Will DeShawn Shead be back for in time for 2017?

After some initial panic over the severity of his ACL injury, it now appears that cornerback DeShawn Shead will be ready to play for the 2017 season.

It wasn’t that long ago that there was speculation that DeShawn Shead could miss some or all of the 2017 season. Now there is some optimism that he could be ready for Week 1 instead.

The initial panic came from Pete Carroll himself. His comments two days after Seattle’s playoff elimination made it sound like Shead’s ACL injury was on the “bad” end of the spectrum.

We have to remember that not all ACL injuries are equal. Minnesota QB Teddy Bridgewater is expected to miss the 2017 season after tearing his ACL in the preseason before the 2016 season.

Now it seems that those initial fears on Shead were misplaced.

The pictures in that tweet give us more information that you might expect. Shead is already rehabbing, at least in a small way. That is a sign that there was no additional damage to the knee beyond the ACL.

That isn’t the case in instances where an extended recovery is necessary. In those cases, the additional damage tot he joint requires extra healing time before any sort of rehab can begin.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Shead will certainly be back for the start of the 2017 season. Everyone heals at their own rate. What it does mean is that, baring additional complications, Shead will have a chance to be back sooner than initially expected.

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That, of course, is great news for the Seahawks. The sooner he returns the sooner Seattle will be back at full strength in their secondary. Even if they sign or draft another starting CB this offseason, having an experienced starter like Shead in the mix will provide extraordinary depth for the Seahawks at a crucial position.