RENTON — Kam Chancellor and his wife walked into team headquarters and down a hallway. On the other side of the wall, Chancellor’s teammates were practicing for Monday night’s game against Atlanta.
But Chancellor and his spouse walked past the indoor practice field, past the star strong safety’s locker room, and directly upstairs. That’s where Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider’s office is, among those of other team leaders.
Nothing is definitive yet, but it looks and sounds as if Seattle is going to be without Chancellor for at least Monday’s game — if not beyond.
“He’s still getting some work done, tests done. Don’t have anything updated yet,” coach Pete Carroll said of Chancellor’s neck stinger he got late in Seattle’s damaging win at Arizona.
That’s on top of the Seahawks already missing Richard Sherman, out for the year. It’s also on top of trying to get Earl Thomas back from his own injury. Thomas returned to practice Thursday for the first time since he pulled his hamstring three games ago. Carroll was as definitive as he’s been that Thomas will play Monday, but he was limited in practice.
The Legion of Boom is more than half broken. Not the best time for Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and the defending NFC-champion Falcons to be coming to town.
Reading tea leaves and hearing actual words around Seahawks headquarters Thursday left the impression Chancellor’s neck-stinger issue remains unresolved. And serious.
Asked if this is a week-to-week concern with his veteran soul of the star-packed defense, or if it was a longer-term concern, Carroll said, twice: “Don’t know that yet.”
The coach’s next answer essentially confirmed Chancellor had been away from the team until late Thursday afternoon getting opinions from doctors. And it implied those doctors are taking more into account for Chancellor than just Monday’s game.
“I’ve only communicated with him; we will see him later,” Carroll said. “I don’t know anything yet.”
Chancellor apparently got hurt tackling Arizona running back Andre Ellington after a catch with 2:25 remaining in Seattle’s 22-16 victory. Rookie Delano Hill played the final nine plays of the game for Chancellor.
The Seahawks have dealt with a neck-nerve issue already this season. Pro Bowl defensive end Cliff Avril, who at 31 is two years older than Chancellor, had numbness in his hands after getting kicked in the chin by Indianapolis quarterback Jacoby Brissett during a scramble on Oct. 1. Avril went on injured reserve while contemplating neck surgery.
Carroll has said when asked if Avril might not play again, ever: “We have to wait and see on that.”
Sherman went on IR this week. He had surgery Wednesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, performed by noted foot and ankle specialist Dr. Bob Anderson. Carroll talked to Sherman by phone; the Seahawks expect the All-Pro cornerback to return to team headquarters on Friday.
“I know I’ll come back stronger,” Sherman said in a video from Green Bay posted online Thursday on The Players’ Tribune. “It should be like four, five months.”
Monday night, the Seahawks will not have Sherman for the first time in his career that began 105 games and 99 starts ago. That was in 2011.
Jeremy Lane is getting the first chance to start at left cornerback for Sherman. And how strange is that?
The Seahawks benched Lane last month from being the starting right cornerback. Then they traded him to Houston. The Texans returned him to Seattle less than 24 hours later because of a failed physical.
This week the Seahawks signed Byron Maxwell, their 2011-14 starter opposite Sherman at right cornerback. As soon as he proves he’s ready to play after sitting out three weeks since Miami released him, Maxwell is likely to be Sherman’s replacement for this season.
Now it seems increasingly likely the Seahawks may not have Chancellor, either, on Monday.
“It’s definitely going to be weird,” All-Pro middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said. “I’ve never played a game without Richard. He’s definitely going to be missed.
“But to have both of those guys missing in action is not something that we’ve ever had to deal with. But I think it’s something that we’ve prepared for. We can hold it down until at least one of them gets back. The other one might take a while.”
Inside the locker room and on the practice field, Bradley McDougald is preparing to start for Chancellor at strong safety against the Falcons. That’s where he started for Tampa Bay before Seattle signed him this past spring. He has started the last two games at free safety, for Thomas.
“Nothing changes but my alignment,” McDougald said of strong safety versus free safety. “Preparation has been the same it’s been since week one.
“I just know I am going in as a starter now.”
Tobin to start at LT?
Line coach Tom Cable said the team is preparing as if Matt Tobin will start at left tackle Monday.
Starter Duane Brown did not practice. The three-time Pro Bowl tackle Seattle acquired in a trade with Houston last month remains iffy at best to play against the Falcons. He injured his ankle last week after 33 plays against the Cardinals.
Tobin played the final 31 snaps at Arizona for Brown. The 27-year-old former undrafted free agent joined the team in August in a trade from Philadelphia, after then-Seahawks starting left tackle George Fant sustained a season-ending knee injury.
Update on Shead, others
A change this past offseason to NFL rules means the Seahawks have beyond Tuesday to decide whether 2016 starting right cornerback DeShawn Shead will return any time this season from the physically-unable-to-perform list. Shead has had two knee surgeries since January.
The rule to return from the PUP list is now like it is for injured reserve: any player, up to two per team for injured reserve, can return in that season provided he is on the list for a specified amount of time. For PUP it’s for at least the first six weeks of the regular season. For IR it’s eight consecutive weeks during the regular season.
The old rule specified teams had from the first day following the sixth week of the season until the first day following week 11 to decide whether to bring PUP list players back to practice, and then had three weeks after that to decide if such players were able to play. If after the first day of week 11 those players weren’t back to practice they had been subject to IR and lost for the season.
This new rule means Shead can still return sometime this season, even into December. The Seahawks’ battered secondary sure could use him.
“DeShawn Shead is really close,” Carroll said. “We are trying to get him over the hump. He is really frustrated by it because he has worked so hard and he is in great shape, but he just isn’t quite fully functioning the way we need him to be to cut him loose.
“So he is right at the edge of it. And we will just keep cheerleading for him because he is such an extraordinary kid and we wanted him to have that (opportunity) to help us.”
Extra points
Russell Wilson was a full practice participant, though the team listed him with a jaw injury. That’s a nod to the NFL’s on-going review of the quarterback’s return to last week’s game after referee Walt Anderson sent him to the sidelines for a evaluation for a possible concussion. Wilson returned after missing only one play. He got hit in the helmet by Arizona’s Karlos Dansby, who got a roughing penalty on the play. … RB Eddie Lacy was limited in practice, but Carroll said “Eddie is coming back this week” to play. Lacy missed last week’s game with a strained groin. … DE Marcus Smith fully participated in practice. He missed last week’s game with a concussion.
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