Return day: Seahawks get DK Metcalf, 1 other starter + Kenny McIntosh back to practice
The Seahawks believe good is about to get better.
They’ve won four of their last five games. Wednesday, they welcomed back DK Metcalf and Evan Brown to practice. The starting wide receiver and center are coming off injuries that forced them miss Seattle’s win over Arizona last weekend.
The team expects Metcalf and Brown to start Sunday when the Seahawks (4-2) host the Cleveland Browns (4-2) at Lumen Field (1:05 p.m., channel 13).
“I feel good this week,” Metcalf, who also has had injured ribs, said after his first Wednesday practice in more than a month.
Rookie wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba had his first NFL touchdown reception and rookie Jake Bobo had what NFL NextGen Stats says was the most improbable touchdown catch in the league this season, both while subbing for Metcalf against Arizona.
“I felt it as a challenge to me, because I had never missed a (NFL) game before,” Metcalf said of the rookie receivers, “just to try to wear a different cap and try to watch them, and see what the DBs are doing or if I could tell them anything they could fix during the play or during the route.
“But they...played their butts off.”
Metcalf and tight end Noah Fant were the last two Seahawks on the indoor practice field, 20-plus minutes after the workout ended there. They were catching ball shot of a JUGS machine.
Seattle also got rookie running back Kenny McIntosh back to practice for the first time in two months. He’s off injured reserve.
Wide receiver Dee Eskridge practiced for the first time since his six-game NFL suspension from a domestic-violence charge ended. Nose tackle Austin Faoliu practiced coming off the physically-unable-to-perform list he’s been in since a knee injury in August.
“A bright time for us, a number of guys are coming back to practice,” Carroll said. “We’ve been kind of waiting and hoping that we were going to get a little bit of a lift, and we may, we may feel that.
“That’s a real positive for us right now.”
Technically, the team designated McIntosh to return off IR to practice. That opens a 21-day window before he could join the active roster. With Zach Charbonnet, Seattle’s rookie number-two back behind Kenneth Walker, recently sidelined the team needs McIntosh to make his NFL debut sooner than later.
Their slashing seventh-round pick from Georgia impressed in training camp until he injured his knee in the team’s annual mock-game scrimmage Aug. 4.
“It’s like a brand-new toy, really...just to get him back with us,” Carroll said. “He’s been hanging for such a long time.
“That’s one of the guys that uplifts us that he’s back out there.”
The Seahawks have a roster exemption until Saturday with Eskridge. After that, they will decide whether to add him to the active roster for Sunday’s game. If they decide not to, he could become a free agent.
Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron for years has had a part of his playbook for the speedy Eskridge, the fly-sweep part. Yet Eskridge doesn’t seem to fit this Seahawks offense. It is loaded at wide receiver. Bobo and Smith-Njigba have emerged to join Metcalf and Tyler Lockett (who rested Wednesday).
Carroll said Eskridge, the team’s often-injured second-round pick from 2021, will have to “make a spot for himself.”
“We do know him and we understand him,” Carroll said, “but he’s got to show us what happens on the practice field all week long and see what happens for the game.
“He could possibly play (Sunday).”
The league suspended Eskridge under its personal-conduct policy, because of an incident from this past offseason
“In early February 2023, Dwayne was involved in an unfortunate incident with his child’s mother, which resulted in his arrest and the filing of misdemeanor charges,” Jarred Ausserer, partner of the Seattle-area Puget Law Group, wrote in a statement provided to The News Tribune in September.
“Dwayne quickly took responsibility for his role in this incident,” the statement said. “Dwayne entered into an agreement whereby the misdemeanor charges will be dismissed in 12 months when he completes domestic violence moral recognition therapy. Dwayne has already enrolled in and has begun therapy. Dwayne has not been convicted of any crime. He entered into this agreement because it is in the best interest of his family. Dwayne deeply regrets any embarrassment this incident has caused his family, the Seahawks, and the NFL.”
Brown missed the Arizona game with a hip injury, the same issue that sidelined Metcalf last weekend for the first time in his five-year NFL career. Rookie Olu Oluwatimi started at center for Brown.
Offensive line still shuffling
Starting right guard Phil Haynes (calf) and right tackle Abe Lucas (knee, still on injured reserve) remained out.
Carroll praised how Stone Forsythe played for Lucas against Arizona.
Yet 41-year-old former All-Pro Jason Peters seems ready to make his awaited Seahawks debut, either at guard for Haynes or Lucas at tackle. Carroll wouldn’t specify which.
“He’s going to practice with the chance he could play,” the coach said.
The Seahawks signed Peters, a nine-time Pro Bowl and Super Bowl-champion left tackle with Philadelphia, six weeks ago off his couch at home in east Texas. He’s been working on the side with a trainer stretching with bands and getting his legs game-ready.
The Seahawks had Peters practicing at guard the week of their game at Cincinnati Oct. 15, and coaches thought he’d play that game for injured left guard Damien Lewis. But Peters hurt his quadriceps muscle getting ready for that game. He spent last week getting back into game-ready shape.
This week, he could be the right guard for the injured Haynes. Or he could be at right tackle.
Left tackle Charles Cross has returned from a month out with a sprained big toe to play the last two games.
This story was originally published October 25, 2023 at 3:52 PM.
