The Seahawks' Injury Situation

The question was brought up a few days ago as to the Seahawks' current injury situation and the likelihood that these injuries will impact training camp and potentially next season, so here's a roundup. Here's a neatly organized list of the players by position that the Seahawks placed on the injured reserve during the season, with a tip of the cap to Mike Sando.

Receiver: Kris Durham, Mike Williams, Sidney Rice
Tight end: John Carlson
Offensive line: John Moffitt, James Carpenter, Russell Okung
Defensive line: Jimmy Wilkerson
Linebacker: Jameson Konz, Matt McCoy, David Vobora, Dexter Davis
Cornerback: Marcus Trufant, Walter Thurmond, Ron Parker

As you can see, the Hawks ended the year with three receivers, a tight end, three offensive linemen, one defensive lineman, four linebackers, and three corners with major* injuries. I issue the asterisk because it's not totally clear how 'serious' the injuries to Kris Durham and Ron Parker were, but regardless, both were major enough to warrant the roster move.

Details after the jump...

Kris Durham - Durham was placed on the IR on November 8th and underwent surgery on his labrum two days later. He was replaced by Deon Butler on the active roster. Many of us were a little skeptical of this move when it happened as we'd heard nothing about this injury previous to the move, but I'm sure that's fairly commonplace. Players will play through lingering or nagging pain without showing up on the injury report and teams tend to be as vague as possible about their injury situations during the season. This particular situation was probably a matter of the team wanting to see what they had in Deon Butler, in his last in-season weeks under contract, and a chance to take care of Durham's apparent shoulder issues.

Prognosis: I see no reason that Durham shouldn't be ready for Training Camp in late July - early August.

Mike Williams: the Seahawks put BMW on injured reserve on December 20th after he suffered what I've heard called both "significant ankle damage" or "a broken ankle" and a broken fibula. Either way - it was a major injury and is a major concern for Williams' offseason. I saw a tweet two weeks ago in which Williams said he can finally walk so that's a good sign but it also kind of hits home just how bad this injury really was. That being said, I don't think it is nearly as bad as the type of thing that Leon Washington and Deon Butler went through and I am guessing that BMW will be healed up and ready to play by August. The question here though is what type of shape he'll be in after rehabbing all spring.

Prognosis: Williams should be ready for training camp but his conditioning and repetitions will suffer while he rehabs from a pretty gruesome injury. Leg injuries are always bad, but the bigger you are the harder it is to recover speed, strength and stability. All I know is that this is certainly not helpful to BMW bouncing back this season. I still have pretty high hopes for him.

Sidney Rice: Rice was placed on the IR in late November after he suffered his second concussion in a span of three weeks. He also missed two games to start the season with a shoulder injury and hobbled around during the year with a knee issue. To me, this move was the front office simply saying "let's just get him healthy and not risk anything worse" this year. It came out recently that Rice had surgery on both of his shoulders after the season ended - at least one for a torn labrum and the other for undisclosed reasons. Either way, not an ideal situation but it seems likely he'll have plenty of time to rehab from his injuries before team activities pick back up.

Prognosis: Rice should be ready to go by training camp, but he'll need to have a season relatively devoid of major injuries before the 'injury prone' label that's beginning to get thrown around is shed. It's worrisome, sure, but his hip seems to have healed and there's no real reason to believe he'll be unable to return from this latest injury situation.

John Carlson: Carlson also suffered from a torn labrum but apparently his was much worse than either Durham's or Rice's labrum issues - to the point where he couldn't raise his arm. Either way, he was placed on the IR before the season started and is now a free agent. We haven't heard a whole lot from Carlson this year, but he's said recently that talks are underway with the team on a return.

"The way it works right now is that I can only talk to the Seahawks," said Carlson, who would be a free agent as of March 13 if no deal is finalized. "I've been in contact with my agent and there have been conversations with the team. They're interested in keeping me around, but at this point we're not sure how interested they are."

He continued...

"My wife and I love Seattle, we love the people here and we have a lot of friends and we're connected to the community," Carlson said. "I would be happy to be back here, but I also understand the business side of it."

Prognosis: If Carlson is re-signed by the team, I would expect that he'll be ready for training camp. By that time, he'll have had nearly a year to rehab and I just can't see a guy like John not working his ass off to get himself in shape for that.

John Moffitt: Moffitt was placed on IR mid-November with MCL/PCL tears. There aren't a ton of studies out there that can give you a clear definition of how long this type of injury recovery should take, but with the amount of care and rehab that NFL players get, I would throw out the '6-months' number.

Prognosis: Mofftt is likely to be ready for Training Camp, or at least getting close by the time that rolls around. Mid-August will mark the 8-month anniversary of his injury and though he might not be 100%, I think it's safe to say he'll be close enough to take part? I'm no doctor, but that's my thinking. The negative effect is obviously a lack of conditioning and it's highly doubtful he'll be in peak physical condition. Kind of a bummer, but that's sports.

James Carpenter: The big man tore his ACL the week after Moffitt went down and unfortunately I'd have to say his timetable for return is a bit longer. I've seen the '6-months' number thrown out there as a benchmark to basic function, but I've also seen a lot of people say that you don't fully regain strength and mobility until up to two years after tearing an ACL. Generally speaking though, that's more important for the 'speed' type guys - receivers, running backs, defensive backs - and I would think Carpenter could return sooner than that. Still, a year of recovery isn't totally out of the question.

Prognosis: For a guy that came into camp a couple (dozen?) pounds overweight this is a concerning injury. He'll be unable to do conditioning for probably upwards of four or five months and then the long journey to playing shape will commence. I think it's safe to assume he'll be unavailable at the beginning of training camp and could very well leak into the PUP conversations to start the year. We'll see, but of all the injuries the Seahawks are dealing with, Carpenter's worries me the most. By far.

Russell Okung: Okung tore his pec after getting flipped by Philadelphia Eagle Trent Cole. Total bummer.

Prognosis: Of all the injuries Okung could suffer as an offensive linemen, I'm glad it's an upper body thing. I know that upper body leverage and strength are important but for a left tackle groin, knee, and ankle injuries worry me more. I assume that he'll be rehabbing hard this offseason and will be ready to come next season.

Jimmy Wilkerson: Wilkerson was placed on the IR in early September with a knee injury that was originally described as a sprain. Apparently, the team didn't want to wait and see if he'd be able to return so they put the 31-year old on IR. It's unclear if he'll be back and is currently a free agent.

Prognosis: He'd be ready if the team re-signs him, I would guess. I haven't heard a thing about this though from the front office.

Jameson Konz: Konz was placed on the active roster for gameday for the first time in his career in early October against the Giants and sadly tore his ACL in that game in special teams' duty. Konz is a TE converted to DE, and the team has thought enough about him the past two years to hold on to him, despite season ending injuries in both of his NFL seasons. He got hurt early enough in the year to give himself time to rehab back to health by the start of '12 so I imagine he'll be ready.

Prognosis: ACL injuries are pretty tough to predict. Terrell Owens can come back from them in a week. Some people take two years. Konz is a physical freak of nature and just seems like the kind of dude that could come back from that injury pretty quickly, so I'm going to say he'll be ready by late July - early August. He'll have to fight to make the team again though, I'm sure.

Matt McCoy: McCoy went down in early October with a knee injury, and was replaced briefly by the above mentioned Konz. McCoy is a free agent but is a special teams' ace so I wouldn't be surprised to see him re-sign with the team.

Prognosis: Haven't heard anything, but again, seems likely he'll be ready for training camp, if he's re-signed.

David Vobora: Vobora was placed on the IR following the game against the Redskins in late November. He was one of the players that came on following the injuries to McCoy and Konz, and played mostly in special teams. He's also a free agent.

Prognosis: Should be ready for training camp, assuming the team re-signs him.

Dexter Davis: Davis had a weird hip issue that I'm not sure was ever really explained by the team. I haven't really heard much about it since, to be honest. He's one of those players that really intrigues me and is kind of forgotten when we talk about the Seahawks pass rush. Either way - hopefully his issue is figured out and solved by now.

Prognosis: I would guess that he'll be good to go, but there isn't a ton of information that I've seen to work off of. Hip issues can be problematic, but he'll have had almost a year to get things worked out so I'm going on the assumption he'll battle in camp for a spot.

Marcus Trufant: Trufe was placed on IR in mid-October with officially a 'bruised sacrum' but I believe it came out later that it was related to the bulging disc issues he's been plagued with for a few years.

Prognosis: At this point, it's unclear if he'll play football again. I like to think that he's not done, but these back issues do not go away easily. So, I'll just say his prognosis is this - very up in the air.

Walter Thurmond: Thurmond suffered a high-ankle sprain and broke his fibula in late October, and he underwent surgery soon thereafter to repair the damage. The rehab time for this injury is typically 4-6 months, but I'd urge caution on that because this was apparently a pretty major ankle injury.

Prognosis: It seems likely he'll be ready to go by the time August rolls around. Thumond is another one of those guys has the potential to be great if he can stay healthy.

Ron Parker: Parker was with the team in camp, briefly went to the Raiders, then was picked up again and put on the active roster until December 13th, when he was placed on IR with an undisclosed injury. He was replaced by Ricardo Lockette on the active roster.

Prognosis: It came out that he had an 'achilles injury'. I assume he'll be ready to play once training camp comes around but there's little to no information on the severity.

What'd I miss? Overall, the Seahawks injury situation could be worse. Mike Williams, John Moffitt, and James Carpenter on offense, and Walter Thurmond and Dexter Davis on defense are the guys to monitor as OTAs and the like get closer, I would think.