Ziggy Ansah, Rashaad Penny iffy to play at Arizona; Seahawks get NFL reply on Wilson hit
Could the Seahawks’ Jadeveon Clowney-Ziggy Ansah pass rush plan be half-stalled again?
Ziggy Ansah is questionable to play Sunday’s NFC West game at Arizona, 18 plays into his Seahawks career. He has a new back issue, after shoulder surgery then a groin issue last month delayed his Seattle debut.
But coach Pete Carroll said the back condition was like spasms this week from the workload of playing for the first time in 10 months last week, and that the 30-year-old defensive end “has a really good chance to play” against the Cardinals.
The other two times Ansah has been listed as questionable on a Friday this month, for the opener against Cincinnati and for week two at Pittsburgh, he hasn’t played on Sunday.
The 2015 Pro Bowl pass rusher with Detroit made his Seahawks debut last weekend in the home loss to New Orleans. He and Clowney played together 15 snaps. They had no sacks and no hits on quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who, like Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton in the opener, succeeded in getting throws off quickly before Seattle’s pass rush arrived.
“He needed a couple days. He had a sore back and some stuff that cleared up today. And he was fine,” Carroll said following Friday’s indoor practice.
Carroll likened Ansah’s back issue to what a veteran might get in training camp or the preseason after playing for the first time in, say, 10 months.
“Just from the workload, sure,” the coach said. “And it wasn’t an injury. He had some strain, a little strain and some spasms, and it worked out and he’s fine.
“He has a really good chance to play, yeah.”
Ansah did not practice Wednesday and Thursday. These are his first games and practices since a season-ending shoulder injury with Detroit in December then surgery. The Seahawks signed him in May to a one-year contract worth up to $9 million, including bonuses for being active on game day. If he misses Sunday’s game, he will have missed out on almost $300,000 in game-day bonus money this month.
Quinton Jefferson is also questionable to play against the Cardinals. He has a hip injury that kept him from practicing Wednesday and Thursday. He has been the Seahawks’ most consistent pass rusher this month. He has two of their six sacks. Jefferson was the only defender to hit Bridgewater on his mostly quick, one- and two-step throws last weekend.
“He bounced back today, also,” Carroll said. “We gave him a couple days, and he came out today and looked good again.
“So all those guys that are questionable have a real good chance to play.
“See, that’s how I look at ‘questionable,’ the said, joking at our obsession with injury status and shades of the term the NFL defines as a 50-50 chance of playing. “Questionable, to me, means they have a great chance to play.
“Or, you could look at it the other way: ‘Oh, there’s a really good chance he won’t play. He’s questionable.’”
Rashaad Penny is questionable. The number-two running back behind recently fumbling Chris Carson missed the Saints game with a hamstring injury he got during last week’s light, Friday practice.
“He worked through practice today, so he’s going in questionable,” Carroll said of Penny. “We’ve got to get to game time to see what happens.
“But he had a good week, in preparation for it. He didn’t get to work every day this week, but he did finish out the week going. So that’s a good sign. He feels pretty good. He’s dying to play.”
Carroll, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and quarterback Russell Wilson have professed their trust and support in Carson all week. But if Penny plays Sunday he may get more than his usual, secondary role.
Defensive tackle Poona Ford is not on the injury report, so he’s on track to start in Arizona. He’d been limited for weeks by a calf strain, though he played 28 snaps, half the defense’s plays, last weekend.
Fellow tackle Jarran Reed, second on the team with 10 1/2 sacks last year, is only halfway through his six-game suspension by the NFL for an alleged domestic-violence incident.
SAINT’S HIT ON WILSON LEGAL
The NFL responded to the Seahawks’ request this week for an explanation and clarification of Saints defensive end Marcus Davenport tackling quarterback Russell Wilson on a scramble run a couple yards inside the sideline then carrying his tackle beyond the boundary, “drove him into the turnbuckle over there,” as Carroll described it in pro-wrestling terms.
“They considered it a legal hit,” Carroll said of the league’s officiating executives led by Al Riveron.
It was far more legal than the helmet-to-helmet hit Steelers pass rusher Bud Dupree nailed into the side of Wilson’s helmet after the quarterback threw a pass in the Seahawks’ win at Pittsburgh the previous week.
Referee Carl Cheffers didn’t penalize Dupree and Carroll said the officiating crew told him on the field no one saw the hit. The Seahawks asked the league about that hit, too, and the NFL told the team Dupree’s hit was illegal. The league fined Dupree $21,056 last week for that play.
Carroll this week said he and Wilson believe the QB’s elusiveness and ability to extend plays works against him in the official’s judgments on hits against Wilson.
“Yeah, I wonder about that, really,” Carroll said.
“I know Russ feels like that a little bit, you know,” Carroll said. “He feels like he’s kind of subject to, you know...he’s kind of ...because he’s moving around, there’s a little more latitude, you know?
“There have been some other quarterbacks who have spoken to that, as well. I don’t know if that’s the case at all. I can’t tell you that. But he has taken some shots. That one last week was legit.
“This one might not have been. This one was pretty close. It’s a hard one to call. It’s just that the follow-through on the tackle was so far out of bounds. It’s the question, I guess.
“We’ll ask.”
They did. And they got an answer.
MONE CLEARS WAIVERS
Bryan Mone cleared league waivers Friday afternoon, 24 hours after the Seahawks put him there. Seattle is now likely to sign the undrafted rookie defensive tackle from Michigan who played 22 snaps last weekend against the Saints back to its practice squad.
Asked why they waived Mone to make room on the 53-man roster for free safety Adrian Colbert, a former starter with San Francisco, Carroll said: “We had to move some stuff around, because of some uncertainty with injuries.
“We are hoping to get him back on the (practice) squad here in a little bit.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 1:47 PM.
