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Injury Report
Tory Horton Practiced in Full. It Has Been 318 Days.
Tory Horton was a full participant in Wednesday’s practice, the first one Seattle has opened all season with him doing everything. Field Gulls did the arithmetic nobody wanted to do: the Seahawks are 318 days removed from playing a single snap of football with Horton on the field.
318
Days since the Seahawks last played a snap with Tory Horton on the field, per Field Gulls.
The gap has two causes. A tibia fracture ended his rookie season in Week 9 last year, and then a hamstring he picked up in training camp kept him inactive for the opener, which is why Drew Lock finished that game throwing to four available receivers. Horton was limited a week ago. Now he isn’t. Mike Macdonald, asked before practice about Horton and Nick Emmanwori, told reporters, “Those guys are doing great. They’re going to practice today, and we’ll go from there.”
Then the report gave something back with the other hand. Cooper Kupp, who is 33 and who caught a one-handed 24-yarder in Week 1 from a quarterback with no practice reps, was limited with a back injury. Guard Anthony Bradford and tackle Josh Jones were also limited, both knees. Josh Jobe practiced in full with a wrist.
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The receiver room on Thursday morning is JSN, Shaheed, a healthy-ish Horton, and Kupp’s lower back.
So the receiver room on Thursday morning is JSN, Rashid Shaheed, a healthy-ish Horton, and Kupp’s lower back. With Lock starting in the desert. I’ll take that trade, because 318 days is long enough that the injury stopped being news and became a fact about him, and getting a second-year deep threat back for a division road game is the most encouraging sentence anyone has written about this offense in eight days.
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Defense
Emmanwori Got On the Field Wednesday and Came Off It With a New Injury
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Ty Okada, meanwhile, did not practice at all. The hamstring that kept him out of the banner game is now into its third week of being the thing nobody will put a date on, and Seattle got through Week 1 by promoting AJ Finley from the practice squad and elevating Rodney Thomas II to have four functional safeties in uniform.
It worked out fine, in the sense that Julian Love and Josh Jobe and Nehemiah Pritchett spent the fourth quarter catching footballs Drake Maye did not mean to give them. That is not a plan you can run twice on purpose. Arizona’s head coach spent Wednesday calling this the best defense in football. He gets to test whether it’s the best defense in football with two of its safeties limping.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
It is now official and in writing: Sam Darnold is out at Arizona with the glute, Drew Lock starts, and Jalen Milroe is the backup. No injured reserve, either, which Macdonald said he doesn’t anticipate. Milroe dressing as QB2 instead of emergency QB3 is the only depth-chart promotion in football that makes a fanbase hold its breath. NFL.com
Mike LaFleur, who game-planned against Mike Macdonald’s defense for three seasons in Los Angeles, said Wednesday that “I think they have the best defense in football.” He then said the moment won’t be too big for Drew Lock. Compliment the defense all you want, coach. The flattery portion of the week is free. SI
Seattle has won nine straight against Arizona, the longest streak in the history of this rivalry, and allowed only two red-zone possessions in Week 1, tied for third fewest in the league. Nine in a row is the kind of number that stops being a streak and starts being a personality trait. Sharp Football Analysis
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
NINERS
San Francisco’s Wednesday transaction sheet: promote a wide receiver to the active roster, sign a 28-year-old tight end named Jack Stoll, move another tight end to injured reserve. That is the third different body they have shuffled through that one room inside a week. They flew eight thousand miles to win a football game and came home to run a temp agency.
CARDINALS
Arizona has played one football game and the trainers are already rationing. Tight end Trey McBride, safety Budda Baker and outside linebacker Josh Sweat were all non-participants Wednesday, McBride carrying a back on top of the rest day, with left guard Isaac Seumalo out with a shoulder. One win over the Chargers and the veterans are on a load-management schedule. Sunday’s a home opener, fellas. Sleep in.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This fullback signed with Seattle as an undrafted free agent out of Georgia in 1993 and did not make his first Pro Bowl until 2005, the same season he was named first-team All-Pro. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Mack Strong. He spent more than a decade as the most anonymous essential player on the roster, then got voted first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl in the same year, at an age when most fullbacks are selling insurance.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
2023
September 17, 2023
Overtime in Detroit
Seattle went into Ford Field and came out with a 37-31 overtime win over the Lions. Geno Smith went 32-of-41 for 328 yards and two touchdowns, which is the kind of afternoon that buys a quarterback about six weeks of peace in this town.
Got a Question? Fire Away.
The mailbag runs on reader paranoia, and business has been good lately. Contract math, depth-chart grievances, whether you should be worried about Cooper Kupp’s back. Send it in and I’ll answer it honestly, which is not always the same as kindly.
Thursday's report drops this afternoon. We read these things like tea leaves now. — The Rooster