Carroll at NFL meeting: Will Dissly status, and yes, Seahawks still have plans for C.J. Prosise
Doug Baldwin isn’t the only Seahawk recovering from offseason surgery. Just the most prominent and operated-on one.
Coach Pete Carroll told reporters at the NFL’s annual meeting Tuesday in Phoenix tight end Will Dissly is progressing well from a torn knee tendon Sept. 30 then season-ending surgery. Carroll said last season’s rookie revelation from the University of Washington Dissly will miss the team’s official offseason workouts that begin April 15, then minicamps into the summer.
“Will’s doing great,” Carroll said, via the team’s website, of the former UW defensive lineman who impressed everyone in his first four NFL games last season before his injury in the win at Arizona. “He’s in the weight room with our guys working out. He’s in the training room. I see Will a lot, coming through the facility. He looks good, running well, from what I understand. He’s moving, getting going.”
Dissly, a fourth-round draft choice last year, became the first tight end to have 100 yards receiving with a touchdown catch in his first NFL game, Sept. 9 at Denver. He ruptured the patellar tendon in his right knee three games later, as he made a catch against the Cardinals.
Carroll said when it happened that Dissly’s injury is similar to Jimmy Graham’s when the now-former Seahawks tight end’s Seattle debut season got cut short in November 2015. Graham wasn’t fully right from his tricky patellar surgery and recovery for about a full year.
“It’s still going to take us all the way to (training-)camp time to get him going, and we won’t rush that, at all,” Carroll told reporters Tuesday, referring to Dissly. “He’s in great shape so far. Everything is going well.”
The Seahawks will begin training camp in late July.
Carroll said recently re-signed linebacker Mychal Kendricks is also doing well after season-ending knee and leg injuries in early December.
“He’s fine,” Carroll said. “It was a pretty straightforward surgery and all that. He should be in pretty good shape. Sounds like he’s great.”
Carroll told reporters at the league meeting the Seahawks intend to get Kendricks, All-Pro middle linebacker Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright, also re-signed this month, on the field together in 2019. The coach acknowledged that would be perhaps the best linebacking unit he’s had since arriving to lead the Seahawks in 2010.
Kendricks played Wright’s weakside-linebacker spot last season after Wright’s knee surgery in August then long recovery from it.
Kendricks’ sentencing hearing for insider trading in Pennsylvania has been delayed again. It was supposed to be April 4.
C.J. Prosise had abdominal surgery and should return in time for the preseason, Carroll said. The coach said he expects his oft-injured running back to compete for the third-down running-back role Mike Davis had for parts of last season. Davis signed with Chicago this month.
This is the eighth injury for Prosise since Seattle drafted him in the third round in 2016. He carried the ball just once and caught three passes last season. He has played in just 16 of a possible 48 games in three regular seasons in the NFL with the Seahawks. This year is the final one of his rookie contract.
Carroll reiterated Tuesday the Seahawks are attracted to the unique skills the former Notre Dame wide receiver brings to the offense.
When he can stay on the field, that is.
“The surgery was more intense than they had even anticipated,” Carroll said Tuesday in Phoenix, according to the team’s website.
“...we’ve loved C.J. and the dynamics that he brings to us. So to get him back—and really when you think of us losing Mike, C.J. comes back into the fold—I think it’s a tremendous addition running and catching and blocking. He’s a good prospect. So in the position we love the competition. We love the depth. We love the play of our guys. C.J. can really bring us something. I’m anxious to see him fit back in.”
