Devon Witherspoon, Darrell Taylor both could return to practice next week

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll provided some injury updates ahead of Saturday’s preseason finale against the Green Bay Packers. Obviously the big question mark is whether or not first-round rookie Devon Witherspoon will actually return any time soon with his hamstring injury, and it appears as if he will.

“He felt like he ran pretty good with the short sprints he did,” Carroll said on Thursday (via Gregg Bell). “Just keep progressing. “We’re really hoping that he can get back out here with time to prepare for the opener.”

Last week, Carroll said the hope was that Witherspoon would be able to do some more stuff this week in the Wednesday and Thursday practices. He did participate in walkthroughs, so that’s technically an improvement over not participating in anything.

If Witherspoon gets through those sessions without any pain or other issues, he’ll be able to practice next week. Carroll noted that the goal was to get him ready for actual games, and obviously there’s not a lot of time when it’s nine practice sessions from now until the regular season opener against the Los Angeles Rams.

Meanwhile, pass rusher Darrell Taylor has missed all of preseason with a shoulder injury. Carroll believes that he’s made enough progress that we’ll see him practicing soon.

“He feels really good, made a big jump in the last few days,” Carroll said. “So I would think he’s got a chance to start really doing some stuff next week, that’s what we are kind of counting on. We are hoping we can get there.”