As Seahawks coach Pete Carroll spoke to reporters Monday, he watched receiver Tyler Lockett run in front of him at the team’s training facility in Renton.
“He looks great,” Carroll said, then paused. “But it’s his hand, though, you know?”
Though Lockett can do all the running he wants, it’s whether his hand can handle playing football that will determine if and when he can take the field again this season.
Lockett suffered a broken bone in his left hand Dec. 15 against the 49ers and had surgery to repair the injury last week in Los Angeles. He spent the week rehabbing there before returning to Seattle.
“I don’t know that yet,” Carroll said when asked if Lockett would play Sunday against the New York Jets, essentially a must-win game for Seattle’s playoff hopes. “I know what he wants to do — he wants to play. So we’ll see.”
Carroll said that may be a question left unanswered until late in the week, possibly game day, adding that Lockett doesn’t need to practice this week for him to play Sunday.
Carroll said Lockett will take part in walk-throughs and meetings.
“He won’t miss any of that stuff,” Carroll said. “He can run around. The question will be what it feels like to catch a football and hang on to it.”
The Seahawks hope to get an answer in the affirmative after seeing what happened to their offense in Saturday’s 24-10 loss at Kansas City.
Carroll had said before the game that “you can’t replace” Lockett, who missed just the third regular-season game of his NFL career.
That proved to be truer than even Carroll had thought, especially on third down.
Seattle converted on 2 of 14 third downs (14.3%) Saturday. That actually isn’t the worst of the season for Seattle, which went 1 of 9 in losses to Tampa Bay and New Orleans.
But it stood out on a day Seattle got its running game going in the second half yet wasn’t able to take advantage.
“We certainly missed him on third downs,” Carroll said. “He’s such a key guy, and he and [quarterback] Geno [Smith] are so hooked up that we missed him. And he’s made a lot of crucial third-down conversions for us, under duress, late in the games that we would have loved to have had in that game.”
Not that missing Lockett was the whole issue, as Carroll noted.
Of Seattle’s 14 third downs, 11 were for six yards or longer, and seven were 10 yards or longer. Seattle converted just one of those, a 10-yard pass from Smith to DK Metcalf in the fourth quarter.
“The issue was about first and second down, really, making those situations shorter,” Carroll said.
Seattle’s other three third downs were for three yards or fewer, and the Seahawks converted one of those.
Most frustrating is that Smith completed 7 of his 11 passes on third down. But only the conversion to Metcalf went for enough yards to convert.
Seattle’s rushing attack was revived in the second half behind rookie Kenneth Walker III, who gained 91 yards on 17 carries after halftime. Walker had runs of 20, 20, 11 and nine in the second half.
But of the Seahawks’ seven third downs in the second half, six were for six yards or longer and three were 10 or longer, which led to them going for it five times on fourth down in the second half.
Without Lockett, Seattle went with Marquise Goodwin as its other starting receiver alongside Metcalf. But Goodwin missed some time after aggravating a wrist injury. That meant Laquon Treadwell, who was signed to the practice squad Nov. 1 and was playing just his fourth game of the season, played 65 snaps, the second most of any receiver. Carroll said Monday he anticipated Goodwin, who returned to the game, would play against the Jets.
With Lockett out, the Chiefs loaded up defensively on Metcalf.
Smith threw three of his 11 third-down passes to Metcalf. All were on third-and-10. Though one resulted in a conversion, the other completions went for nine and seven yards, seeming to typify the day. That made it difficult to come back from a 17-0 deficit on the road against the Chiefs (12-3).
“We really build a lot of stuff around what he’s capable of doing and how he reads things, and he makes the most of the opportunities,” Carroll said of Lockett.
Lucas, Dissly to get knees examined
Starting right tackle Abraham Lucas and tight end Will Dissly were scheduled to have “imaging” done on knee injuries they dealt with Saturday, Carroll said.
Carroll said after the game that Lucas was suffering from an elbow injury but clarified Monday that he was also dealing with a patellar-tendon injury, which is the concern now.
Carroll said he had no further updates.
Lucas missed much of the second half and was replaced by Stone Forsythe. Dissly played just 28 snaps, a season-low 37%.
Blount to IR, Igwebuike signed to 53
Safety Joey Blount suffered a knee injury Saturday and was placed on injured reserve Monday.
His spot on the 53-man roster was taken by running back Godwin Igwebuike, who has handled kickoff returns the past three games after being elevated off the practice squad. Igwebuike had no more elevations left and had to go on the 53 to play more this season.
Seattle filled Igwebuike’s spot on the practice squad by re-signing running back Tony Jones Jr., who was waived off the 53-man roster last week.
Notes
- Seattle hopes S Ryan Neal (knee) and DT Al Woods (Achilles) can return for the Jets game. Neal sat out Saturday, and Woods has missed two games. “We’ll have to see how those guys do [in practice],” Carroll said.