The Seattle Seahawks enter the offseason with very few long-term injury concerns after winning their first Super Bowl 43-8 over the Denver Broncos on Sunday night.
Head coach Pete Carroll said after Wednesday’s championship parade through the streets of Seattle that the team emerged from the season “tremendously healthy.”
“We have so few guys that are going to have to have surgeries,” Carroll said. “There are always some things that will pop up but we enter in a really good level of conditioning so that it should help us take off from there when the work begins again.”
Left tackle Russell Okung is one player that may ultimately require surgery on an injured toe that caused problems throughout most of the season. Okung missed eight games with a torn ligament in his toe suffered against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 2. He returned late in the season and played the rest of the year despite still being limited because of the injury. Carroll said surgery was not yet a certainty but was something they would evaluate.
After playing in just three of 23 games this season including the preseason and postseason, Carroll said receiver Percy Harvin is fully healthy and will be ready for the offseason. He missed 15 of 16 regular season games (and all of the preseason) with a hip injury that required surgery in August. He played in two playoff games but also missed the NFC Championship due to a concussion.
Carroll said receiver Sidney Rice has made “an unbelievable recovery” from a torn ACL suffered midseason. He said Rice was back to a full range of motion in his leg within weeks of surgery. Rice likely will not be back with Seattle next season due to a large cap number.
Russell Wilson played through a sore left shoulder midseason that Carroll said didn’t affect his performance. Kam Chancellor also dealt with a problematic hip at times but told Carroll it felt the best it had all season at the end of the year.
Defensive tackle Jesse Williams, defensive end Greg Scruggs and linebacker Korey Toomer are all on pace to return from knee injuries suffered prior to the season. Cornerback Tharold Simon has dealt with toe injuries on both feet and will require another surgery that will put him on a longer timetable to return.
Cornerback Richard Sherman suffered a second-degree high-ankle sprain against the Broncos in the Super Bowl but it already out of a walking boot. He’s expected to be back to full health after several weeks.