Seahawks injuries might be too much to overcome vs. Chiefs

The Seahawks are coming off a bad loss to the 49ers. Even worse, though, might be that Seattle could be without several key players against the Chiefs.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is a positive person. When he speaks of injuries it is not usually with a sense of dire. But the reality is, Seattle could be without players at positions where Seattle might need to be perfectly healthy to even have a chance of beating the Chiefs on Sunday.

12s already knew there was a chance Pro Bowl alternate free safety Bradley McDougald might not play this week. McDougald has had on ongoing knee issue and aggravated the injury in last week’s loss to the 49ers. When McDougald left the game in San Francisco the affects on Seattle’s defense were immediately bad.

McDougald has missed all of practice this week and has been undergoing treatment. Carroll said on Friday that he believes there is a strong chance that McDougald plays against Kansas City. But this also might be Carroll being overly optimistic.

Just as worrisome is strong safety Tedric Thompson almost definitely being out against the Chiefs. It is fairly unclear exactly what is wrong with Thompson but it doesn’t seem long-term and it is not related to any ligament damage.

But can you imagine a Seattle defense facing Patrick Mahomes without McDougald and Thompson? That would be an ugly game for the Seahawks.

Carroll also said several players will be game-time decisions. The list includes guard D.J. Fluker and running back Rashaad Penny. Fluker has missed the last couple of games. His replacement Jordan Simmons, though, suffered a knee injury against the 49ers and will miss the rest of the season. Simmons’ replacement was Ethan Pocic and Pocic was terrible late against San Francisco.

Penny has some kind of knee problem and he also missed the 49ers game. My gut-feeling is that Penny will not play on Sunday. Thankfully, Seattle still has Chris Carson and Mike Davis at running back.

In better news, the Seahawks will get linebacker K.J. Wright back this week. What remains to be seen is how many snaps Wright will get. It seems unlikely that Seattle will have Wright go all-out his first game back in sometime, especially as he will be needed even more against the Cardinals in the final game of the season. Seattle has to beat Arizona; They don’t really have to defeat the Chiefs to make the playoffs.