The Seahawks are heading into their bye week after a dominant win over the Jaguars, and when they return to practice next week, there's hope that two of their top offensive players could be back on the field.
While nothing has been determined yet, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said on 710 ESPN Seattle Monday that there is chance that quarterback Russell Wilson and running back Chris Carson could return from injured reserve ahead of Seattle's Week 10 game at Green Bay.
Wilson, who had surgery on his middle finger following Seattle's Week 5 loss to the Rams, still needs to have a pin removed from his finger, but Carroll said things continue to look good for Wilson, and the Pro-Bowl quarterback "is going to be really close" to making it back next week.
"His finger does look great," Carroll said. "He couldn't wait to take his little thing off and show me how it looked the other night. We'll hold out hope that he's going to continue to bring this thing back and break records of all time on how you can get back from this. If anybody can do it Russell will do it.''
Asked what the next step is for Wilson, Carroll said, "He's got to get all the contraptions out of his finger first, and then he's got to heal from that extraction, from the pin and all that, and then see where it is and what he is capable of doing. He's going to be really close. Your hand adapts, and he doesn't need all of what it was for him to be effective. I know that because I've got a funky hand myself on my throwing hand. He'll be able to adapt. We just need to see if it's safe for him to do that and in the long-term basis, is it the right thing to do? We'll just figure it out."
As for Carson, who went on injured reserve with a neck injury, Carroll said the running back is shooting for a Week 10 return, though there are still tests he needs to pass for that to happen.
"Chris is planning on practicing next week," Carroll said. "I visited with him a couple of times about this, he's got to be able to, when he comes back from this break, pass a couple of tests; if he can, he's going to practice next week. He plans on playing against the Packers. I don't know if he'll be able to pull that off or not, but we're going with that. He's conditioning himself, he's well enough prepared to jump in one week and play if he can physically handle it."
Carroll was asked if this was a similar situation to the neck injuries that ended the careers of Kam Chancellor and Cliff Avril, and said it was not, but that the Seahawks still need to be cautious with Carson's return because it's a neck injury.
"It's a different condition that he's dealing with," Carroll said. "But when it's a spinal issue, there's great concerns we need to uphold and all of that and do it right and take care of him for the long haul, so that's what we're doing."
