you're a play away from him playing every play again. So it's not an easy situation, but he's a tough cookie and the guys will have his back as well."