Malik McDowell working with Seahawks trainers, DeShawn Shead won’t practice this week

Though it could still be awhile before he gets into a game, or even a full practice, Seahawks rookie Malik McDowell is at least back out onto the field in some capacity. Per Pete Carroll, McDowell has begun doing conditioning work with Seattle trainers, which is the first bit of news all year that he’s actually doing physical work in Seahawks facilities.

The second round pick, Seattle’s first choice in this year’s draft, was seriously injured in an ATV accident over the summer. The extent of his injuries were kept a mystery, and to a large degree still are under wraps, but McDowell was eventually said to have suffered a serious concussion. (All concussions are serious, but this one has kept him out for two and a half months at this point.) Doubts about his ability to return to the game of football at all, let alone his rookie season, were in play but Carroll recently said that indeed McDowell could debut in 2017.

This news of his conditioning with Seahawks trainers is the first step in that direction.

In a best case scenario, the team was hoping to see DeShawn Shead or Dion Jordan return to practice this week, but neither play will be doing that. They could return to practice next week, and we’ll continue to monitor the status of McDowell as well. Shead is on the PUP list, while Jordan and McDowell are on NFI.