Next man up.
Just a week after starting cornerback Marcus Trufant was placed on the season-ending injured reserve with a back injury, Seattle Sea-hawks coach Pete Carroll confirmed Monday that his team lost his replacement, Walter Thurmond, for the season.
Carroll held out hope that Thurmond could return from a serious ankle injury suffered at the end of the first half Sunday against Cleveland. He was injured while covering receiver Greg Little on a deep pass.
However, Thurmond will have ankle surgery and has been placed on the season-ending injured reserve list.
“He’s got a pretty torn-up ankle, with a high ankle sprain that’s serious and also a fracture,” Carroll said. “And so we’re going to lose him for the rest of the season, unfortunately. It’s a tough deal because he was just getting started, and just getting rolling. It’s difficult for him.”
Thurmond has a four- to six-month recovery ahead of him, but the former Oregon Ducks star is expected to make a full recovery and be ready for training camp.
In Thurmond’s place, the Sea-hawks claimed cornerback Ron Parker off waivers and added him to the active roster. Parker went to training camp with Seattle and began the season on the Seahawks’ practice squad. He was released two weeks into the season and was replaced by safety Chris Maragos. The Oakland Raiders signed Parker to the practice squad and later added him to their active roster.
But with Oakland in need of a kicker because of an injury to Sebastian Janikowski, the Raiders cut Parker from the active roster last week to add Dave Rayner.
Also, with an extra spot on the practice squad after moving Maragos to the active roster, the Sea-hawks brought back running back Vai Taua.
Carroll said Richard Sherman will get the first opportunity to fill the starting cornerback spot opposite Brandon Browner after Sherman played well filling in for Thurmond in the second half against Cleveland.
Sherman, who finished with five tackles, has been a key special teams player.
“Sherman did a good job,” Carroll said. “He did very well. I was really pleased with his play. I studied him very carefully, wanted to make sure that I had a good sense of how he did in his first extensive activity. He did well in man-to-man stuff. He did well in zone stuff, and he had a couple (of) nice tackles coming up.”
Defensive back Roy Lewis also could be brought off the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list and added to the active roster this week for more depth and experience in the secondary.
On the quarterback situation, Carroll said he was optimistic that Tarvaris Jackson (strained pectoral muscle) will play this week, saying he wanted to see how much he could do in practice Wednesday.
However, Carroll said Charlie Whitehurst would start again if Jackson can’t go against Cincinnati on Sunday, and that Josh Portis needs more time to get ready to play.
Carroll said running back Marshawn Lynch’s back injury will be monitored this week. He said Lynch is determined to play against Cincinnati after being a late scratch from the Cleveland game with lower back spasms that have been an ongoing issue.
“This has not been a new issue, but it’s just been managed until now,” Carroll said. “And it just popped up as a problem. So I’m sure we’ll continue to do what we’ve been doing to keep him going and watch for the signs.”
Tight end Zach Miller (concussion) has not been cleared to play and the team will have to wait until Wednesday to learn if he can get back on the field.
Center Max Unger has a better chance to begin practice Wednesday. Unger’s foot will be tested today.
Neither player suited up against Cleveland.
“He’s much better than he was and he’s getting along better,” Carroll said about Unger. “But we won’t know if he can do all of the pushing and all of the stuff he needs to do to play full speed until probably late in the week.”
Eric D. Williams: 253-597-8437
eric.williams@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/seahawks
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