Uchenna Nwosu readies for 1st game in a year. Seahawks’ injury list for Giants is minimal

   

The lengthy list of Seahawks’ starters who missed their last game is down to one.

And Uchenna Nwosu appears set for his first Seahawks game in a year.

The team’s official injury report for first-place Seattle’s game Sunday against the New York Giants (1-3) at Lumen Field (1:25 p.m., channel 7) lists defensive tackle Byron Murphy as the only player on the active roster out. The first-round draft choice will miss his second consecutive game with a hamstring injury.

Uchenna Nwosu readies for 1st game in a year. Seahawks' injury list for  Giants is minimal

The injury list the team issued Friday does not have Nwosu on it, for the first time this season.

Seahawks defensive end Leonard Williams joined the team in the middle of last season in a trade from the Giants. He still hasn’t played a real game lined up with Nwosu just behind and outside him at linebacker.

“I’m super-excited to play with him,” Williams said Friday.

Williams hasn’t played since he injured his ribs Sept. 22 in the first quarter of Seattle’s win over Miami. Sunday will be the first time he’s played against his former Giants. Williams still knows many of the Giants defensive players who returned a unit that is New York’s strength and relatively intact from the start of the 2023 season.

“I’m honestly trying to treat it like every other game. Not get too high or too low for any specific week,” he said at his locker following practice Friday.

Nwosu practiced on consecutive days this week for the first time since Cleveland guard Wyatt Teller’s cut block Aug. 24 in the final preseason game sprained the medial collateral ligament in Nwosu’s left knee.

The key outside linebacker has yet to play in a regular-season game since October 2023, when he tore his pectoral muscle.

He practiced for the first time since that injury last week, then missed the next two days and Seattle’s loss at Detroit Monday night.

Derick Hall has been starting in his place. Hall leads the Seahawks with four sacks through four games.

Key linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (10) returns to practice Sept. 25, 2024, at the Viriginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton for the first time in a month, since he sprained his knee in the Seahawks’ NFL preseason finale against the Cleveland Browns.
Key linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (10) returns to practice Sept. 25, 2024, at the Viriginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton for the first time in a month, since he sprained his knee in the Seahawks’ NFL preseason finale against the Cleveland Browns. Gregg Bell/The News Tribune

Julian Love questionable, in name only

Pro Bowl safety Julian Love (thigh) as questionable.

That’s not deterring Love from playing against his former team.

“Yeah,” the Giants captain until he signed with Seattle before the 2022 season said, “I plan on playing.

“I’m doing all right.”

Love got hurt 29 snaps into the Seahawks’ 42-29 loss to the Lions in Detroit Monday night. He missed the final 2 1/2 quarters. K’Von Wallace finished the game for Love as the second safety with Rayshawn Jenkins.

Communication was a problem in the middle of the defense once Love left the Detroit game. The Seahawks were in the wrong coverage across the middle, two deep defensive backs instead of coach Mike Macdonald’s called three, as Jameson Williams ran free through there for a 70-yard touchdown catch and run late in the third quarter. That play changed the game. Seattle had rallied from down 21-7 to within 28-20 and had seized the game’s momentum. Jared Goff’s touchdown pass to Williams was the first scrimmage play later.

Love left that game in the first half after 29 snaps. He did not return. He was a co-captain for the Giants until he signed as a free agent with the Seahawks before the 2022 season.

Love liked his team’s response in practices and meetings this week to its first loss of the season.

“We came in and said what it was. It was a defining moment, first time losing with a new (coaching) staff, everybody’s trying to figure out each other. And you don’t really know until you face adversity.

“It was good to see everybody was just committed to just doubling down and just continuing to work, and just work on the process. Results are going to vary.

“It’s really coach-speak. It’s really about getting in, solving problems and continuing.”

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Artie Burns (23) and safety Julian Love (20) react to a defensive stop against the Denver Broncos during the third quarter of the game at Lumen Field, on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Seattle, Wash.
Seattle Seahawks cornerback Artie Burns (23) and safety Julian Love (20) react to a defensive stop against the Denver Broncos during the third quarter of the game at Lumen Field, on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Seattle, Wash. Brian Hayes [email protected]