K.J. Wright injury really complicates Seahawks roster cuts
K.J. Wright may miss significant time after getting his knee scoped. His is just the latest injury to complicate the Seahawks upcoming roster moves.
The Seahawks will now miss their starting weakside linebacker for an unknown length of time. Before everyone panics, it certainly doesn’t sound like K.J. Wright is going to out for the season. As reported by Ben Arthur for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Pete Carroll at first appeared to minimize the severity of Wright’s injury:
"“After the (Vikings) game — he didn’t get hit or anything or didn’t have an episode — he just felt that maybe something wasn’t quite right,” Carroll said. “We took a good look at it and we’re going to do a scope job and get him back really quick.”"
Sounds okay, right? We’re going to “get him back really quick.” That is, it sounded okay until Pete answered the followup questions. Specifically, he was asked how many weeks Wright would be out. Then he was asked if he’d be ready for the season opener against the Denver Broncos. The answers were “I don’t know” and “I don’t know that.” Those are not the most comforting words 12s have ever heard, that’s for certain.
So in the span of three sentences, K.J. Wright went from getting back in short order to recuperating for an indefinite time period. If the injury had happened during camp in July, or even in the first preseason game, it wouldn’t be so troubling. There’s an even bigger issue than Wright’s absence. The looming roster cuts are the real problem.
This makes tough roster cuts even tougher for Seahawks
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Seattle has already had to make some tough roster cuts in releasing Jon Ryan and others. Wright’s injury is just the latest tricky medical conundrum facing the Seahawks. For instance, how long will J.D. McKissic be on the shelf? Most reports have pegged his recovery time at four to six weeks.
But the recovery time could be as long as eight weeks, which would take him all the way into the bye week. If that’s the case, the Seahawks might as well put him on IR once the season starts. But right now, they don’t know for sure. Hopefully by Saturday they’ll have a much clearer picture of his progress.
Byron Maxwell is still dealing with a hamstring issue. If you’ve followed football for any length of time, you know those injuries can linger for months. What happens with him? Could it be bad enough he could go on the injured reserve list? There are only two IR spots that allow a player to come back after eight weeks, so those are very precious resources. Maxwell’s status is about as murky as Wright’s. Who knows when Dion Jordan will be ready? Not the Seahawks.
Wright’s injury throw the linebacker corps up in the air, too. As it stands now, fan favorite rookie Shaquem Griffin would start in Wright’s place. Do Carroll and Ken Norton Jr. think he’s ready? There’s been talk that the Seahawks may hang onto D.J. Alexander or Austin Calitro. One or both of them have been on many projected cut lists.
Of course the only cut list that matters is the Seahawks own list on Saturday. Hopefully, the biggest problem Seattle has to deal with as a result of Wright’s injury is juggling roster cuts. If he misses any significant time, that’s gong to put an awful lot of pressure on some very young players. Regardless of how it all shakes out, the Seahawks just got another major headache to deal with on Saturday.