The Seahawks were missing a number of important offensive players Sunday, which helped contribute to a dismal three-point performance. And just how many of those players will be back against Cincinnati this weekend remains to be seen. Asked about quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, running back Marshawn Lynch, tight end Zach Miller, and center Max Unger, Carroll was unable to say whether any would be back at practice this week or ready for the next game.
Of Jackson, who missed the game with a pectoral injury, Carroll said: “I think we’re just going to start over again this week and see where it is. He only had a couple of days break, he was throwing the ball pretty well last week, but he never threw the ball full speed at all. We’ll see where he is and see how he can come back. I think it’s going to be all week long, and we’ll just take it one day at a time and see where it goes, see what Wednesday has for us.”
Should Jackson miss another game, Charlie Whitehurst will remain the starter despite his struggles, and that undrafted rookie Josh Portis, while an intriguing talent, is not ready to compete for the job.
“He’s got a long ways to go,” Carroll said of Portis. “. . . He’s not close to being ready to push for the job.”
And Marshawn Lynch, who missed the game with back spasms, is also a question mark
“He’s a little better than he was, he’s had a day not to be active, he’ll have another one tomorrow,” Carroll said. “He should be better, but we were surprised by that that it popped up and became such an issue, so we’re going to have to be careful in how we project this right now, because he was OK going into game day. He had some symptoms, but this kind of jumped at us. We’ll have to be careful with through the week and make sure we do the right things and get him all the way to game time. He’s determined to play for sure in his mind, but we’re not going to really know until the end of the week.
Carroll called the injury a “long-existing issue for him.”
Miller, who suffered a concussion two weeks ago against the Giants, has still not been cleared to return to action.
“We’re going to have to wait and see on Zach,” Carroll said. “Zach would not be cleared today, so Wednesday will be really important. . . This was a serious concussion, obviously, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens Wednesday and Thursday and see where we are.”
Carroll sounded more optimistic on Unger, who has a foot injury, but again, there was no definitive word.
“Max is a lot closer,” he said. “They’ll test him again tomorrow and see how he’s doing and see if it’s ready for Wednesday, but I don’t’ think we’re going to know until he gets working. He has to see if he can tolerate it. He’s much better than he was and he’s getting along better, but we won’t know if he can do all the pushing and the stuff that he has to do to play full speed until probably late in the week.”
Oh, and one last note, as expected, Carroll wasn’t happy when he saw the replay of the block in the back call on Kennard Cox which negated Leon Washington’s 81-yard punt return touchdown. Replays showed Cox barely touched Cleveland’s James Dockery, who was already going to the ground in an attempt to tackle Washington.
“I don’t think that was a call that should have been made,” Carroll said.
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