By John Boyle
The good news for Seattle’s offense, which struggled in Sunday’s loss to Arizona, is that Russell Okung should be back for a must-win game against the Rams despite a sore toe. The bad news is that Percy Harvin sounds no closer to returning to action.
“We expect him to play,” Carroll said of his left tackle. “It might be a little sore this week early, but he should play on Sunday.”
Okung briefly left the game during Seattle’s fourth-quarter touchdown drive but did return to action. This is the same toe that forced Okung to miss eight games, and Carroll said Okung will likely have to fight through soreness the rest of the season.
“We’re kind of considering that it’s just part of what he’s dealing with right now.”
On Harvin, the Seahawks aren’t even taking the, “We’ll see Wednesday” approach this time, with Carroll saying, “He won’t practice this week.”
Carroll didn’t technically rule Harvin out, but seeing as the receive hasn’t played or practiced in five weeks, it’s a safe bet to assume he’s out again if he’s not practicing.
Carroll said Harvin hasn’t had any new procedures—he had fluid drained from his hip after returning to practice midway through the season, then had a cortisone shot to relieve swelling in the week following his one game against Minnesota—but rather is just rehabbing trying to get better.
Asked if he expects Harvin to play again this season, Carroll said. “We’ll figure that out before long, I don’t have much to tell you about that right now.” And if you’ve been following the Harvin drama so far, that’s a bit less optimistic of an answer than Carroll has given to similar questions in the past.
Asked if anything has changed in Harvin’s road back, Carroll said, “Looking down the road, projecting down the road was the way it seemed to be, because the progress wasn’t coming along that it could stay a day-to-day issue, so it kind of went week-to-week. We’re looking to take care of him, we need to get him right. He had a major surgery and he tried with everything he could to get back and hasn’t been able to get that done.”
Carroll said rookie Michael Bowie “did a really good job” filling in at right guard for J.R. Sweezy, who was out with a concussion.
As for Sweezy, Carroll said, “We’ve got to wait and see as we get through the week here, but it looks like he should be (back), yes.”
On WR Jermaine Kearse, who injured his ankle Sunday, Carroll said, “He’s got a sore ankle. He made good progress from the game to today; they thought he’d be a little bit worse today. We’ll go day-to-day as we get going here, but it looks like he has a chance to play.”
Carroll wouldn’t say who will handle kick return duties, though it sounds like there’s a good chance Doug Baldwin could remain in that role. Robert Turbin had been handling kickoffs, but lost a fumble Sunday and was replaced by Baldwin, who had two solid returns in the fourth quarter.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” Carroll said. “Doug did a nice job though. He jumped in there and was really good. I think Doug’s last return was a touchdown a couple of years ago in preseason, which he’s reminded me of a lot. He looked good back there.”
Asked if Baldwin was an option to keep returning kicks, Carroll said, “He’s definitely an option.”
Cornerback Walter Thurmond is eligible to return this week from his four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Carroll said they’ll wait to see how he’ll fit back in after a month layoff, and noted that with the way Byron Maxwell and Jeremy Lane are playing, there’s no need to rush Thurmond back into a big role if he’s not ready.
