Seahawks sound early alarms with concerning Wednesday injury report

The Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams both released initial injury reports on Wednesday afternoon, although the Rams did not actually practice and put out an estimation of their report. Despite being the significantly-better rested team in recent weeks, with much less travel and a bye, the Seahawks report was much longer, although that’s not the only consideration.

Once you dig through the actual information in the report, things clear up fast. Demarcus Lawrence, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Leonard Williams were all listed as limited for rest, as none of them have any actual injury designation, so nothing to worry about there.

Elijah Arroyo (knee) and Chazz Surratt (ankle) were both listed as full participants, and seem to be quite healthy. Questions remain over whether those two players will be activated this week, but it pretty clearly has more to do with whether the team has any need for them or room for them on the roster rather than their health.

A notable listing here is George Holani (hamstring), who has been on injured reserve for a couple months but practiced in full today, with indications that he’s been physically ready for some time now and should be ready for this weekend. Tyrice Knight (shoulder) was a full participant as well, marking him as available as a backup linebacker this weekend.

The pool of limited players was also relatively comforting. Sam Darnold (oblique) is among them, which was pretty obviously going to be the case after the way Coach Macdonald spoke about him earlier this week, but it’s fairly clear that it’s just a matter of limiting his practice reps to make sure he’s got everything he needs to have success on Sunday. No issues here.

Uchenna Nwosu (hamstring), Robbie Ouzts (neck), and Bryce Cabeldue (knee) also missed some of practice, but got enough in to indicate they will be fine. Ouzts missed a good chunk of the 49ers game with the injury so it makes sense to ease him back in. Cabeldue is interesting since he wasn’t even active on Saturday.

Jones has been beat up for awhile now and his status is up in the air. — Seahawks guard Josh Jones (74) walks off the field. | Amber Searls-Imagn Images

The problem kicks in when you see the three players that didn’t participate today. Normally, only three players missing practice on Wednesday is a good thing, but in this case, all three players play the same position. Charles Cross (foot), Josh Jones (knee, ankle), and Amari Kight (knee) all sat out today, leaving the Seahawks with very little at left tackle.

The good news is that Cross participated in the walkthrough this morning, and Macdonald already said that Cross might play on Sunday without actually practicing during the week. I’m less optimistic about Jones, who seems to be breaking down physically after gutting out the week eighteen game against the 49ers. Kight played well last week but remains inexperienced.

If all three players are unavailable for the Seahawks this weekend, it becomes a scramble drill to field a left tackle. Grey Zabel could be bumped outside, Mason Richman and Bryce Cabeldue could get the call for their first NFL starts, and Logan Brown might get attention as a practice squader the team seems to like. None of this feels particularly good.

There’s no point in panicking on a Wednesday, however, and we’ll need to see how things progress over the next couple days before we assume the worst. Wednesday practices are often the day to play things extra-cautious and understand that players don’t need every single rep to play well on game day.

The Rams have a lot less to be concerned about, although again, they didn’t actually practice. ED Josaiah Stewart (knee) was listed as a full participant, and CB Emmanuel Forbes (shoulder) got hit with a limited designation. Forbes got injured and was forced to leave the game in Chicago last week, and with the Rams thin at corner his situation is worth monitoring.

Only two players were listed with the DNP tag, and one of them is S Quentin Lake (illness), and the odds of an illness of any kind keeping a player out of a conference championship game is almost zero. Particularly in that the illness seems to have been caught so early in the week. ED Byron Young (knee), however, was the other injury, and his potential loss looms very large.

We’ll see what the teams pass along tomorrow before we make any broad assumptions, but the early indications are that this will be a game without an excessive number of injuries, although for the Seahawks, where those injuries are might be very impactful.

Even the third stringer is beat up right now. — Seattle Seahawks tackle Amari Kight (79) against the Arizona Cardinals. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

More Seahawks on SI stories