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Brady Henderson, ESPN
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said on his weekly radio show Monday that he thinks quarterback Geno Smith will be able to play on Thanksgiving night against the San Francisco 49ers despite sustaining a triceps contusion on Sunday.
Smith was hurt late in the third quarter of the Seahawks’ 17-16 loss to the Los Angeles Rams when he was hit by Aaron Donald as he was throwing. He missed the remainder of that series and two full possessions before returning for the final drive.
On Seattle Sports 710-AM, Carroll said Smith has a contusion on the tendon near the bottom of his triceps.
“I don’t think there’s any damage other than that, but we’ve got to see how much it swells up,” he said. “The docs were all over him all through the flight and all last night and all that, so he’s getting all the treatment you can get.”
Asked if Smith will have scans for further evaluation, Carroll said, “They’re taking a look at it, but they pretty much know what’s going on there. It’s just how soon it settles down. Like I said, it’s a good sign that he’s functional, so that’s not the issue. It’s just how sore he is. He’ll make it back.”
By Thursday night?
“I would think so,” Carroll said.
On a Zoom call with reporters Monday afternoon, Carroll said Smith likely won’t practice until Wednesday with the goal of giving his contusion time to quiet down. Carroll clarified that it’s not an elbow injury, saying Smith got hit on the lower part of his triceps and that the swelling is affecting his elbow.
“It’s just a matter of how sore he is and if we can maintain keeping the swelling down so that he has the freedom to throw,” Carroll said. “He looked great when he went back out there. He’s more sore today than he was, but we’ve got a couple days. We really think that he’s got a great chance to make it back.”
Carroll added: “It’ll take a couple days to see what happens, and if he can’t make it then [Drew Lock is] ready to go and we’ll see how that goes. But Drew will get a couple days of work while we hold Geno back here until Wednesday. He’ll get prepped and Geno will be getting prepped, and we’ll be OK and ready to make the decision if we have to.”
Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III didn’t play past the opening drive Sunday after suffering an oblique injury. Carroll called it a “legit” strain postgame.
Carroll said Monday afternoon that the Seahawks confirmed Walker has a strained oblique and that those injuries typically take some time to figure out. The team doesn’t believe Walker is a candidate for injured reserve right now, Carroll said.
Carroll sounded optimistic that safety Jamal Adams will be available after missing the Rams game because of ongoing soreness related to his torn quad tendon from last season’s opener.
“I think so,” Carroll said. “I’m hoping so. It’s just time that he needs to just get back.”
The Seahawks were also without right tackle Abraham Lucas on Sunday. He returned to practice last week but remains on injured reserve following a knee procedure.
“He should be really close,” Carroll said. “We’re going to see how it goes. We’ll have to wait. It’s not going to be a great week to prepare him, but these four days could make a difference. We’ll see what happens.”
Carroll elaborated on the sequence of plays on Seattle’s final drive before Jason Myers missed the would-have-been game-winning field goal attempt from 55 yards out. Carroll didn’t fault Smith for calling a running play to Zach Charbonnet instead of spiking the ball with around 28 seconds left and no timeouts after his 21-yard completion to DK Metcalf got Seattle to the Rams’ 39-yard line.
The Charbonnet run gained 2 yards before Smith spiked the ball, setting up a 55-yard kick that Myers missed wide right.
“He knew he needed to get the next play called,” Carroll said. “He’s got some freedom. He’s got to do what he’s got to do, and there he went to the run. It was a terrific run that we didn’t block properly, but we should have popped. It should have popped, and we should have got 10 yards on the play, but it didn’t, so we just had to — we were going to have to clock it anyway, either way. So as the call was coming in, he was in the midst of getting the next play going and that’s why I was uncertain of what he heard.”
Smith said postgame that he lost communication in his helmet after the Metcalf catch and didn’t receive a playcall from the sideline, so he came up with one on his own.
“I think it was kind of talking over,” Carroll said. “He couldn’t hear anything, so he went ahead and made his call, which was fine. Really, either way … we needed to go as quickly as we can to get the ball spotted.”
Carroll was asked whether he wanted the ball spiked in that situation.
“No, we like pushing it,” Carroll said. “We like pushing and taking advantage of it. We practice it all the time. We try to keep them where they’re not as set. The difference is a few seconds, but we think that the success of that call is usually — if we function well, but we didn’t see the front clear enough to pick the linebacker and unfortunately, we get a few yards instead of getting 7 or 8.”
