RENTON — Three games into the 2014 season, Seahawks tight end Zach Miller has six catches for 76 yards, modest numbers, to be sure. But don’t let those numbers fool you into thinking that the Seahawks won’t miss Miller, who underwent ankle surgery last week, and is expected to be out at least a few weeks.
Since coming to Seattle in 2011, Miller has never matched the receiving numbers he put up in Oakland, but as a blocker the veteran tight end has been a big part of Seattle’s offense, both in the running game and in pass protection.
“Zach does a ton of things,” head coach Pete Carroll said after the Seahawks held a walkthrough Monday, their first time back on a field since their bye week. “He was with (offensive line coach Tom Cable) all those years back in Oakland, and that background that they build has really helped us a lot, in so many different ways. All the little things that he knows how to do. … He’s a very versatile player, extremely on it, and a tough competitor too, so we’ll miss Zach.”
Exactly how long the Seahawks will be missing Miller remains to be seen, but Carroll indicated it would likely be a matter of weeks, not months, and confirmed that there were no concerns about the surgery ending Miller’s season.
“He had his ankle cleaned up,” Carroll said. “There’s a lot of speculation about how long it’s going to take, we’ll just have to wait and see. We don’t know yet. Give him a couple of weeks, then we’ll go week-to-week and see how he does.
“It’s been bothering him for a number of weeks, and he’s been playing with it. We just don’t want him to have to tolerate it any longer, wanted to see if we can fix him up. Hopefully he’ll have a speedy recovery — it’s just a cleanup kind of thing — but he had some loose bodies in his ankle that were bothering him and he was very, very uncomfortable.”
Carroll said Miller playing through the sore ankle the rest of the year wasn’t really an option, as it would have only gotten worse, though Miller did play in a season-high 91 percent of the offensive snaps in Seattle’s win over Denver. By having the surgery in the bye week, Miller will miss one fewer game than if he had waited a few more weeks until the pain was no longer tolerable.
As for how the Seahawks replace Miller during his absence, second-year tight end Luke Willson will take on the biggest role, but this will also mean a chance for Cooper Helfet to play his first NFL games outside of the special teams plays he had in his debut against Denver.
It appears that, for now at least, the Seahawks won’t bring in outside help, with Carroll saying they currently prefer their in-house options to pick up the slack in Miller’s absence.
“Yes, we really do,” Carroll said. “We’ve looked hard, we’ve had a lot of guys in here, worked out a lot of people, and we would like to stay with our people. Banking on the system and the communication working for us and all of that, so we’re going to get it fixed right here.”
In addition to Willson and Helfet, the in-house options also could include undrafted rookie RaShaun Allen, who is currently on the practice squad. For blocking purposes, the Seahawks also have two backup tackles, Alvin Bailey and Garry Gilliam, who have played as an extra blocker in jumbo packages. And Gilliam, an undrafted rookie out of Penn State, was actually a tight end until moving to tackle as a senior, so he could be an option to do more than just serve as an extra blocker.
Carroll said that while Gilliam isn’t the type to come and ask to play a new position, it has been discussed and the rookie is more than willing.
“He could (play tight end),” Carroll said. “He has it in his background. He played it at Penn State for a number of years, and he’s already worked there, so he’s eligible for that too.
“He hasn’t really come up and banged on my door about that, but he’s more than willing. We’ve talked about it for a long time ever since we first got him in here that this could be a possibility, so he’s ready if we call on him.”
And even with a player as important as Miller sidelined, Carroll said the offense won’t change drastically in his absence.
“No, not necessarily,” Carroll said. “We’ll see in time how we do, but we’re going to continue to do the things we’ve been doing.”
Other injuries
While Miller needed surgery on his ankle, another player with a problematic ankle is improving. Safety Kam Chancellor struggled with bone spurs in his ankle in Seattle’s Week 2 loss in San Diego, and was a question mark leading up to the Denver game, but he recovered enough to not just play in that game, but to make such a big impact that he was named NFC defensive player of the week. Carroll said last week that Chancellor’s ankle potentially could be an issue to monitor going forward, but after seeing Chancellor Monday, Carroll sounded optimistic that his Pro Bowl strong safety will be fine.
“He looked great today,” Carroll said. “It was an issue a couple weeks ago in San Diego, he made it back and did a really good job last week, played great football, and he looks fine today. So we might have put that one behind us.”
Cornerback Tharold Simon, who is recovering from knee surgery, is “doing great,” Carroll said, and should return to practice in the next couple of weeks.
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