RENTON — Malik McDowell has “multiple, serious” injuries, including to the head, from an ATV accident last month, and the Seahawks’ top rookie draft choice will remain out at least into the regular season.
All that The News Tribune has learned, been told and heard from league sources is, as of right now, it is not likely McDowell will play for Seattle in 2017.
One month before Seattle’s season opener at Green Bay, the only physical activity doctors are allowing McDowell to do is walk. His prospects on returning to the field are so far down the road the Seahawks allowed him to fly back home to Michigan this week, after he had spent the past week in Seattle getting examined by team doctors. He will remain in Michigan while the Seahawks go through their second week of training camp and prepare for their first preseason game this weekend without him.
An obviously solemn, disappointed Pete Carroll sighed and slumped his shoulders. Then he gave the most known details yet about the athletic defensive tackle’s accident in his home state of Michigan and his injuries.
“You know, he had a serious accident,” Carroll said following Monday’s mock game, the eighth day out of eight in this training camp McDowell has missed. “He had multiple injuries; he had an injury to his head. It’s going to be quite a while. You know, we have to wait it out. So, he’s on NFI (the league’s non-football-injury list). And he’s going to be there for a while. And we’re just going to have to see how he progresses, really down the road.
“We are not looking for him to get back in the immediate, not even for the first game of the season, that kind of stuff. We are going to wait it out and see how it is.”
Carroll did say that at this time the Seahawks do not believe the injuries are threatening the former Michigan State star’s career.
“I don’t think so. I don’t think so,” Carroll said.
“We have to wait. He just turned 21. We’ve just got to wait a while. He’s a real young kid. So he’s got plenty of time to get well. But we have to make sure.”
The Seahawks have been vague about the exact nature of McDowell’s injuries and his prognosis for the future at the wishes of the player’s family. McDowell turned 21 on June 20. That was less than a month after he signed a four-year contract with Seattle worth $6.96 million, with a $3.2 million signing bonus.
“I think, for the family, we’ve been told … they’ve asked us, you know … so we are (cognizant how to) express all that took place, and all that,” Carroll said. “We will honor that.”
Asked if there was a chance McDowell plays this year, Carroll said: “I don’t know that. … We’ve just got to wait it out. He can’t do anything as far as physical workouts. Walking, that’s what he’s been doing. He feels fine. It’s very frustrating for him, because he feels fine. But he’s just got to make it through the recovery.”
When asked if he could elaborate on McDowell’s head injury, the coach said: “Well, certainly there is a concussion involved.” But he stopped short on providing more details.
Asked if McDowell had a head or skull fracture, Carroll said: “No.”
A few minutes later, the coach went on Seattle’s KJR-AM radio next to the practice field. When asked again about McDowell playing in 2017 Carroll said: “I think it sounds like it’s a lot to ask right now.
“It’s a serious injury.”
Clark’s ban ending
Frank Clark stood on the sidelines and watched practice for the fourth consecutive day on Monday. Carroll said he’s used “coach’s discretion,” his euphemism for banning Clark from practicing and almost assuredly fining him.
Clark dropped his teammate Germain Ifedi, the Seahawks’ 6-foot-5, 325-pound starting right tackle, to the grass face-first with one punch Thursday during a fight in a pass-rush drill.
Ifedi was back practicing on a limited basis, just position drills, for the first time since the punch.
“Frank should be back (Wednesday). He missed a couple days here; coach’s discretion,” Carroll said. “Other than that, he has a knee thing that he is working on.”
Clark had been wearing a brace on his left knee while on the field watching practices from the sideline Friday through Sunday. The brace was gone Monday.
Carroll said Clark’s knee issue “is something that’s been bothering him for a little bit. It’s very slight. We know what’s going on.”
The then coach made clear his absences from practices had to do with Carroll’s suspension from them, not the knee.
“That wasn’t really the issue with what is going on,” Carroll said.
“Coach’s decision.”
Ifedi watched rookie second-round draft choice Ethan Pocic start at right tackle in the mock game the team had for the majority of Monday’s practice.
Carroll did not specify what injury Ifedi had that kept him out until Monday.
“He was banged a little bit. He’s OK,” the coach said of his first-round pick in 2016 getting decked by the team’s top choice in 2015.
“He’ll be ready to go on Wednesday.”
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