The Seattle Seahawks listed five players as questionable ahead of their Monday night matchup with the Minnesota Vikings, but coach Pete Carroll is optimistic many – if not all – of them will play.
Jadeveon Clowney, Jarran Reed, Mychal Kendricks, Al Woods and Luke Willson – all starters or important contributors – were listed as questionable ahead of Saturday afternoon’s practice.
Clowney is the most notable, having sat out last week against the Eagles with a core injury that will not require surgery, but will force him to play through pain for the rest of the year.
“We practiced him very lightly today but he did well yesterday,” Carroll said on Saturday. “He should be ready to go.”
Clowney is expected to be joined on the defensive line by both Reed and Woods. Reed suffered an ankle injury against the Eagles, but after being limited at practice this week he is expected to be recovered in time to play against Minnesota.
Woods is also dealing with an ankle injury, although it sounds like his situation is more veteran rest than anything else.
“He had a sore foot, we just made sure to give him some rest on it,” Carroll said. “He practiced today and looked fine. This is the time of the year where those guys, they ain’t gonna be perfect but they all feel like they can play.”
While Carroll was optimistic about his three defensive linemen, he was less confident about Kendricks and Willson – who are both dealing with hamstring injuries.
“He had a little tightness in his hammy yesterday so we thought we’d rest him today and get him a couple days here to cool him down,” Carroll said about Kendricks. “He takes a lot of reps in practices and so we thought it would be best to just rest him. We’ll see what happens. We’ll need to check him on game day though.”
Kendricks is the team’s SAM linebacker and has played a lot this year with the team sticking primarily in their base 4-3 defense. If he is unable to go, expect to see a lot of Cody Barton, and potentially more of either Akeem King or Ugo Amadi in the nickel role.
Willson missed last Sunday’s game against Philadelphia with a hamstring injury, but Carroll has continued to be pleased with how rapidly he has worked to recover and get back on the field.
“He made really good progress, he was flying up and down the field,” Carroll said. “We just gotta be careful, we just don’t want it to linger. We’ll wait to make a decision on this one.”
Willson is a big part of Seattle’s offense, but the recent play of Jacob Hollister and the promotion of Tyrone Swoopes from the practice squad allows the team to give Willson some extra recovery time, if needed.
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