A day before his team’s final preseason game, Pete Carroll updated us on a bunch of injured players, including offensive lineman James Carpenter, who has been recovering from knee surgery throughout the preseason.
Carroll admitted that as recently as July, they weren’t sure if Carpenter would make it back at all this year. Now the Seahawks are confident they’ll get last year’s first-round pick back at some point, thought Carroll still doesn’t know if Carpenter will open the year on the Physically Unable to Perform list, which would force him to miss the first six weeks of the season.
“Carp is doing marvelously,” Carroll said. “We were kind of concerned about him not making early progress in the recovery program, but he just kind of jumped about six weeks ago, and he’s doing a very rigorous workout, long spells of work on the field. We’re trying to simulate the time that he would practice, three days a week of hard practicing, then one more day of really hard work to see how he endures it, and he’s handling it well. He’s not far away from looking like he could practice and play for us, but it’s still a crucial time here, we’re going to have to make a big decision on how we do this. But he has busted his tail to get back, and we’re really, really excited. He’s definitely going to play this year. We didn’t know that even in July. We weren’t sure. But we know that now that he’s going to play once he gets back and gets his weeks in to get back on the field. So it’s really positive for us.”
As for the the players with less serious injuries, here’s a rundown of what Carroll had to say following Wednesday’s walkthru.
On WR Doug Baldwin, who had a procedure done to drain blood from his hamstring, and will not play Thursday night: “Doug ran really hard yesterday, I watched his workout at top speed. He’s ready to go for us on Monday.. . By Wednesday it will be a full-go practice, he’s going and playing. We think he’s going to be fine (for the season opener)”
On RG John Moffitt, who has missed the last two preseason games while recovering from elbow surgery: “John’s playing. He had a good week, he made it through it. That’s a great turnaround for us to know that he had surgery within this camp and is already back playing, so we’re very fortunate.”
On backup QB Matt Flynn, who couldn’t play last week because of a sore elbow: “Matt’s ready to go. He’s going to play. He’ll get some good play time in this one. Just like to see him do like he’s been doing, just log some more time because of the big game he missed, number three. We’re just going to play him a little bit more because of that.”
On RB Marshawn Lynch, who has not practiced past two weeks because of back spasm, and will not play Thursday: “He took a real good turn this week, and the rehab that he’s been doing has really been effective, so we think he’s going to be fine.”
On DT Jason Jones who has been been limited throughout the preseason to rest a surgically repaired knee: “He’ll be back for the opener… It’s just been a maintenance thing, he’s in good shape and he’ll be ready for the opener.”
Carroll also said that rookie DE Greg Scruggs (hamstring) will not play Thursday, nor will S Chris Maragos (shoulder).
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
