RENTON — A “significant knee sprain” hardly qualifies as good news, but it is a better-than-expected diagnosis for Seattle Seahawks linebacker Matt McCoy, who was carted off the field after suffering a gruesome-looking injury in the first quarter of Sunday’s loss.
And while McCoy, one of Seattle’s linebackers in nickel packages and a special teams standout, will be out for a while, the injury won’t likely require surgery and is not expected to be season ending, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said.
“He got a significant knee sprain,” Carroll said. “It’s going to be a while before he gets back. It doesn’t look like he needs surgery at this time, but it’s a significant sprain and he’s going to be out for a while.”
McCoy has taken on a bigger role on defense in his second season with the Seahawks, playing frequently as one of two linebackers on the field in passing situations.
“Matt has really carved out a really nice role here for us,” Carroll said. “… Matt has come a long way and really helped us out this year. We’re going to miss him.”
With McCoy sidelined for a while, the Seahawks are expected to sign linebacker David Vobora today. Vobora, a seventh-round pick out of Idaho in 2008, spent training camp with Seattle but was released before the start of the season. Like McCoy, Vobora is a good special teams player and also has versatility as a linebacker. The Seahawks won’t announce a move before Tuesday, but Vobora’s agent wrote on Twitter Monday evening that his client will sign with Seattle.
Other injuries
Carroll said it was too soon to give an update on receiver Mike Williams, who left with a concussion Sunday: “They have to go through the process to get him reinstated and we’ll do all of that.”
The hope is that safety Kam Chancellor, who missed Sunday’s game with a thigh bruise, will be able to practice Wednesday, Carroll said.
“We’re planning on trying to get him out there,” he said. “He’s not recovered yet fully as of today, but the plan is to try to get him back.”
Left guard Robert Gallery, who has missed two games since having surgery to repair a groin injury, is on track to return after Seattle’s Week 6 bye.
Linebacker battle
Rookie K.J. Wright unseated Aaron Curry as Seattle’s strongside linebacker over the past two weeks, but that won’t necessarily be a permanent change. In fact, Curry, not Wright, saw the majority of the snaps in Seattle’s base defense, particularly in the second half. Curry was on the field for Atlanta’s final drive when the Seahawks needed a stop to get the ball back. They’ll continue to compete for the starting job in practice, Carroll said.
“They both did some good things,” Carroll said. “I thought Aaron played a really strong game. He did a nice job. He’s responded to the challenge. So we’ll go into this week and see what happens.”
No regrets
A day after his team’s two-point loss, Carroll said he had no regrets about his decision to attempt a 61-yard field goal on fourth-and-eight rather than run another play trying to get the first down and get into better field goal range. Kicking into a slight breeze, Steven Hauschka, whose career long is 54 yards, missed short and left.
“It’s one of those coach’s choices, but I wanted to win the game right then and not take a chance on not converting on fourth down,” he said. “Steve was kicking the ball really well. He bombed one in practice on a long field goal situation a week ago that was a monster kick, so I know he can kick the ball far enough to do that. So we took a shot at capturing the moment to win the football game right there following a great comeback, and unfortunately it didn’t happen. I’m fine about it. I knew clearly what I wanted to do at the time and went for it and I’m not looking back at it.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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