After a game in which the Seahawks were so banged up, they couldn’t suit up 46 healthy players, it appears reinforcement are on their way. That would be especially be welcome for an offensive line that at one point, from left to right, was Alvin Bailey (undrafted, second year player), Garry Gilliam (undrafted rookie playing out of position), Patrick Lewis (undrafted in 2013, first start), J.R. Sweezy and Justin Britt.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that Carroll said of the game, “We survived the game and got through it, and the quarterback didn’t get killed. We made it through it, and on we go.”
(As a quick aside, that would make an excellent T-shirt: 2014 Seattle Seahawks “We survived the game and the quarterback didn’t get killed.”)
Carroll said Monday that anywhere from four to eight players who were unavailable Sunday should be back this week. The players Carroll seemed confident in getting back are cornerback Jeremy Lane, who has been practicing the past few weeks and is eligible to come off short-term injured reserve this week, center Max Unger, who has missed four games with a foot injury, defensive tackle Jordan Hill, who has missed three games with an ankle injury, safety Kam Chancellor, who sat out with a groin injury, and his backup, Jeron Johnson, who was out with a concussion.
“It’s a big turn, and it depends on how much good fortunate we have, but we’ll have four guys back likely who weren’t ready for us this week, and we could have eight. So it’s amazing that it could be like that, but we’re on the verge of getting some guys back. Pretty realistic is to get four guys back.”
Carroll later amended that four to five when talking about Chancellor. Carroll said both Chancellor and Russell Okung, who was out with a calf injury, “both feel like they’re ready to play, so we’ll see what happens.”
On linebacker Malcolm Smith, who has a groin injury, Carroll said, “It’s going to be a late-week recovery if he can do it. It’s looking like it might be two weeks, but he’s one of those guys who could have a shot at it.”
If Smith is out again, and with Bobby Wagner still recovering from a toe injury, Carroll said they feel good about the combination of Brock Coyle and Kevin Pierre-Louis filling in.
“I think the whole thing worked out well,” he said. “We were pleased with it. Brock and K.J. handled all the calls and assignments out there, Brock did a nice job, made his tackles, and Kevin had a chance to play in third-down situations and nickel stuff and he did real well. So it worked out fine.”
Speaking of Bobby Wagner, the news was good from Carroll on the middle linebacker’s progress: “Bobby’s improving quickly. He’s doing well; I don’t know what that means, days wise, but he’s really jumped back, he’s come back ahead of schedule, and we’re going to get him back pretty quick. It doesn’t look like this week.
As for TE Zach Miller, who is recovering from ankle surgery, Carroll said, “Zach’s running on the apparatus, he’s not on the ground yet, but he’s running. He had a very positive day today, so it’s really just one day at a time. It’s an encouraging day, and really it’s just day-to-day. They have to come back from the work load. That’s always the case; he worked hard today, then can he go again tomorrow without stepping backwards. We’ll see what happens.”
The Seahawks didn’t sustain many new injuries in Sunday’s game, but Carroll said it’s “wait and see” on guard James Carpenter.
“I haven’t heard anything updated on Carp. He’s got an ankle sprain of some sort, we don’t know how serious. He was in the boot today.”
Doug Baldwin had some sort of groin issue, and Carroll said, “Doug was a thumbs up that he’s going to be OK, but we’ll see.” DE Greg Scruggs is day-to-day with a sore knee, though Carroll noted Scruggs didn’t injure his surgically repaired knee, but rather that he was sore.
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