Six Seahawks starters, plus Falcons’ Matt Ryan, questionable for Sunday at Atlanta
Well, Sunday morning is going to be telling.
The Seahawks have listed no fewer than six injured starters as questionable to play Sunday at Atlanta, including both starting offensive tackles. That means tests those iffy players do in pregame drills hours before the game, early morning back in Seattle, will largely determine how many will play against the Falcons.
Pro Bowl left tackle Duane Brown (biceps), right tackle Germain Ifedi (knee), cornerback Tre Flowers (neck), defensive end Ziggy Ansah (ankle), new safety Quandre Diggs (hamstring) and safety Bradley McDougald (back spasms) are questionable.
So is Matt Ryan. Atlanta’s NFL MVP in 2016 has a high-ankle sprain he got last weekend in a 27-point home loss to the Los Angeles Rams. But he practiced for the Falcons Friday in an effort to make his 164th consecutive start on Sunday.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll offered a few clues on which shade of questionable his six starters are sitting. He said it sound as if McDougald will play after missing last week’s game with back spasms.
“He’s making his way back. He kind of surprised us jumping back (and practicing Thursday),” Carroll said.
“He got enough practice (this week) where we will take him all the way up to game time.”
Carroll said Ifedi “tweaked” his knee “a little bit” in a morning walkthrough practice this week, and that the issue was minor.
“We are just quieting it down, making sure it is OK,” Carroll said. “We’ll make sure on game day that he is all right.
“It was nothing serious.”
Carroll said D.J. Fluker “is ready to go” and “will play” at Atlanta at right guard. He missed the last 2 1/2 games with a hamstring injury.
Jamarco Jones made his first two NFL starts while Fluker was out. Now the Seahawks need Jones back at his normal position of tackle, because there remains a chance Brown doesn’t play again Sunday, or that he or Ifedi leave the game re-injured.
Brown, the Pro Bowl left tackle, has missed the last two games with a biceps injury, but Carroll said he made it all the way through Friday’s practice.
“He did a nice job in practice today,” the coach said.
Brown’s return would free George Fant to go back to his usual role as extra, blocking tight end that Seattle’s inconsistent running game has sorely needed the last two games when Fant was starting for Brown at left tackle.
The Seahawks expect Ryan to play for Atlanta, and have been preparing for that all week.
“If you expect him not to play, I think that would be a mistake,” Carroll said. “He’s always out there. ...
“It would be a shock—I can’t imagine he doesn’t play, because he always does. He’s a great warrior, so that’s what we expect.”
If Ryan can’t play, 38-year-old Matt Schaub will make his first NFL start in four years.
Carroll said if Schaub plays Seattle doesn’t expect Atlanta to change its offense, “so that doesn’t change the preparation.”
Whether it’s Ryan on a bad ankle or a 38-year-old making his first start since 2015, if either of those scenarios doesn’t help the Seahawks’ needy pass rush maybe nothing will this season.
Seattle has just 11 sacks through seven games and one in the last three weeks. That one was Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson slipping on the wet turf at the line of scrimmage in Seattle last weekend on his way to scrambling for more of his 114 yards. Defensive end Brandon Jackson happened to be nearby when the Ravens’ quarterback fell and got the accidental sack.
The Seahawks signed Ansah to offset the loss of 2018 leading sack man Frank Clark; they traded Clark to Kansas City this spring. But Ansah has been inactive for three of the seven games this season. He has just one sack. He’s trying to come back from a sprained ankle he got while forcing a fumble in the win at Cleveland two weeks ago.
Defensive end Quinton Jefferson, the team’s most consistent pass rusher so far this season, is out for Sunday. He has an oblique injury. That increases Branden Jackson’s and rookie first-round pick L.J. Collier’s roles in Atlanta.
Jadeveon Clowney also has just one sack in what is a contract year for the 26-year-old three-time Pro Bowl defensive end. That’s not what Seattle traded with Houston to get last month.
McDougald’s status will have a domino effect in the secondary.
He returned to practice Thursday for the first time in more than a week, since he woke up with back spasms 10 days ago. That increased the likelihood he starts at Atlanta.
But where?
McDougald has been Seattle’s strong safety this year. Carroll regards him as one of the team’s best coverage defensive backs, a skill more valued at deeper, free safety as the last man back on defense. McDougald has played just as effectively at free safety the last few seasons. The team interchanges the two positions often, sometimes from play to play.
Rookie second-round draft choice Marquise Blair impressed Carroll at strong safety in his first NFL start last weekend, when McDougald missed the Ravens game. The coach said Monday Blair will be playing more. But that was a day before the Seahawks unexpectedly were able to get Diggs from the Lions for a fifth-round pick. And it was before McDougald surprised the Seahawks by being able to practice Thursday.
Tedric Thompson’s starting job at free safety has been in jeopardy this week. He gave up his second pass play of 50 or more yards this season in the opening 90 seconds of the loss to Baltimore. Carroll called the play “distasteful...I hate to see it.”
Since then, the Seahawks have traded with Detroit for Diggs. He’s been the Lions’ starting strong safety this season. Carroll has noted his aggressiveness and hitting, traits more aligned with a strong than a free safety.
But Diggs “was not able to do a lot of work this week,” Carroll said Friday.
“We are just training him right now, not trying to rush it and force him in. We are not wanting to do that.”
It appears Thompson may retain his starting job Sunday, for now and perhaps by default, with McDougald back to his usual spot at strong safety against the Falcons. At least until Diggs gets back to full health.
McDougald and Blair starting is another option, one far more popular with fans.
A fourth player in the safety rotation, Lano Hill, remains out for Sunday and beyond with an elbow injury.
Flowers, the starting cornerback, got a neck-stinger nerve issue in last weekend’s game. Carroll said “we are just making sure he’s all right.”
So it sounds like Flowers will play in Atlanta, too.
This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 1:40 PM.
