Jamal Adams, Riq Woolen, another starter on injury list to begin Seahawks training camp
No surprise, but Jamal Adams’ return to the Seahawks defense is delayed.
The team put $70 million safety Adams, 2022 starting inside linebacker Jordyn Brooks, 2022 rookie Pro Bowl cornerback Riq Woolen and three other players on the physically-unable-to-peform list Wednesday just before the first practice of training camp.
Do the Seahawks expect Adams and Brooks to play in the opener Sept. 10 against the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen Field?
“It’s possible,” coach Pete Carroll said following the first practice of training camp Wednesday. “I’m not counting on that. I’m not even thinking about that right now.
“I just want to get them back and get them right. So whenever that happens, that happens.”
Adams is still making his way back from a torn quadriceps tendon he got sacking Russell Wilson in the first half of Seattle’s opening-game win over Denver in September 2022.
Brooks had surgery in January after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee on New Year’s Day in a game against the New York Jets. He set a Seahawks record for tackles for the 2021 season.
“Both guys come in in really good shape,” Carroll said. “Really, I mean they are close to being ready. None of us — meaning our side of it, and the players’ side of it — we don’t want to push it until we get more information here, take our time, judge our way through this thing and make sure we really take care of them. So that’s what we’re doing.”
Carroll said Adams and Brooks “did very well in their physicals and their testing” and have been working out, including Wednesday.
“We’ll just take it one day at a time and look after them,” Carroll said.
“For those guys, those are going to make it back.”
Woolen had arthroscopic knee surgery to repair cartilage damage in late May. He and Carroll had said Woolen would be ready for the start of training camp.
Carroll said Wednesday he expects Woolen to be back practicing soon.
“He can run. He can explode. He can change direction,” the coach said. “All those (PUP-list) guys can. They all can. But not yet where we know they can keep up the tempo day after day after practicing and all that.
“Until we get them in that shape, that’s really what we’re doing.”
Players on the PUP list can come off it at any time to begin practicing during training camp and the preseason.
Tight end Noah Fant (offseason knee surgery) plus nose tackles Bryan Mone and Austin Faoliu are also on the PUP list to begin Seahawks camp.
Of Fant, Carroll said the Seahawks “don’t want to push him, yet.” He is entering the final year of his contract.
Players on the PUP list can come off it at any time to begin practicing during training camp and the preseason.
The Seahawks put nose tackle Jonah Tavai on the active/non-football injury list.
Putting Woolen, Brooks, Adams and Fant in particular on the PUP list to begin camp gives the Seahawks roster flexibility now and potentially into the regular season. Only players on the PUP list to begin camp can be on it to begin the season.
Players on PUP list to begin the season must miss at least four games. Players on injured reserve at the start of the regular season must miss at least six weeks.
Woolen, Adams and Fant are expected back on the field to practice during training camp.
Woolen got hurt during the second phase of Seahawks offseason workouts, on the field between plays of a no-contact drill.
“It was really an unusual occurrence,” Carroll said in May.
“It wasn’t bad, and then before the play started he sat down and felt his knee (that) something was wrong.
“Fortunately, everything (with the surgery in May) went great. You can see him, he’s getting around terrific already. It’s, hopefully, a four-to-six-week-type deal.”
When the Seahawks in late May signed back veteran cornerback Artie Burns, a reserve behind Woolen last season, that was an indication Woolen might not be ready for the start of this training camp.
Jamal Adams’ role
There are domino effects to Adams’ return to the defense.
If it happens early in camp, the Seahawks are likely to use three safeties as a base defense more than they have in any other of Carroll’s 14 seasons as Seattle’s coach.
Carroll and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt are eager to play Adams in more of a roving role closer to the line of scrimmage to stop the run and blitz quarterbacks. That’s what Adams did more of in his Seattle debut season of 2000, when he set an NFL record for a defensive back with 9-1/2 sacks.
The Seahawks signed versatile former New York Giants captain Julian Love this spring. Love is likely to play back in tandem with Pro Bowl veteran free safety Quandre Diggs, allowing Adams to play closer to the line.
If Adams is not yet ready to play by late August, the defense is likely to begin the season with a more traditional, two-safety look, Love back with Diggs.
Brooks and Mone seem likely to remain out well into the season.
Brooks’ ACL tear usually has a recovery of nine to 12 months. October is the short end of the typical window.
Mone, who started two games at nose tackle,which remains a thin spot on the defense, had knee surgery after an injury late last season.
“He had a difficult surgery,” Carroll said of Mone in January. “We’ve got to wait and see. There was more stuff going on than we thought, he had some old stuff in there probably that was part of that. So he’s going to have a good battle to get back.
“I don’t know what the time frame is on it, but it’s going to take a while.”
The Seahawks released veteran nose tackle Al Woods, a team captain last season, during the spring. Rookie fourth-round pick Cameron Young has the inside track to be the starting nose tackle through camp into the season.
Two more defensive players signed
In addition to signing back Division-III national track champion CB Andrew Whitaker, as became known Tuesday, the Seahawks also signed outside linebacker Levi Bell and cornerback Chris Steele before training camp began.
The team waived nose tackle Jonah Tavai with a non-football injury designation.
This story was originally published July 26, 2023 at 11:45 AM.
