Ansah, Burr-Kirven nearing returns as Seahawks open training camp
When the Seahawks opened up training camp in front of a full house at the VMAC, two story lines dominated: Who was practicing and who wasn’t.
The star non-participant, of course, was linebacker Bobby Wagner, who roamed the practice field in a matching navy hoodie and sweatpants. When he and the team can reach a contract agreement, he’ll be back, full-speed and well-paid.
Aside from Wagner, though, five defensive players stayed out of drills for injury reasons. But some of them might be returning sooner rather than later.
Defensive end Ziggy Ansah, who only played in seven games with Detroit last season, went through walk-throughs with the defensive line before staying out of team drills. According to Pete Carroll, the six-year veteran, who avoided a place on the physically unable to perform list, is ahead of schedule coming back from a shoulder injury.
“He is moving great,” Carrol said Thursday. “He’s in terrific shape already. We’re just going to ease our way into these days and see how he can handle the work. Don’t want to rush it.”
Before his injury-shortened campaign in 2018, Ansah racked up at least 30 tackles in each of his first five seasons, and surpassed 10 sacks twice. The Seahawks added him in the offseason to bolster a pass rush now without Frank Clark.
At one point just a few months ago, there were reports that Ansah wouldn’t be available to play until midway through the season. Now, Carroll said that he’s working on the expectation that the defensive end will be ready to play Week 1.
“His shoulder is healed, it’s solid,” Carroll said. “They did all of the retesting again in the last couple of days to ensure that.”
Similarly, Carroll said rookie linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven “is on the verge” of getting to participate in practice. The Washington alum, who led the FBS with 176 tackles last season, underwent sports hernia surgery in May.
“He’s just proving to the trainers that he can do all of the activities,” Carroll said. “He’s running full-speed. He’ll be involved with walk-throughs and stuff like that.”
Burr-Kirven was one of four rookie draft picks placed on the PUP list last week, along with safety Marquise Blair, defensive tackle Demarcus Christmas, and guard Phil Haynes.
Blair has been dealing with a hamstring issue over the summer. Haynes had surgery four weeks ago. Carroll said Christmas had a back issue come up, and that the staff wants to “wait that out a little bit” so it doesn’t worsen.
Lano Hill, an undrafted free agent safety out of Arizona State, was also out after being put on the PUP list.
This story was originally published July 25, 2019 at 2:29 PM.