Seahawks get positive news on top rookie L.J. Collier in DE’s return from rare sprain
Amid a week full of setbacks and soft-tissue injuries, the Seahawks have good injury news on their top rookie draft choice.
L.J. Collier went away to have doctors examine his uniquely sprained foot high near the ankle, and their opinions were positive on his healing.
The first-round draft choice and defensive end got hurt rushing quarterback Russell Wilson last week in a scrimmage during training camp.
“He did visit with the docs, traveled to do that. And (they) gave him a really good update. Everything is in line,” Carroll said Wednesday. “He’s out of the (walking) boot. He’s moving. It should be a normal process now in bringing him back. As he can handle and tolerate, he’ll come back to us.”
Carroll said “it’d be ridiculous for me to make a guess on that one (for a estimated return date). But real encouraged. It’s nothing beyond what we thought, or that kind of stuff. So we are in good shape.”
That’s not definitive toward Collier playing in the regular season opener Sept. 8 against Cincinnati. But it is a positive for a pass rush that needs Collier—and many other guys—to step up into prominent production this season.
Six days earlier, while announcing the injury as a type of “rare sprain” the Seahawks had never seen, Carroll said it would be “some weeks” before Collier would return to practicing. Carroll said Aug. 1 Collier had a bad sprain high in the foot near the ankle. Carroll said the defensive end from TCU was going to be out a while—and that, yes, the Seahawks are shopping for help on the defensive line to address concerns about their depth there.
Collier left early during the fifth practice of training camp July 30 in pain and seated on the back of a motorized cart. That was after he went to the ground grabbing his lower leg near the ankle and foot behind Wilson’s throw deep in the offense’s backfield during an 11-on-11, full-pads scrimmage.
Asked if the Seahawks expect Collier to miss the entire preseason, through the end of August, Carroll said: “We are going to go one week at a time.”
He was on the second-team defense, developing behind current starting ends Cassius Marsh and Branden Jackson. Coaches were stressing footwork and hand technique with Collier, while still waiting top pass rusher Ziggy Ansah to practice for his new team.
Ansah, 30, is coming off shoulder surgery that ended his time with the Detroit Lions last year. He may not be on the field participating fully until deep into this month, if then.
The Seahawks traded Frank Clark, their defensive end who had a career-high 13 sacks last season, to Kansas City this offseason rather than pay him the $20 million per year he wanted. Defensive tackle Jarran Reed, who had 10 1/2 sacks last season, has been suspended by the NFL for the first six games of this season for an alleged domestic-assault incident.
That leaves Seattle with just one player practicing right now who has had as many as 5 1/2 sacks in any NFL season. That’s Cassius Marsh. He has been with the Seahawks, Patriots, 49ers and Seahawks again since 2017. Marsh and Branden Jackson (1 1/2 sacks in three NFL seasons) are currently the starting defensive ends.
This story was originally published August 7, 2019 at 2:23 PM.
