KIRKLAND — For the second week in a row, the Seattle Seahawks have lost a veteran leader for the season.
Last week, Mack Strong retired because of a neck injury. On Monday, the Seahawks found out that starting defensive tackle Chartric Darby will need season-ending surgery for a torn patella tendon in his right knee.
“Both Mack and Chuck (Darby) were absolute leaders of the offense and the defense, and high-character, high-effort guys,” coach Mike Holmgren said. “We’ll stick with the plan. The younger guys now get a chance.”
Holmgren said that rookie Brandon Mebane, a third-round pick from Cal, is likely to take over Darby’s starting job.
“I think they’re very similar in many ways,” Holmgren said of Darby and the 6-foot-1, 314-pound Mebane. “The difference is the experience factor, of course. Chuck has played a lot in there, and it gets kind of hairy in there, so experience is important.”
Darby played the “nose” position in Seattle’s 4-3 scheme, which is not a glory position in the gap system. His role is often to occupy blockers so that the linebackers can make plays.
Darby had 12 tackles and a ½ sack this season. Mebane, who is one inch taller and 17 pounds heavier, has nine tackles and one sack. He had a season-high four tackles in Sunday’s 28-17 loss to New Orleans.
The Seahawks officially placed Darby on injured reserve Monday afternoon, clearing a roster spot for a later move.
Hackett may be back: The good news on the injury front is that starting split end D.J. Hackett could return to action this week.
Holmgren said that Hackett, who suffered a high ankle sprain in the season opener, is expected to start practicing on Wednesday with hopes of getting him back on the field for Sunday’s game against the winless St. Louis Rams.
“Hackett is coming back, and I might juggle the receivers around just a little bit to shake things up just a little bit this week,” Holmgren said. “We’ve always prided ourselves on a lot of discipline, that’s kind of how our offense is, in the passing game, and there are those types of breakdowns a little too much and it’s costing us.”
Nate Burleson, who is the man who would probably be most affected by Hackett’s return, said he’s happy to have the receiver back.
“It gives us another weapon,” said Burleson, who has started the past five games in place of Hackett. “The more weapons you have on the field, the harder it is for a defense to game plan. Hopefully, he’ll come back. But I don’t want him to rush into anything. He’s a friend first and a teammate second, so I don’t want the injury to get worse.”
Hackett had a career-high 45 receptions last season.
On second thought: Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said that his audible call from a pass to a run on a fourth-and-3 play in Sunday’s game might not have been the right decision.
“At the time, I thought I was absolutely right — absolutely correct,” the Seahawks’ quarterback said on Monday. “We had a great play on. They overloaded the other side, they had a blitz on.
“But watching the film (Monday), listening to what the coaches had to say, I think I see it their way now.”
Holmgren said that he understood why Hasselbeck called the audible — Leonard Weaver was stopped short of the first-down marker on a draw play — but added that he would have hoped for Hasselbeck to stick with the original call.
“We have a certain system in place to get out of plays versus certain fronts, and then there are times that the situation kind of trumps those things,” Holmgren said. “It surprised me when he did it.”
Another questionable play that resulted in a Hasselbeck interception wasn’t totally the quarterback’s fault, Holmgren said. His deep pass that was intercepted with no Seahawks around was due in part to Burleson cutting off the route.
“I take responsibility for that,” Burleson said on Monday. “I made an assumption that the ball was thrown somewhere else, and it put me in a position where I couldn’t get to it.”
Camera shy: While Hasselbeck continued to laugh off the NBC camera that almost fell on him Sunday, Holmgren openly wondered about the need for the overhead camera at all.
“Television seems to run our lives,” the coach said Monday.
The moving, overhead camera fell to the turf during the first quarter of Monday’s game after a cable broke. It just missed Hasselbeck.
When reporters asked Holmgren about the camera on Monday, the coach interjected: “Was that that camera that almost hit Matt and killed him?”
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