The news turned out to be as bad as initially feared for Seahawks middle linebacker Jordyn Brooks as coach Pete Carroll said on his radio show Monday morning that he suffered an ACL injury against the Jets.
“It’s legit,” Carroll said on Seattle Sports 710, adding “that’s a shame, now. What a great, great player and a great teammate.”
The news ends the season for Brooks, who started all 16 games for the Seahawks so far and led the team with 161 tackles, third in the NFL after the games of Sunday.
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As occurred during the final 35 minutes of Sunday’s 23-6 win over the Jets, Brooks will be replaced at middle linebacker by Cody Barton, with Tanner Muse expected to step in to the starting lineup at weakside linebacker, where Barton had been starting.
Brooks was injured late in the second quarter while making a tackle on the Seattle sidelines of Jets tight end C.J. Uzomah.
“He had an unfortunate kind of landing on the sidelines over there, just kind of as he was spinning he just got his knee torqued — he didn’t get hit on it — as he was kind of rotating around the tackle and landed awkwardly and unfortunately got hurt,” Carroll said.
Brooks was Seattle’s 2020 first-round pick out of Texas Tech and started all 17 games last season at weakside linebacker, setting a team-record with 183 tackles.
He took over the middle linebacking duties this year after the team released veteran Bobby Wagner.
Barton, a third-round pick in 2019, played the final two games of the 2021 season at middle linebacker after Wagner suffered an injury. After Brooks’ injury Sunday, Barton took over the “green dot” helmet, meaning he gets the play calls from the defensive coaches and relays them to the rest of the team. Carroll said he will continue to handle that role.
“He’s been the backup (MLB) the whole time,” Carroll said. “… He’s a very good play-caller. So he’ll handle those duties well.”
In discussing the linebacking depth, Carroll also mentioned Jon Rhattigan and Alexander Johnson.
Rhattigan, a second-year player out of Army, recently returned to the active roster following a knee injury a year ago and is listed as a backup middle linebacker. He has not played any snaps on defense in his career but has played 73 on special teams the last four games since returning to the active roster.
Johnson, a five-year NFL vet, has been on Seattle’s practice squad since Oct. 26 without playing in a game.
Johnson played in 38 games for Denver from 2018-21 with 34 starts and started all 16 games at linebacker for the Broncos in 2020, making 124 tackles.
“You’ll see all those guys contribute and help us out,” Carroll said. “Guys got to step up, and that’s what they’ll do.”
Tyler Lockett has leg contusion
Carroll also elaborated on the leg injury suffered by receiver Tyler Lockett in the first half, saying he got his leg “kicked” on and that he suffered a “contusion.” Carroll said the injury occurred “right in the area where he hurt his leg before,” which was likely a reference to Lockett’s broken leg suffered in 2016.
Lockett missed all of the third quarter but came back to play 10 snaps in the fourth quarter before sitting out the rest of the game.
Lockett started the game just 17 days after suffering a broken bone in his left hand that required surgery to install a plate and 10 screws. But Carroll reiterated that the hand was not an issue saying “he made it through the hand thing famously.”
“That’s crazy,” Carroll continued. “That’s so crazy. … There’s no words to describe his competitiveness and his will.”
This story will be updated.