Jordyn Brooks latest Seahawks top rookie pick injured early in a camp, limited in practice
It seems it wouldn’t be a Seahawks training camp without their rookie draft choices being injured.
First-round pick Jordyn Brooks was supposed to miss a second consecutive practice Tuesday because of a new groin injury.
“He’s got a little bit of a groin thing,” coach Pete Carroll.
He called the severity of the injury “really slight.” Carroll said there is a chance following a players’ off day that Brooks will return to practice Thursday.
Yet Brooks had his shoulder pads on and practiced in position drills Tuesday. He did not participate in team scrimmaging.
Still, it wasn’t the most comforting news of Seahawks camp.
In the recent summer injury tradition of L.J. Collier, Rashaad Penny and (to a worse extreme) Malik McDowell, rookie second-round pick Darrell Taylor also is out, indefinitely. The edge pass rusher has yet to begin running. He is on the non-football-injury list.
Taylor has been slowed in his recovery from January surgery to fix a stress fracture in his lower leg. Surgeons inserted a Titanium rod in his leg seven months ago. That was after he played his entire final season for the University of Tennessee with the injury last year.
Carroll said this week “the race is on” for Taylor to return to practice in time to be ready to play in Seattle’s opener. That’s Sept. 13 at Atlanta.
Now Brooks lost some time, too, in a preseason already shortened by the coronavirus pandemic. The Seahawks have 12 in pads remaining until their first game. The usual six weeks of preparing for the regular season is essentially down to less than two, in terms of real, full practices to prepare.
So each one is particularly vital to a rookie trying to break into a veteran defense.
Brooks watched the first padded practice on Monday while veteran K.J. Wright again was the first-team weakside linebacker in base, 4-3 defense. When Seattle went to nickel drills with five defensive backs and two linebackers in the early, group stage of practice, 2019 draft pick Cody Barton got some time as the second linebacker with All-Pro Bobby Wagner.
Brooks had been the linebacker with Wagner in the first nickel unit early in camp, before his “groin thing.”
The speedy Brooks had shoulder surgery in December at the end of his final college season after starting for four years at Texas Tech. He missed the Senior Bowl scouting extravaganza for NFL scouts in January. In April, Seattle chose the Tech tackling machine with the 27th-overall selection the the draft.
“We are looking after guys right now, in the first push of camp, to make sure we get through the first push. Sometimes it’s a bit of a shock to their system,” Carroll said. “And so we are looking to look after guys as we go through showing us where they are and how they handle the workload.”
Brooks had been working with Wagner as the two linebackers in nickel defense over the first four practices of camp. Wright has primarily been the weakside linebacker, his spot since Seattle drafted him in 2011. Bruce Irvin has mostly been the strongside linebacker in Seattle’s base 4-3 defense during position drills.
Carroll raved about Brooks before practice Monday.
“He looks the part,” the coach said. “He REALLY looks the part. He’s got a great body. He’s built differently than we’ve seen guys. He’s really big (in the) legs and hips and butt, and he’s really (built with) a low center of gravity. Really powerful guy. And he’s very quick and explosive.
“So he’s already shown that a number of times. He’s shown some really good instincts playing off blockers, which is not always a natural things. But he uses his hands really well. He has made a really good impression...”
But Carroll also said Brooks has a new, next challenge to conquer to get on the field early this season. That challenge will be there for him beyond the groin issue.
“We are really trying to get him to really groove into how we practice, just so his mentality is on it every single step of every day,” Carroll said. “He doesn’t have a chance to do this unless he’s really into it—the whole time.
“For him to get a chance to play early in the season he’s going to have to have a great camp. So, you know...he’s off to a good start.”
Like with so many top rookie draft choices in their first Seahawks training camps before Brooks, that start is now on pause.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 12:35 PM.
