The Seahawks kicked off their practice week a day early in order to give players Christmas off, which also meant Pete Carroll held his press conference a day early. Here’s a bit of what he said on their injury situation.
On LT Russell Okung, who missed Sunday’s game in Arizona with a bruised lung: “He’s practicing today. He’s with us and has a real good chance to get back.”
On C Max Unger, who has missed the past five games with a high-ankle sprain: “He’s trying to get back. He won’t do much today, maybe we’ll get something out of him tomorrow. It’s going to be touch and go to get him by the game. It’s just been a long, arduous process getting him back, unfortunately. I would love to say he’s cranking and ready to go, but I can’t tell that right now. I don’t know.”
If Unger can’t go, Carroll said a decision has not yet been made between Patrick Lewis, who started against Arizona, or Lemuel Jeanpierre, who started the previous four games:”We’ll wait and see as we go through the week. Give us a few days and we’ll figure that out.”
Carroll said Lewis started over Unger in part because he had played and played pretty well in the previous game against the Cardinals: “yeah, and he had played well. He did a nice job against them, we thought he held up well, so just in the competitive world we’re living in here, we’re trying to give guys chances, and if there’s an edge here or there, we’re going to give a guy a shot. That’s what Tom (Cable) wanted to do with it, and Patrick came through.”
Even without Unger and Okung, the Seahawks held the Cardinals to one sack after they had seven in the previous meeting.
“We were much improved, obviously,” Carroll said. “We got sacked a bunch the first time against those guys, so that improvement alone, plus the yards rushing, really was a great statement for those guys coming through.”
Carroll didn’t sound optimistic on Jermaine Kearse making it back this week after injuring his hamstring against the Cardinals, but he didn’t completely rule out the possibility of that happening: “It’s going to be tough for him to make it back, because he did pull his hammy a little bit. It’s a first-degree pull. It’s going to be hard to get back in seven days, but we’ll check him at the end of the week and see where he is.”
On TE Cooper Helfet, who cracked a rib, according to his own post on Twitter, Carroll said, “He’s practicing today, just toughing it out, really. It was an admirable job by him to get banged like he did and make it through the game, and to come back out here now. He’ll try to make it through the week and see if he can be available to us on the weekend.”
Carroll said TE Tony Moeaki will also return to practice this week after missing Sunday’s game with a shoulder injury.
On CB Tharold Simon, who left the game with a shoulder injury: “He felt pretty good today and he’ll get some work tomorrow and see how far he can take it. This will be an amazing recovery if he is able to do it; he had a real knock on his shoulder, but he feels pretty good. He has been through it before on his other shoulder, so that helps sometimes. It seems like he has a chance.”
Asked if that meant there was no structural damage, Carroll said, ‘I didn’t say that.”
So was there?
“There’s some stuff happening. It was a traumatic shot on his shoulder. He’s made it back from it and to this point he’s admirably pushing to play this week. He’s going for it.”
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