Injury updates from Pete Carroll’s Wednesday presser

As Pete Carroll said Monday, the Seahawks will welcome a lot of players back to practice this week. Center Max Unger won’t be one of them, because he’s away for on a personal matter today, but he’ll be back later in the week, and Russell Okung is expected to do limited work today, then be a full-go tomorrow.

“We’re really excited to get those guys back,” Carroll said.

Cornerback Jeremy Lane will practice today, as will safety Jeron Johnson and defensive tackle Jordan Hill. Carroll said they might ease Lane back in after an eight-week absence, and that he could split time at the nickel cornerback spot with Marcus Burley.

Cornerback Byron Maxwell (calf) could be back later this week too, though Carroll sounded less optimistic on him: “Maxie’s going to practice maybe later this week. He’s going to make a big push to see if he can get out too.”

Guard James Carpenter left last week’s game with ankle injury, but does have a chance to play this week, Carroll said: “We don’t know. He’s had this exact same injury before, had it at the end of his senior year, and he knows it well, been trough it, same ankle, so he knows how to deal with it. So that helps us think he might have a chance anyway, we’ll see.”

On WR Doug Baldwin (groin), Carroll said, “We’ll find out, I don’t know right now. He says he is, he says he can make it.”

It’s no wonder Baldwin would push to play this week—in two games against the Giants, he has 14 catches on 17 targets for 207 yards and two touchdowns.

Carroll said Malcolm Smith (groin) isn’t expected back this week, and asked if the linebacker rotation will look similar with Brock Coyle starting at middle linebacker and K.J. Wright on the weakside, Carroll said, “We’ll see. We felt good about what Brock did, and particularly K.J.’s ability to go back to Will and be so affective is a big factor in there. Likely to go that way, but we’ll see how the week goes.”

And speaking of linebacker, Carroll said Bobby Wagner (toe) is making good progress, as is TE Zach Miller (ankle): “He and Zach have made a big jump, so we’ll see. Both of those guys are kind of on a light schedule. We’d like to get them to work next week on the field. Both are making really good progress right now, I don’t what that means until we get them out.”