By Bob Condotta / The Seattle Times
RENTON — The Seattle Seahawks will be without two of the team’s best defensive players and pass-rushers for Sunday’s game at Carolina — defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and strongside linebacker Mychal Kendricks — after each was ruled out by the team on Friday.
The two are tied for the team lead in sacks with three (Rasheem Green also has three).
The Seahawks initially ruled Clowney as questionable after he returned to practice Friday on a limited basis after missing Wednesday and Thursday with the flu — the latest player to catch a bug that has circulated around the team for three weeks.
But shortly after coach Pete Carroll met the media and professed optimism Clowney would be all right by Sunday, the team downgraded him to out.
Kendricks continues to deal with a hamstring injury that isn’t getting better, with Carroll saying that when Kendricks tried to practice Wednesday it became clear he isn’t ready yet. Rookie Cody Barton will again step in for Kendricks.
It will be the second time in four weeks Clowney has missed a game — he also sat out a win at Philadelphia with a core muscle injury that has bothered him all season.
After practice, Carroll had said Clowney would be a game-time call.
“He’s recovering still,” Carroll said. “He’s been pretty sick. … just judging from how other players have recovered the couple of days from this point forward he should bounce back pretty good. But it hasn’t been great week for him at all, so we just need to wait and see.”
The only other player listed as out was running back Rashaad Penny. Carroll announced after practice that Penny will soon be put on injured reserve — he will have surgery to fix an ACL injury suffered against the Los Angeles Rams — to make room for Ethan Pocic, who will be activated to add depth on the offensive line. Pocic has not played since Sept. 15 and went on IR in October due to a back injury and could specifically help at center and guard.
Seattle listed three other key players as questionable: defensive end Ziggy Ansah (neck), cornerback Shaquill Griffin (hamstring) and tight end Luke Willson (hamstring).
Ansah will be a game-time decision, Carroll said. He was listed as questionable before last week’s game, but then listed as out before kickoff with Carroll saying the big issue is Ansah having the needed strength in his shoulder area (he suffered a stinger late in the win over Minnesota).
“He’s working (to make it back),” Carroll said Friday. “We’ll see. We’re going to take every day to game time with Ziggy.”
That Clowney will for sure be out puts a little more urgency on Ansah to be ready. The Seahawks have not played a game this season without both of what were their two marquee offseason additions, each aimed at beefing up the team’s pass rush.
But with both players dealing with issues of late, as well as Kendricks, Seattle has no sacks in the past two games and just 23 for the season, 30th in the league (the only teams to have fewer are Miami with 17 and Cincinnati with 21).
Griffin played all 70 defensive snaps against the Rams, but tweaked his hamstring during the game, Carroll said, and “it’s bothered him a little bit. We’re just making sure that we are managing him through it.” Akeem King would appear set to start for Griffin if he can’t go Sunday.
Willson has not played in three weeks but was able to return to practice earlier this week with the hope he will play.
Everyone else on the roster was ruled as good to go, meaning fullback Nick Bellore will return after missing the past two weeks.
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