That’s not just seven players the Seahawks will be without for Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears at Qwest Field. It’s seven starters, who have started 533 NFL games between them, and half the team’s co-captains – Hasselbeck and Jones on offense, Tatupu on defense.
What’s a coaching staff to do? Turn to their backups, and also players like
“I’ve got to go out there and turn it up an extra notch – that’s how a true leader and a captain is supposed to be in situations like this,” said Grant, the team’s strong safety and a defensive co-captain.
“They put me in that position to lead, so I have to go out there and turn it up and be there to help whoever needs it.”
Youth definitely will be served in this Sunday smorgasbord of injuries.
Replacing Hill and Tatupu will be linebackers
Ideal? Hardly. But real? Definitely.
This is the hand coach Jim Mora has been dealt – as former coach Chuck Knox used to put it – and he doesn’t plan to fold before the game ever begins.
“Oh, we’re ready to go,” Mora said after practice. “We’re excited. We’re excited about this game. We really are.”
Mora isn’t the type to harp on injuries. He talks about them in news conferences after the game, again on Monday afternoon and yet again on Wednesday morning, because who might not play is a necessary preoccupation with the reporters who cover the team. 
“And then I really don’t think about them until here,” he said. “I don’t really think about who’s injured and who’s not. I think about the guys who are playing, and those are the guys I’m excited to see.”
That could be because this is not the first time Mora and his staff have seen these backups working with the starters. The coaches did a good job of rotating the younger players into the lineup during training camp practices and also in the preseason games.
So the situation is not so much: Can they play? It’s more: How well will they play?
“They say when you practice, it makes you a better player – if you really pay attention to detail,” Grant said. “Last year, we went through that experience of having so many key players injured (14 starters missed a combined 88 games).
“So the coaches have put us in a position to be prepared for it if it happened again, and look what happened.”
The players aren’t using the injury situation as an excuse because the coaches refuse to.
“The guys that go out there are going to represent the Seattle Seahawks and this city and this organization as well as they can,” Mora said. “It’s going to be a really fun game to be at. I can tell you that for sure. The crowd will be crazy. It’s going to be a beautiful Seattle day.
“I’ve said it a million times: We count on our crowd, and we’re not going to let them down. We’re going to go perform very, very well. It’ll be a great day for us.”
Regardless of who’s on the field.
“I trust any of those guys who are lined up in front of me or beside me,” Grant said. “So I think they can get this job done, and hopefully we’ll go out there and not skip a beat.”
