RENTON — The Seattle Seahawks expect their starting quarterback to be in the lineup when they face the New York Jets on Sunday.
Russell Wilson suffered a knee injury during Sunday’s 37-18 victory over the San Francisco 49ers at CenturyLink Field, an injury that forced Seattle’s star quarterback to finish the game on the sidelines with his knee wrapped in ice.
The injury looked as though it may be debilitating. However, an MRI revealed the injury was just a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee, meaning the Seahawks believe he won’t have to miss any more game time.
Seattle coach Pete Carroll addressed the media Monday afternoon at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, and when asked if he expected Wilson to play this week he answered: “Yes.
“It’s really early to say because I haven’t seen him do anything other than convince me of that thought,” Carroll continued. “But he’s done a very good job of that so far.”
Wilson suffered the injury midway through the third quarter of Sunday’s game. Wilson was caught from behind by San Francisco’s Eli Harold and brought down with a horse-collar tackle. In the process Harold landed on Wilson’s left leg, causing it to buckle. Wilson remained on the turf, and although he got to his feet under his own power, he was pulled out of the game. It was the first play Wilson missed because of injury in his five-year NFL career.
Wilson returned to the field after sitting out one play and completed the drive, but he gave way to backup Trevone Boykin after that.
Although Wilson returned to the game, there was concern the MRI may reveal enough damage to force Wilson to sit for at least some time. However, the Seahawks are optimistic that won’t be the case.
“He’s remarkably well off for having a play like that,” Carroll said. “He’s very good, very upbeat and positive about feeling like he’s going to be fine.
“What he has, a lot of guys play with, so this is something our trainers have been through a number of times and they know this is really possible that he’ll be fine,” Carroll added. “But he still has to respond to the work on Wednesday and Thursday and we’ll see how he gets through it. We’ll be watching very closely to make sure we do the right thing to ensure his health and his well being moving forward, as well as our team’s well being moving forward. We’ll take all that into account.”
There’s an argument to be made that resting Wilson may be a good idea, even if he is capable of playing. Wilson was already dealing with a sprained right ankle, the Jets have a fearsome defensive line, and Seattle has it’s bye the following week. Sitting out Sunday would allow Wilson three full weeks to heal. But Carroll doesn’t expect Wilson to be on board with that plan.
“He’s going to try and push it as far as he can to do everything he can at all times,” Carroll said.
“Wednesday’s a big day,” Carroll added. “We’ll see where he is, but he looks fine. So I’m not that deeply concerned about it. I wish it didn’t happen, that he didn’t get banged, but I think he’s going to be all right.”
Further increasing the optimism about Wilson’s status for next Sunday is the continuing progress with his ankle. Wilson suffered the ankle injury against the Miami Dolphins two weeks earlier, and it’s an injury that affected his mobility. However, Wilson was far more mobile against the 49ers than he was the previous week against the Los Angeles Rams, and the ankle absorbed no further damage against San Francisco.
“He’ll still work on his ankle a little bit, but it feels real good and he was real fortunate to get out of the game without any setbacks at all,” Carroll said, mentioning that Wilson will continue to get therapy on the ankle in addition to his knee. “He looked good moving around, he looked better than he did a week ago. He looked fine when he was playing.”
The news wasn’t as good on running back Thomas Rawls. Rawls sat out the game against the 49ers because of a bruised left shin suffered last week against the Rams. The hope was that Rawls, who was supposed to be Seattle’s primary ball carrier, would bounce back quickly. However, the Seahawks found out Monday that Rawls has a crack in his fibula that will force him to miss more time.
“They were able to find a little something in there in the evaluations today that wasn’t clear a week ago,” Carroll said. “It makes sense for how uncomfortable he was feeling, so he’s got a little crack that he’s got to take care of and wait it out a little bit. He’s not going to be incapacitated by it, he’ll be able to move around and all that kind of stuff. But we’ll just have to be careful and get him through a few more weeks before we can get him back out there.”
The injury is not related to the broken left ankle and ligament damage Rawls sustained last year, an injury that ended his 2015 season and delayed his preparations for this season.
With Rawls unavailable Sunday the Seahawks relied on Christine Michael, who gained 106 yards on 20 carries and scored two touchdowns against the 49ers.
For more on the Seattle sports scene, check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at www.heraldnet.com/tag/seattle-sidelines, or follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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