Nine starters miss practice four days before Chiefs come to town
The week probable NFL most valuable player Patrick Mahomes is bringing the NFL’s highest-scoring offense directly at you is the absolute wrong one to be missing three-quarters of your starting secondary, including both starting safeties.
But that’s what the Seahawks have going on days before the high-flying Kansas City Chiefs start throwing at them.
Strong safety Bradley McDougald is away from the team until Friday. He’s getting treatment to try to accelerate healing of the knee tendinitis he’s had and played through for months.
Free safety Tedric Thompson has not one but two new injuries. He missed practice Wednesday with what the team listed as “chest/ankle” reasons.
Mahomes throwing down the middle to All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce at Seattle’s safeties commences in four days.
Before practice, Carroll was vague on McDougald’s status for Sunday night’s game. McDougald and Bobby Wagner have been the best players on Seattle’s defense this season,
“He’s going to be in rehab, all week. Kind of like K.J. (Wright) and a couple of our guys have done. He’ll be out of the area working on his stuff,” Carroll said Wednesday. His Seahawks (8-6) host the Chiefs (11-3) with another chance to potentially clinch a playoff spot.
“We’ll see him back on Friday.”
The Seahawks will make a determination upon his return and likely up until game time Sunday whether McDougald will play, or if 2017 draft choice Delano Hill will have to fill in for him as he did in the second half of last weekend’s overtime loss at San Francisco.
“Special treatment” has become Carroll’s euphemism for regenokine, the blood-spinning injection treatment Pro Bowl linebacker K.J. Wright, departed end Michael Bennett and three other Seahawks starters have had in the last year to accelerate healing of injured body parts.
“Out of the area” for this usually means a doctor that specializes in regenokine treatment in Walnut Creek, Calif., in the East Bay outside of San Francisco.
Asked if McDougald will start for the 15th time in 15 games this season Sunday night, Carroll only said “possibly.”
The Seahawks had nine starters miss Wednesday’s practice.
Many were for rest and maintenance, such as lead running back Chris Carson.
But starting cornerback Shaquill Griffin was also missing Wednesday with a new hip injury.
Carroll was also vague about his situation at right guard.
“Let’s wait and see on that one, OK. We’ll wait and see how this goes,” the coach said.
“There’s some decisions we are making, to see how it goes. We’ve got some decisions to make, if you don’t mind.
“I’d appreciate nobody knowing about that until we get to the time we want to tell you.”
Starting right guard D.J. Fluker hasn’t played in three weeks. He’s trying to return this week from a strained hamstring.
The Seahawks put Jordan Simmons, who started at right guard last weekend at San Francisco, on injured reserve Tuesday.
“Jordan is going to likely need to get some work done on his knee to get back,” Carroll said of surgery.
Simmons made the first three starts of his NFL career in the last five weeks, while starter D.J. Fluker was injured.
Now he’s back where he was most of his college career at USC, before Oakland signed him in 2017 as an undrafted rookie free agent.
Joey Hunt, the backup center, has played some guard for Seattle, including this preseason. Or the Seahawks could add a guard to the active roster.
Instead of elevating Jordan Roos from the practice squad or adding another guard, for now Seattle signed rookie running back Bo Scarbrough off Jacksonville’s practice squad to take Simmons’ place on the active roster.
That hinted at Rashaad Penny’s predicament.
The rookie first-round draft choice did not play last weekend at San Francisco because of the knee he injured the game before, rushing for 44 yards against Minnesota.
“He’s going to try to do some stuff (Thursday). It’s uncertain, though, if he can get back (to play Sunday). We don’t know yet,” Carroll said. “He’s really determined to try to make it back so that Friday is the day he can really go for it, get rolling. He’s been really diligent about his rehab, so we will see what happens.”
Scarbrough, 236 pounds, was Alabama’s masher back last season.
He is “insurance for us, right now. We are serious about running the football,” Carroll said. “This guy is a guy that gives us an attack mentality and a physical aspect of it, in the event that we are coming up short here (at running back for the Chiefs game).”
Dallas drafted Scarbrough in the seventh round out of Alabama this past spring. The Cowboys released him from their practice squad in early October.
He said Wednesday that when that happened Jacksonville and Seattle each called offering a practice-squad spot at about the same time. He went with the Jaguars.
Pro Bowl linebacker K.J. Wright returned to practice Wednesday, after practicing last week. He intends to be next to Bobby Wagner playing Sunday for only the fourth time this season. He’s missed 11 games since surgery in August for a ligament tear in his knee.
“I won’t have that big, bulky knee brace on,” Wright said. “The knee brace will be off, so it will definitely be feeling much better...
“Hopefully every goes well and I can be back out there playing on Sunday.”
He said he feels “night and day” better this time than when he came back Oct. 28 to play three games, before missing the last five.
“I think that special treatment really helped me out,” Wright said.
He said he reinjured his knee Nov. 4 against the Chargers, when he had seven tackles and a pass defensed in his second game back. He tried to play the following week at the Rams.
“I thought I could play, off of adrenaline. And it didn’t work,” he said. “Looked terrible.
“It should be good to go this time.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2018 at 4:56 PM.
