Field Gulls
The Seattle Seahawks defense is very banged up, but reinforcements could be on the way.
During his Monday afternoon press conference, head coach Mike Macdonald provided some updates on injured players who either missed last Sunday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or left during the Bucs game.
Two key absences from Week 5 were cornerback Devon Witherspoon and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence. Witherspoon has missed three games due to a knee injury, while Lawrence missed his first action of the season after hurting his quad in Week 4 versus the Arizona Cardinals. Witherspoon had some imaging done and it seems that the results came back positively enough for Macdonald to say that they plan to have him practice for the Week 6 showdown at the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“Spoon and D-Law this week, they’re going to try to practice in the middle of the week,” Macdonald said. “So, no designation yet, but the plan is for them to practice at some point, middle to late in the week, and then we’ll take it from there.”
One person we won’t be seeing (barring some miraculous healing powers) is outside linebacker Derick Hall, who hurt his oblique on the opening drive of the Buccaneers game and did not return. Hall may not have a sack on the season but he’s played at a high level, and the pass rush and run defense suffers without him. Macdonald believes that this injury will not place Hall on injured reserve, which would otherwise take him out until Week 11 at the earliest.
“Let’s call it week to week at this point,” Macdonald said. “Probably not looking at IR, so we’ll see. I think that gives you a good picture.”
Another player whose Week 6 status is less certain is safety Julian Love, who hurt his hamstring late in the Cardinals game and missed Week 3 versus the Saints with the same injury.
“Julian’s probably on a little bit later timeline, probably going to go to the end of the week.”
Lastly, there’s no real update on Riq Woolen, who’s in concussion protocol after taking a knee to the helmet from Buccaneers running back Sean Tucker.
Getting anybody back would be welcome at this point, so we’ll see if the two main names in this story are trending toward playing this Sunday. The first practice will be on Wednesday, after which the Seahawks will release an injury report.
