Seahawks OLB Uchenna Nwosu likely headed for season-ending pectoral surgery

RENTON, Wash. - Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said Monday that outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu likely needs season-ending surgery to address a pectoral injury sustained in Sunday's win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Nwosu was injured making a tackle on Cardinals running back Emari Demercado late in the second quarter. He came to the sidelined noticeably favoring his left arm and did not return to the game. He was seen on the sidelined in the second half in a sweatshirt with a big bandage wrap on his left side.

"He's got a pec injury that's going to probably require surgery. That's what we're hearing right now," Carroll said.

"Uchenna is a fantastic football player and a great teammate. He's such a tough guy and such a heady player and so consistent. He's always really physical so he always sends the right message. We're really going to miss him."

Carroll said no surgery has yet been scheduled as they're still making determinations of his status, but surgery would be season-ending.

At times, Nwosu has been Seattle's best defensive player over the last two seasons. He set a career-high with 9.5 sacks and 66 tackles last season in his year with the Seahawks after four years with the Los Angeles Chargers. Nwosu signed a three-year contract extension in July worth up to $45 million after that performance last year. He already had two sacks and two forced fumbles this season before Sunday's injury.

"He's one of the real pillars of this thing," Carroll said. "It's going to be hard to not have him because he has a great voice and they listen to him. He doesn't say a lot, but when he does he's strong and firm and that's leadership. You know, so we're going to miss that. There's really no way to replace that. He's too unique. Other guys will have to add what they can bring. But we're going to really miss Uchenna."

Carroll said that won't be going to look for outside help in the immediate future.

"We're not thinking like that yet. We're going to try to absorb it," Carroll said.

Doing so will mean relying more heavily upon Boye Mafe, Darrell Taylor and Derick Hall

Mafe has made a sizable leap in his second season with the Seahawks. He has sacks in four straight games and has become a disruptive edge presence for Seattle. He's started all five games he's played in this year and will draw more attention with Nwosu out.

Taylor and Hall will be called upon to play more and will need to step up.

"We’ve had a rotation going the whole time and we’ll just continue that. It challenges it though," Carroll said.

Taylor has had an extremely quiet start to the year for Seattle before recording 1.5 sacks against the Cardinals. Taylor paired with Jordyn Brooks for a sack and then also got a solo sack of Joshua Dobbs on Arizona's final drive.

"I thought he had a good game. I thought it was one of his better games and we need him. We need him to be a factor. He got going -- I think he had a pretty good second half to last year too, I think he started a little bit slower -- but he sure is capable of making things happen. He had a nice game yesterday, knocking a ball down, sacks and stuff. So we're calling on him to be part of it."

Taylor's pass rush ability hasn't been the concern. His consistency against the running game has been the most obvious weak spot in his game.

"He's effective," Carroll said. "He's got to find his consistency with it, but he's good at. He's playing in crucial situations, too, so we're counting on him."

Meanwhile, Carroll said that Hall's current level of play reminds him of where Mafe was last year during the early stages of his rookie season.

"He’s coming. He had his best game on special teams this week, it was great to see that. Most consistent game there. It’s just time, he’s doing great. He’s big and strong. He’s on the same kind of arc that Boye was on. They’re very similar. …  They’re the same height, weight, speed, strength, power, they’re very similar players. They’re different people totally, and they have their own ways about them. You can see the first-year stuff is still happening at times and that’s going to continue to happen. You saw Boye had this play the other day and we were fooling with him a little bit about jumping too early and leaving his feet. There are things that won’t happen in time, there is just new stuff that is going to occur for D-Hall, but he’s an effective football player."

Notes:

– Wide receiver Dee Eskridge is eligible to return to the team this week after missing the first six games of the season due to a suspension for a violation of the league's personal conduct policy. Eskridge was suspended due to an offseason domestic violence incident.

The Seahawks have a one-week roster exemption for Eskridge to return to practice without counting against the 53-man roster. He will need to be added back to the 53-man roster in order to return to game action.

"It’s not like he’s going to have to take a couple weeks of practice to get back to full speed. He’s running full speed, so he’s ready to roll, pretty excited about that," Carroll said.

Eskridge suffered a knee injury on the opening kickoff of the preseason against the Minnesota Vikings in August. He was unable to return to practice with the team before his suspension went into effect at the start of the regular season. He's been back to full speed for several weeks and been able to be back around the team, though barred from practicing.

– Wide receiver Dareke Young and running back Kenny McIntosh are both getting close to returning to practice from injured reserve.

Carroll said McIntosh is expected to return to practice on Wednesday for the first time since injuring his knee in a scrimmage at Lumen Field in early August.

"Hoping Kenny’s coming back out on Wednesday to start running and going," Carroll said. "We have that option, we’re going to make sure everything fits right but he’s ready to go."

Young has been out since the preseason due to a groin injury that required surgery. Carroll wasn't sure that Young would return to practice this week, but it's getting close.

"He hasn’t been released yet as far as I know. But he’s really close to being there," Carroll said. "It’s either this week or next week, he’s running really hard and conditioning like crazy and so it’s just around the corner."

Young and McIntosh will both have 21 days to practice with the team to get back into football shape once they are designated to return from injured reserve. Like Eskridge, they will each need to be added back to the 53-man active roster in order to return to game action. If they aren't activated after 21 days, they remain on injured reserve for the rest of the year.

– Tackle Abe Lucas (knee) is still not ready to return to practice after having a procedure down on his ailing knee after Week 1.

"Nothing new, I can’t tell you that he’s ready to come back this week," Carroll said.

With Lucas still out, Stone Forsythe is likely to remain the starter at right tackle for the near future.

"I thought he did a good job," Carroll said of Forsythe's play against Arizona. "He was totally at ease with it, poised to play in the situation and I thought he did a nice job. He gave us a good boost there."