A week after the Seahawks made a surprising trade, news of which broke right after the team left for the airport, it seemed necessary to ask, just in case, if anyone had been traded or was going to be traded between now and Sunday’s game.
“No, we’re in good shape,” Carroll said. “But we’ll let you know.”
But even if the Seahawks aren’t sending anyone to a new team, they’ll be far from playing at full strength in Carolina, with seven players ruled out for Sunday’s game: FB Derrick Coleman, TE Zach Miller, C Max Unger, LB Bobby Wagner, DT Jordan Hill, CB Byron Maxwell and WR Bryan Walters.
Many of those were known throughout the week, but one name that only showed up on the injury report Wednesday was Walters, who suffered a concussion in Wednesday’s practice.
“He fell running a route and got a little whiplash on the turf and hit his head, got a concussion,” Carroll said. “So unfortunately he didn’t clear right away.”
Since trading Harvin, Walters has become Seattle’s starting kick and punt returner, so his absence is a significant one. Asked about the return situation, Carroll said, “Doug (Baldwin) is involved in the returns, Paul Richardson is involved in the returns. All of our guys who have been in the backup positions will be ready to go.”
Baldwin, who from time to time likes to stand in the background of other people’s press conferences, jokingly said, “Stop lying,” before heading into the locker room, to which Carroll responded, “He just wants to do both, he’s going to do one of them.”
Carroll said Richardson also isn’t a candidate to do both jobs, so if you consider that Baldwin has a history of returning kickoffs, and that Richardson was one of several players to practice punt returns in training camp, and has never been mentioned as a kick return option, it’s probably safe to assume that Baldwin will be the primary kick returner, and Richardson the punt returner.
Defensive end Michael Bennett showed up on Thursday’s injury report as well with a toe injury, but Carroll said, “He’s fine, he practiced full-out today.”
On CB Byron Maxwell, who has a calf strain: “He’s not quite making it, but he’s getting closer. He’s dong a lot of activity, and I would think next week he has a chance to get back.”
That means Tharold Simon, who left last week’s game with an ankle injury but practiced all week, will get the start again at right corner.
Center Max Unger will miss his third straight game with a foot injury, but is improving and could be back next week: “Max is running and getting closer, but he’s not safe enough yet to come back. But next week by Wednesday he should have a great chance of getting back out.”
Carroll said that FB Derrick Coleman, who fractured his foot in pregame warmups, had surgery, meaning he will be out for a while.
“He got operated on, so that’s a six-week recovery,” Carroll said. “K.J. (Wright) made it back in five, so it’s a long haul.”
Carroll said they have not yet decided if they’ll keep a roster spot for Coleman while he’s out or put him on injured reserve, but for this week, Robert Turbin will again be their fullback.
TE Luck Willson will be back after sitting out last week’s game with a groin injury: “Luke had a great week, yeah. He worked really well and we’re happy to see what he did, he made a real quick return.”
Carroll said Jeremy Lane, who is coming back from a groin injury and still on short-term injured reserve, as well as Eric Pinkins, who is on the non-football injury list, were both “Full speed this week.” Lane is expected back as soon as he’s eligible to come off short-term IR, which is the Nov. 9 game against the Giants. Pinkins’ status for this season will depend on if he shows in practice the next couple of week’s that he can help the team enough to be worth the roster spot, something that is far from a given for a rookie who has been out all season.
There’s still no timetable on Bobby Wagner, who is recovering from a turf toe injury, but Carroll said they hope to know more after the linebacker sees a specialist this weekend: “No, he’s going to see the doctor this weekend, then we’ll know a lot more. We don’t know much about what it is right now. It’s going to be a while though, he’s in a cast. We’ll know more after the weekend.”
Here’s the full injury report for both teams:
SEAHAWKS
Out: FB Derrick Coleman (foot), TE Zach Miller (ankle), C Max Unger (foot), LB Bobby Wagner (toe), CB Byron Maxwell (calf), DT Jordan Hill (ankle), WR Bryan Walters (concussion).
Probable: CB Tharold Simon (ankle), TE Luke Willson (groin), S Kam Chancellor (ankle), RB Marshawn Lynch (not injury related), RB Robert Turbin (shoulder), DE Michael Bennett (toe), DT Kevin Williams (NIR).
PANTHERS
Out: CB Bene Benwikere (ankle), LB Chase Blackburn (knee), WR Philly Brown (concussion), G Amini Silatolu (calf), G Trai Turner (knee), RB Fozzy Whittaker (thigh), RB DeAngelo Williams (ankle).
Questionable: LB Jason Williams (hip), RB Chris Ogbonnaya (groin).
Probable: LB Thomas Davis (NIR), S Roman Harper (NIR), T Byron Bell (elbow), T Nate Chandler (thigh).
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