Geno Smith active vs Eagles. Devon Witherspoon, Jamal Adams will not play
Geno Smith is active to play Jalen Hurts in the NFL’s Monday night showcase, after all.
Smith tested his strained groin that kept him out of Seattle’s game last weekend at San Francisco about two hours before kickoff at Lumen Field. That workout convinced the Seahawks he was OK to at least be active for the game if not start.
Drew Lock took almost equal reps early pregame and was ready to start if Smith could not.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider on the team’s radio pregame show “Geno came out tonight and really surprised in his pregame workout.”
He said Smith aggravated his injury in practice this past week.
“We’ve got 54 minutes here to figure out what’s going on,” the GM said before kickoff on who was starting for Seattle.
Lock was out taking snaps from starting center Evan Brown as the Seahawks began full pregame warmups. Lock ended pregame running the first-team offense.
The only other quarterback in full uniform on the field for Seattle for pregame warmups was practice-squad call-up Sean Mannion. He was the third quarterback active for the game.
Rookie defensive back Devon Witherspoon (hip pointer) and safety Jamal Adams (knee) are inactive for Seattle.
On the other end of the field, Jalen Hurts prepared to start, as usual, for the Eagles, though a weekend illness had him questionable to play. The Pro Bowl quarterback flew separately from his team from Philadelphia to Seattle Sunday.
Adams missing with knee pain he’s been playing through since his season debut Oct. 2 from 13 months of recovery from a torn quadriceps tendon meant the Seahawks were started in nickel defense with three cornerbacks. That’s instead of the three safeties they played with Adams, Julian Love and Quandre Diggs most of the previous game at San Francisco, after Witherspoon got hurt in the first half.
Tre Brown started for Witherspoon at nickel. Veteran backup Artie Burns started at left cornerback. Michael Jackson started at right cornerback for benched Riq Woolen. Woolen was watching the first defensive series wearing a long, blue team cape over his full uniform.
Brown returned after missing last week’s game with a heel injury.
Coach Pete Carroll uncharacteristically called out Woolen and Adams for not executing plays as coached that became huge plays for the 49ers last week.
Seattle’s other inactive players were wide receiver Dee Eskridge, running back Kenny McIntosh, defensive end Myles Adams and offensive linemen McClendon Curtis and Raiqwon O’Neal.
The Eagles left former Seahawks running back and first-round draft choice Rashaad Penny inactive for the game.
This story was originally published December 18, 2023 at 3:51 PM.
