Pete Carroll on KJR: Jamal Adams will miss Seahawks opener, Devon Witherspoon ‘might’
Devon Witherspoon’s awaited debut? It appears the Seahawks are going to have to wait longer for that.
Jamal Adams for sure won’t be playing in the opener.
Seattle coach Pete Carroll for the first time confirmed Friday that which had become obvious with Adams, and is becoming so with Witherspoon.
During an interview that aired Friday morning on KJR radio, Carroll said Adams will miss the Seahawks’ first game against the Los Angeles Rams — and that Witherspoon’s hamstring injury that’s sidelined him since Aug. 7 is likely to do the same Sept. 10 when the Seahawks begin the season.
“It’s going to be a race to get him for the opener. Might not get that,” Carroll told KJR’s Chuck Powell and Bucky Jacobsen about Witherspoon in an interview taped before the Seahawks practiced Thursday that aired Friday, a players day off.
When the always-optimistic coach says a player “might not” play that typically means he won’t.
Earlier this week, the coach had declined to say anything about Witherspoon’s injury or status for the opener.
Lat week, Adams came off the physically-unable-to-perform list he’d been on since the start of training camp July 27. That fueled speculation the $70 million safety would be able to play in the Seahawks’ opener, 12 months after his torn quadriceps tendon.
But the team is slowly and incrementally bringing Adams back to practice. For now, he is doing only light morning walk-through drills indoors. Those are walks and jogs through scheme and play fits, not full change-of-direction running in the main practices.
That second phase of Adams fully practicing may not happen for a while, still.
Carroll said Friday on KJR Adams will not play week one and perhaps not week two, Sept. 17 at Detroit, either. The coach said the Seahawks will take their time to make sure Adams is fully healthy and confident in his health, and that it’s the long, 17-game season they need him for.
“It’s gonna be after the start of the season. We’re not gonna push him,” Carroll told KJR. “Whether it’s a game or a couple games, just want him healthy and confident.”
The Seahawks signed former New York Giants safety and captain Julian Love this offseason. Love will begin the season next to Pro Bowl veteran Quandre Diggs as Seattle’s starting safeties.
Witherspoon, the cornerback and fifth pick in this year’s draft from Illinois, held out the first two days of training camp, to get all of his four-year, $31.8 million contract guaranteed. He was the only rookie draft pick to hold out from camp.
He practiced nine times, most of it as the team’s primary fifth, nickel defensive back inside against slot receivers with the starting defense.
Then he injured his hamstring Aug. 7. He hasn’t practiced since.
Last week Carroll said Witherspoon would return the way Adams was, in morning walkthrough practices. The hope was Witherspoon would be back practicing fully in the main afternoon workouts, if not by now then by Monday when the team begins its first week of regular-season game preparations for the Rams. That is to join the competition at starting left cornerback currently involving Tre Brown and Michael Jackson. Witherspoon also will, when he returns, compete with 2022 nickel back Coby Bryant for that job of primary slot cornerback.
Asked Wednesday how behind Witherspoon is having missed more than three weeks of practice time, Carroll said “neeeeext” — as in, next question. The coach said he wasn’t talking about injuries this week because he didn’t have to, since there is no game this week.
His comments aired Friday on KJR were the first time he’s assessed Witherspoon’s chances to play in the opener.
And they aren’t strong.
This story was originally published September 1, 2023 at 9:00 AM.
