RENTON — The only person who might be happier than Pete Carroll that Seahawks safety Ryan Neal is back just in time for the playoffs is Neal himself. Even in a boisterous post-practice locker room Thursday, Neal’s voice could be heard clearly above the din as he spoke to reporters about practicing all week and getting the go-ahead to play Saturday in the wild-card playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers.
“I’m (freaking) excited to get back in,” Neal said joyfully. “I’ve been waiting forever. It has been (freaking) painful.”
What felt like forever to Neal was missing the last three games with a knee injury suffered in the win against the Rams on Dec. 4. Neal played through it the following two games against Carolina and the 49ers. He said the tight turnaround from the Panthers game on a Sunday to the 49ers game on Thursday got to him.
“The nail in the coffin,” he said.
Neal called the injury a contusion that just grew too painful to play with, saying he had to have fluid drained twice following the 49ers game and that the knee “just locked up’’ on him.
Without Neal, Teez Tabor started against the Chiefs on Dec. 24, and Johnathan Abram took over the last two games with Tabor playing regularly in a third-safety role.
With Neal back, Carroll hinted that all three may see time against the 49ers.
“I’m really happy that he will get back and we will have a nice little rotation there at that spot if he makes it all of the way,” Carroll said.
Neal could be in line to make his first postseason start. He played in two games in 2019 and one in 2020 as a backup and on special teams, getting 12 defensive snaps in the wild-card playoff loss to the Rams in 2020.
It means he’ll get to continue a season that earned him a spot Pro Football Focus’ All-Pro team earlier this week after receiving the highest grade of any safety. Neal started 10 games after taking over for Josh Jones, who took over for the injured Jamal Adams, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the opener.
Neal said he anxiously watched the Seahawks and Detroit wins last week, knowing that combination was needed for him to get to play another game this year.
“It was kind of agonizing watching,” Neal said of the Seahawks’ game. “And as soon as I got done with our heart attack I’m in the car having another one (listening to the Detroit game).’’
The waiting and watching has ended.
“He got really good work done in the last 10 days to get back to this point here,’’ Carroll said. “He wasn’t quite ready last week, but he had made some real progress before the game and that helped him jump into this week. He’s handled it. He’s been frustrated though. He is a high-energy guy and wants to be a part of this team as much as anybody that we’ve got. He’s really grateful right now that he gets the chance to probably play in this game.”
Dallas, Harris good to go
The Seahawks listed only four players as questionable for the game and none as doubtful or out.
Of those four, Carroll said two — running back DeeJay Dallas (ankle/quad) and defensive lineman Shelby Harris (knee) — had good days of practice and should be able to play Saturday. Each was listed as limited Thursday.
That appears to leave only two question marks in guard Phil Haynes (ankle) and cornerback Xavier Crawford (hamstring), who were the only two players not to practice Thursday.
Seahawks practicing being wet
With forecasts continuing to call for potentially heavy rain for Saturday’s game — weather.com said Thursday there is a 100% chance of rain and thunder — the Seahawks had a rare outside practice Thursday for what was a Friday-type practice on a normal game-week schedule.
“This week worked out exactly like we hoped, really,’’ Carroll said. “We even got our chances to get out in the elements, which it could very much be like. We got rained on today on the field and it was in the 50s. It might be like that on gameday, so it was a good chance there to at least be prepared.’’
Carroll reiterated the rain might mean the Seahawks will be more compelled to run the ball.
“The weather is the same for both of us,’’ Carroll said. “It’s fortunate, I know on our end of it, that we do feel good about the running game, and we can go to it as the rain can be a determining factor sometimes on how much you can handle the ball throwing and catching wise. We will see what happens. I know that we are both in the right vein to be prepared for this.”