The Seahawks will be getting Pro-Bowl receiver DK Metcalf back this weekend following a two-game absence, and right tackle Abraham Lucas is set to make his 2024 season debut after missing the first nine games of the season due to a knee injury.
Metcalf, who suffered an MCL injury in Seattle's Week 7 win in Atlanta, practiced fully all week and is ready to go, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said, while Lucas, who had knee surgery in the offseason and opened the season on the physically unable to perform list, was a full participant Thursday and Friday after being listed as limited on Wednesday.
Macdonald confirmed Lucas will play, though stopped short of declaring that the 2022 third-round pick will start in his first game since last December.
"We're anticipating seeing him in a pretty significant manner," Macdonald said. "We're still on a progression here, so the amount of reps that we're going to get, we'll see as the game unfolds. We have a plan, we have a target rep count, we'll leave that in house right now, but excited to see him go do his thing."
On Metcalf, Macdonald said, "Excited to have DK back, he's ready to go. Of course we're fired up to see DK out there. He's practicing great. Excited to see him go do his thing."
Lucas, who started 16 games as a rookie, was limited to just six games last season, then had surgery in the offseason. That led to him opening the season on the physically unable to perform list while he continued to rehab the injured knee.
"I'm excited to be back," Lucas said. "I don't really get hyped up like some of these other cats do, and you may not be able to tell by my face, but I more look at it as a challenge than anything else, and I like to test myself against that."
For Lucas, one of the biggest challenges of his time off, aside from the actual physical work, was some of the misinformation that was circulating about his injury and the timeline for his return, causing some people to think he was behind schedule when that wasn't really the case.
"I think the most annoying part for me was probablyāhow do I say this clearlyāthere were a lot of people around me who thought they knew what happened that don't know what happened, and still nobody really knows what happened, because I've never really said anything," Lucas said. "But people jumped to conclusions, and with that comes a lot of questions that people have, which I don't answer, because I don't want to answer them."
Asked if that led to the perception that he was behind schedule in his recovery, Lucas said, "Spoiler, I was not."
Lucas later added, "The injury itself was a little strange. The way that it happened and the way it came up was a little weird, I guess. I didn't come all at once, and it's not chronicāfor anybody that thinks that it's chronic, because people have been saying that to meāit's not a chronic injury. It was a serious injury, but it got fixed and I rehabbed it, so I'm still on the right track."
And the hope is that, following the surgery and this rehab process, the injury will be behind him, though Lucas knows nothing is guaranteed in this sport, least of all health.
"I hope (the injury is behind me), that was the point of having (surgery)," he said. "But we'll go from here, we'll continue to improve, and fingers crossed, God willing, nothing like this ever happens again and my career is injury free. I know those chances are kind of slim to none, because it's a violent game. Sometimes you get injured, sometimes (stuff) happens and you can't really control it, but I'm staying positive, improving."
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