The Seahawks held their last practice of the week—they’ll have what would be their usual Saturday walk-through on Friday—and did so as a pretty healthy team. In all five players who missed Seattle’s last regular season game are expected back for Saturday’s game: C Max Unger, WR Jermaine Kearse, CB Tharold Simon, DE Demarcus Dobbs and TE Cooper Helfet.
“Max is in great shape, he’s ready to go. We’re excited about that,” Carroll said of Unger.
Carroll isn’t worried about any rust or conditioning issues even though Unger missed the final six games of the season, meaning he hasn’t seen game action since Nov. 16: “No, he looks great. All throughout the time he was rehabbing, he was working out and doing all the aerobic conditioning. He’s fine, he’ll be fine.”
The one injury question mark—S Jeron Johnson has already been ruled out—is TE Tony Moeaki, who injured his calf in Tuesday’s practice.
“We’re going to find out on game day,” Carroll said. “It’s a very slight strain, we’ll see what that means. Cooper Helfet’s ready to go if we need him.”
On Byron Maxwell, who missed Wednesday’s practice due to illness, Carroll said, “He’s fine. He was just ill.”
On WR Jermaine Kearse: “He’s good. He’s fine, he’s ready to go. He had a full week of practice.”
On DE Demarcus Dobbs, who is returning from an ankle injury and likely filling in for Jordan Hill, who went on injured reserve earlier in the week, Carroll said, “Everything worked out great in rehab, he’s fine. He was able to go and contribute, there’s no question he’s going for us.”
Asked about Johnson’s elbow injury, Carroll said, “He’s not able to go, not at all this week, not even in consideration. He had a real serious injury, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take. They say that he’ll pop back really quickly once it turns the corner, but he hasn’t done that.”
While the Seahawks are healthy, on a roll and 10.5-point favorites over the Panthers, Carroll said Carolina absolutely has his team’s attention: “The only place we’re heavy favorites is outside of here. That’s somebody else’s concern and gauge. We know we’re up against a very difficult opponent, they challenge us in man ways. We have great respect for their players and their coaches and the way they do things. We’ve had nothing but close games with these guys, we don’t need anymore understanding that that. Whatever the talk is on the outside is outside. This is a huge game to us, it’s a great championship matchup and we’re going for it, and the rest of that stuff doesn’t matter at all.”
You’ve probably heard a lot from Seattle’s defense about trust and how that’s been key to their turnaround. Here’s what Carroll said on that topic: “It’s absolutely paramount of importance. If you want to perform at the highest level as a group, you have to have chemistry, you have to feed off of one another, you have to have tremendous trust, not just in yourself but in those around you, or you’re questioning, you’re wondering if things are going to go the way you want them to go. These guys have worked really hard for a long time now to grow together, and we’ve done it kind of in stages. But they’ve come together where they absolutely believe in each other and they know who’s going to make the plays, and if a guy doesn’t, somebody will cover for him. They really believe that, and that’s what allows them to play so fast and to play with the conviction that they have. There was a time in this season, as there was a time last year, when we kind of lost track of that, and we kind of had to regain that understanding and the focus and the importance of it. Right now they’re right in the middle of it, and hopefully we can go play like that again this weekend.”
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