The Seattle Seahawks have ruled out first round rookie L.J. Collier (ankle) for Sunday’s regular season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals, but it appears that left guard Mike Iupati may be ready to return. Head coach Pete Carroll noted that Iupati practiced in full for this first time on Friday and he’s listed as questionable.
#Seahawks rule 1st-rd pick L.J. Collier out for Sunday vs CIN. Starting LG Mike Iupati questionable. Questionable guys played 67% of the time last year for Seattle, 79% in 2017. @thenewstribune pic.twitter.com/ncnngOANn8
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) September 6, 2019
If Iupati is able to start, that pushes guard/center Ethan Pocic back into an important reserve role. The Seahawks are also expected to have George Fant ready to step in or take snaps at tight end as he wasn’t listed on the injury report at all.
Neither were Jadeveon Clowney and Ezekiel Ansah, signaling the Seattle’s two key bookends will be good to go against the Bengals.
UPDATE: After this report was released, the team updated to say that Ansah is questionable. Like with Iupati, “Questionable” is not necessarily a bad thing (about 2/3rds of questionable Seahawks played last season) but it is an update.
Ziggy Ansah (shoulder) is now questionable, per #Seahawks PR.
— Joe Fann (@Joe_Fann) September 6, 2019
Two others ruled out for Sunday are receiver David Moore and center Joey Hunt. The absence of Hunt only increases the positive signs for Iupati and having Pocic at the ready behind Justin Britt. Moore is recovering from a broken arm but it does not sound like he’ll be out for a long time. The Seahawks should be okay for now at receiver though as D.K. Metcalf was also absent from the injury report, another sign that he’ll be starting and making his NFL debut in Seattle this week.
Jaron Brown, Shaquem Griffin, and Marquise Blair were on the report on Thursday, but are not listed anymore so they should be available too.