Seattle’s star cornerback Riq Woolen is off the PUP list but not practicing. What gives?
This time last year he was Tariq Woolen. He was only a few years into playing his position.
He was trying to break into the NFL and make his mark — any mark — as a rookie late-round draft choice.
Now?
Well, he’s Riq Woolen.
Why? Because that’s what Mom calls him.
“She calls me ‘Riq.’ She calls me ‘Riqqy,’” Woolen said of the name change on the Seahawks’ official roster for this season. “That’s what my family calls me. My friends call me that. ...
“It’s cool with me, I know.”
“That’s what everyone calls me,” he said Monday.
After a wowing debut season in which he co-led the NFL in interceptions and got voted into the Pro Bowl as a rookie cornerback who went far beyond expectations for a former college wide receiver and fifth-round pick, Woolen’s perspective is way different.
His sights are meteoric for his and Seattle’s 2023 season.
“Honestly, I felt like last year people didn’t think I could play in this league. Or they felt I was (just) a special-teams guy,” Woolen said following the 10th practice of Seahawks training camp. “I have proved that to them.
“This season, I want to prove to myself that I’m one of the best corners in the NFL. And I feel like I am one of the best in the NFL.”
He’s going to have to keep waiting for that quest to begin.
Woolen passed his physical examination and came off the Seahawks’ physically-unable-to-perform list Sunday. He had been on that to start training camp following arthroscopic surgery to repair meniscus damage in his knee in May.
He participated in the start of Sunday’s full practice outside in cleats and helmets with his teammates, then watched drills and scrimmaging.
Monday, he was in flat sneakers with no helmet when he emerged from the team facility to watch the final half of scrimmaging outside.
He bolted onto the field as if his leg was game-ready to celebrate rookie outside linebacker Derick Hall barging into the backfield to make consecutive plays during red-zone blitz scrimmaging.
When safety Joey Blount appeared to injure his lower back or hip breaking up a pass in the end zone on the final play of that scrimmage, Woolen came over from the opposite side to check on him. Blount needed a ride from a motorized cart to get back to the training room, and the second-year player needed extra medical tests into Monday night.
Why Woolen isn’t fully practicing
Why is Woolen off the PUP list but not practicing yet?
So he can get first-team plays in walk-through practices.
The Seahawks actually have two practices every camp day. The main one fans see and gets reported on is on the field outside in the afternoon. There is a morning one inside, a closed one in which players walk through their assignments for formations and plays.
Coaches want Woolen to begin getting the feel for defensive calls, alignments and responsibilities nearly one month before Seattle’s opener Sept. 10 against the Los Angeles Rams.
Coaches and trainers don’t want Woolen to test his change of direction and cutting reacting to receivers and passes in the air at cornerback on the grass field just yet. They want to give him as much time fully healing from the meniscus damage and two stitches he needed as part of the repair for it 2-1/2 months ago.
“His workouts have been extraordinary, and we can’t keep him out any longer,” coach Pete Carroll said. “He’s just too close.
“We’re still going to take care of him and make sure that we get him back to the football movements and football change of direction and things and more cover situations.”
The Seahawks’ first preseason game is Thursday against the Minnesota Vikings. Woolen isn’t going to and doesn’t need to play in that. He has his starting right-cornerback job waiting for him when he’s fully ready to return to it.
Michael Jackson, Seattle’s starting left cornerback last season, has been starting on the right side while Woolen’s been out this spring and summer. Jackson has excelled in training camp. So has Tre Brown, currently the starting left cornerback. That gives Seahawks coaches a decision to make when Woolen returns, whether to move Jackson back to the left corner, keep Brown starting there, or have top rookie Devon Witherspoon start on the left opposite Woolen.
Witherspoon, the fifth pick in this year’s draft, watched most of Monday’s practice with a wrap over the upper part of his left leg.
Carroll said for Woolen, “This week it will be really quiet this week. We won’t give him a lot of work, but we’re stressing him in the workouts and the rehab work to make sure he’s getting there and he feels great.
“He’s really confident, and we’re going to make him be begging to get back out there.”
Woolen says he understands the team’s slow-go approach. It’s only the first week of August.
“Shoot, I’m anxious. But at the same time, I’ve been taking it patient,” he said. “I know when the time comes it will be time for me to be out there, but so far I am taking all the mental reps I can.
“Shoot, just doing whatever the coaching staff and training staff tell me to do. So that why, I follow the plan so I can get back healthy and at the right time.”
Woolen’s injury
Woolen for the first time described the freakish way he got hurt during Seahawks offseason workouts.
“I was walking back to the huddle after a play in OTAs (organized team activities), and I felt like a pop in my knee. And I looked down at my knee and I saw something sticking out to the side,” he said. “It was a piece of my meniscus.”
Woolen said he bent his knee and pushed his meniscus back into his knee for the next play. That was the next play in OTAs in May.
So, yeah, this waiting through the Seahawks’ patience while feeling healthy and healed has been somewhat challenging.
“I tried to do another play ... and went down and it was popping out again,” Woolen said.
He got two stitches to strengthen the area of his knee through which the frayed meniscus came out. The doctor also shaved the meniscus during the arthroscopic surgery the team has termed minor.
“I’m still working to get back to normal,” he said. “But I feel amazing. I feel like myself again.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2023 at 5:16 PM.
