Red Bryant, Leroy Hill to sit out practice; Earl Thomas fined for hit on Tannehill

The Seahawks will practice today minus two veteran starters on defense, Pete Carroll said.

Defensive end Red Bryant, who has been battling a foot injury for a while, and linebacker Leroy Hill, who hurt his ankle Sunday, will both sit out today and their status for this week’s game in Chicago is up in the air.

“Red is going to be banged up this week,” Carroll said. “He’s not going practice today for sure. He’s got a plantar fascia issue that he’s dealing with. He’s had it for a long time but it’s kind of flared up here the last couple of weeks. It’s affected him enough that we’ve got to slow him down a bit in practice.”

Asked if Bryant would be ready to play Sunday, Carroll said, “I don’t know that yet. We’ve got to wait and see. I don’t know.”

If Bryant can’t play, defensive tackle Alan Branch would move out to Bryant’s spot and rookie Greg Scruggs would play Branch’s 3-technique spot.

On Hill, Carroll said, “Leroy Hill won’t go either. His ankle is still bothering him. We’re going to take care of him today and just see how it goes. I can’t tell you how that’s going to play out yet, trainers don’t know. We have to wait and see.”

Malcolm Smith would play the weakside linebacker spot if Hill were unable to play.

Guard James Carpenter, who injured his knee during Sunday’s game but returned to action, will practice.

“Yeah, he’s going, and this is an important week for James to come back after his first time playing,” Carroll said. “He didn’t take a lot of contact in last Wednesday’s practice, just took minimal. This is an important day for him to come off a game, get back to hitting and do all the things he gets to do. And for John Moffitt too, both those guys are going to be battling this week and competing.”

Carroll said he does not yet know who will start at left guard between Carpenter and Moffitt.

Also, Earl Thomas confirmed he was fined by the NFL for the hit on Ryan Tannehill that led to the much-debated roughing the passer penalty that negated a Bobby Wagner interception. Thomas wrote on Twitter earlier in the day that he had been fined.