Extra day could help Smith return for Seahawks

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, December 12, 2023

RENTON — Moving Seattle’s home game with Philadelphia from Sunday afternoon to Monday night might have seemed mostly like an inconvenience to fans at the time it was announced.

But it could prove to be fairly beneficial for Seattle quarterback Geno Smith’s efforts to return from a groin injury that held him out of Sunday’s 28-16 loss to the 49ers in San Francisco — the first game he didn’t start since the trade of Russell Wilson to Denver in March of 2022.

The move of the game to Monday night also pushed back Seattle’s practice schedule for the week, and the team won’t hit the field again until Thursday, and then will work Thursday, Friday and Saturday instead of the usual Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

“These couple of days are just so invaluable for him getting all the treatment that he gets and then just the rest time,” coach Pete Carroll said Monday afternoon.

Carroll wouldn’t say that means Smith will for sure play against the Eagles, saying “we’ll see how he comes back” following the three-day on-field break.

But Carroll noted Smith “did quite a bit” during a pregame workout about three hours before kickoff.

“He did move around,” Carroll said. “He was testing it out and he kind of found the parameters of what he could and couldn’t do.”

That workout helped solidify the decision to hold out Smith — who suffered the injury in practice on Thursday — and go with Drew Lock as the starter.

In what was his first start since the final game of the 2021 season when he was with the Denver Broncos, Lock acquitted himself well, completing 22 of 31 passes for 269 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Two interceptions are obviously two more than Carroll wants. But the second of the two came on Seattle’s final offensive play of the game, a fourth-and-13 from the 49ers 48.

San Francisco’s Chase Young hit the ball as Lock threw it, impacting the flight of the pass.

“Can’t fault him on the ball that gets tipped at the end,” Carroll said. “That was the pass rush.”

Both Lock and Carroll assessed him more blame for his other interception on a long pass to DK Metcalf early in the fourth quarter.

“He didn’t get the right throw on the big, deep ball,” Carroll said.

Said Lock: “I just left it inside. We had a guy running across, DK taking the top off. He gave us a single-high look. Corner’s outside, safeties in the middle, corner outside (wanted to) put it over the corner’s head to the sideline, didn’t get it done, left it inside.”

But Carroll noted every quarterback in just about every game makes a pass or two they’d like to have back.

“I think that was a pretty normal football game showing us what he can do and how he can make things happen and be comfortable in the moment and all that,” Carroll said. “He was very poised about this in a most difficult situation. So, I think that just bodes well for him down the road.”

Witherspoon should return

Carroll clarified Monday that rookie cornerback Devon Witherspoon suffered a hip pointer in the first quarter Sunday and not a rib injury, as Carroll stated after the game.

Carroll said the real nature of the injury was determined after X-rays were taken.

Witherspoon played just seven snaps before having to leave, suffering the injury when he was hit while breaking up a pass to 49ers tight end George Kittle.

Carroll called the injury “a legitimate hip pointer.”

But Carroll said he felt “way better” on Monday. And while Carroll said the Seahawks “won’t know until late in the week” if he can play against the Eagles, he predicted that Witherspoon will see action.

“I would expect he’s going to make it back this week and be out there battling again,” Carroll said.

Backup cornerback Artie Burns, who because of the injuries to Witherspoon and Tre Brown had to play seven snaps in six-defensive-back formations, also left late in the game with a knee injury. Carroll called it an “old knee” injury that “just got tweaked a little bit” and said he’s “going to be OK it sounds like.”

Brown sat out the game with a heel injury, but Carroll noted that Brown was “close” to playing against the 49ers. “He’ll have a really good chance this week.”

Brown’s injury meant Michael Jackson had to take over his role of playing left cornerback when the Seahawks used five- or six-defensive-back formations.

Carroll curious to see what league thinks of fracas

The game’s final minutes were marred by a melee that began when 49ers linebacker Fred Warner intercepted Lock’s fourth-down pass, then was tackled by Metcalf after lateraling the ball. Warner responded by hitting Metcalf in the back of the helmet. Metcalf got up and grabbed Warner by the facemask which then led to players on both sides intervening. Metcalf and 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir each ended up getting ejected.

Metcalf said later he was just retaliating from Warner’s hit, and Carroll on Monday seemed to defend that assertion as well.

“Well, I think it might have been stated in the broadcast, but we all know it’s not the first guy that gets found out, it’s usually the second guy and sometimes it’s the third guy,” Carroll said. “In this case it was the second and the third guy. Tempers were going, and the juices were flying, and stuff happens. We like to be careful and make sure we don’t hurt anybody in those situations, and we make good choices, good decisions. We’ll see what the league thinks about it.”

That last sentence is a reference to the league office reviewing the incident, and likely on Saturday to levy some fines.