Seahawks put Delano Hill on injured reserve in blow to safety depth
The Seahawks thought they came out of the final game of the season unscathed. Turns out they were wrong, as safety Delano Hill is out for the playoffs.
After beating the Cardinals in the regular season finale, the Seahawks thought they had come out clean as far as the injury report. As it turns out, those reports weren’t quite accurate. Second-year safety Delano Hill suffered a hip fracture in the game. He’s now on injured reserve and will miss his first shot at the playoffs.
This comes after the news that the staus for both J.R. Sweezy and Shaquill Griffin will be game-time decisions. We saw Sunday how much Sweezy means to the Hawks offensive line play. If Griffin is out, that’s another big blow to the depth in the secondary. Akeem King has played well lately, but you never want to have a starter out of the game.
It’s a real shame for Hill, as he’s looked good playing next to Bradley McDougald in the last two games. Pete Carroll had high praise for Hill’s game after he helped Seattle lock down their 10th win of the season. As John Boyle reported for seahawks.com, Carroll was high on Hill’s work:
"“Delano has played really good ball,” Carroll said. “He’s still young and there’s some plays that get away from him, but his toughness and his aggressive style—he has always been a great tackler. When we took him, we thought he was clearly the best tackler in the draft, and he showed it again yesterday. So we’ll see. It’s a good problem. We’d love to have Tedric back out there too.”"
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You may be wondering about the timing here. On Monday, Carroll was talking about how well Hill has played. So much so, that it was going to be a problem to get Tedric Thompson back on the field. And now, Hill is done until next season.
I have to say, Delano Hill must be one tough hombre. He has a cracked hip, but the team doesn’t even realize it until at least 24 hours after it happened? I’m not knocking the Seahawks trainers and medical staff. I’m saying that if I had a hangnail, I’d be in the trainers’ room. This dude has a freaking cracked pelvis and apparently was just dealing with it. NFL players are a little beyond human.
The news is lousy for Hill, of course. It isn’t a whole lot better for Seattle. Luckily it looks like Thompson will be ready to go for Saturday night’s contest against the Cowboys. I’m certainly not concerned that Thompson will start. The only reason HIll got the last two starts were injuries to T2. But as Carroll said, it was a good problem to have, juggling Hill and Thompson in the defensive backfield. Now the Hawks are another man down for the game.
dark. Next. Seahawks keep Pete Carroll employed
One good note is that this is a non-displaced fracture. That’s fancy talk for his leg bone is still attached to his hip bone. That’s why Hill was still able to walk. Although it doesn’t explain why he wasn’t screaming with every step, at least not to me. The word is the injury should heal just fine with no long-term effects. We expect Hill to be back better than ever for the 2019 season.