Wilson sheds walking boot, plans to play
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: Sprained ankle won’t keep Seahawks quarterback out of Sunday’s game at L.A.
RENTON, Wash. — Russell Wilson was out of a protective boot and walking around the Seattle Seahawks practice facility by Monday afternoon.
The concerns about whether Wilson would be able to play in Week 2 against Los Angeles seem to be at rest for now.
“He’s practising on Wednesday. He’s planning on playing,” coach Pete Carroll said.
Wilson sprained his right ankle during Sunday’s 12-10 season-opening victory over Miami. Carroll was a bit cautious on Monday morning during his weekly radio show, saying he believed Wilson would be able to play against the Rams but that it wasn’t certain.
A few hours later, Carroll was more confident that Wilson will be able to play through the injury, although he is likely to be limited in practices leading into the matchup in Los Angeles. Since becoming the starter at the beginning of the 2012 season, Wilson has not missed a game due to injury.
“You can hardly tell anything’s wrong with him,” Carroll said. “We’ll help him in practice during the week to make sure we take care of him, but he’s planning on playing. There’s no question in his mind he’s not playing. So I’m going to go along with that until I can’t.”
Wilson was injured in the third quarter while being sacked by Ndamukong Suh, his foot and ankle twisting awkwardly as he went down. Wilson continued to play through the end of that series then quickly had his ankle re-taped on the sideline. He didn’t miss a snap.
“He’s been banged up at times. They’re not injuries but things that have bothered him and stuff. Just stuff that happens over the course of getting pounded on,” Carroll said. “His attitude’s just always been the same. He never flinches. He never wavers. So this is the first time he’s really had something that we’d consider an injury that you’ve got to talk about. And like I said, I think last night, he almost welcomed the challenge and had an attitude about, ‘OK, here we go. I’m going to do this.’”
Wilson’s mobility was limited after the injury but he was able to scramble a couple of times on Seattle’s final drive, which was capped by his 2-yard TD pass to Doug Baldwin with 31 seconds left.
“I was pretty limited but I was telling coach Carroll and some of the trainers, when I’m 43, 44, 45 years old and still playing, that’s probably what I’ll look like out there,” Wilson said after the game.
With Wilson having his reps in practice this week closely monitored, Carroll said the Seahawks may bring in another quarterback. Rookie Trevone Boykin is the only other quarterback currently on the active roster or the practice squad.
NOTES: Carroll was pleased with the returns of TE Jimmy Graham and RB Thomas Rawls, completing their recoveries from major injuries last season. Rawls was in for 22 snaps and had 12 rushes for 32 yards. Graham was in for 17 snaps and had one catch for 11 yards.
“I know he wants to be a bigger contributor. He did very well, blocked well when he had his chances, and it worked out well,” Carroll said of Graham.
“We got him out there, got him started, and now we’ll be able to get a lot more play time from him.” ... RB C.J. Prosise has a cracked bone in his hand but should be able to play with a cast.