Seahawks injury updates heading into the bye week

The Seahawks head into their 2017 bye week having lost few players to injury. Seattle’s fairly good health will do them well going later into the season. Who, though, is having issues at this point in the season?

Coach Pete Carroll talked on Monday about Seahawks injury updates. One player was somewhat a surprise. But Carroll offered good news about some other players.

Luke Joeckel

Joeckel, Carroll said, will get his knee scoped to clean up some issues. The left guard, of course, had surgery in 2016 on his knee. Carroll said he expects Joeckel to likely miss the New York Giants game following the bye week. Joeckel’s knee issue was the surprise I was talking about.

Joeckel is currently rated the 46th best guard by Pro Football Focus. While this is not good, the rating is still an improvement over what Seattle had last year. If Joeckel cannot go, it seems to make sense to have Mark Glowinski move back to start at left guard. At least Glowinski is familiar with the position and what Seattle wants to do there.

Michael Bennett

Bennett was injured in the first half of the game against the Rams but came back and played fairly well. Bennett suffered a plantar fascia injury. Carroll said that Bennett will need a couple of weeks to get back to feeling himself.

The issue with these types of injuries, though, is they can last…and last…and last. The question is just how well Bennett can play with the pain.

Some good news

DeShaun Shead is close to coming back. He did hurt his knee against the Atlanta Falcons in the playoffs, though, so one might wonder if 10 months is still too soon. But according to Carroll, “As soon as (doctors) let him back out, he’s coming.”

I should temper this by saying this is unknown good or bad news. Dion Jordan hasn’t had the greatest career and has never played a down with Seattle. Jordan can come of the non-football injury list next week, and he is close to being able to play, but not yet. Carroll said, “He’s still a couple of weeks from getting back out there, but he’s in full conditioning mode right now.” With Cliff Avril out for an extended time, the Seahawks need all the defensive line depth they can get.

Related Story: Frank Clark becoming Seahawks next dominant player...

And if 12s feel bad about these injuries, just remember that on Sunday Seattle’s next opponent, the Giants, lost three wide receivers (including Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall) to season-ending injuries. Ouch.