Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll had been optimistic earlier this week that cornerback Brandon Browner would be able to return this week after missing the team’s season opener against the Carolina Panthers with a hamstring strain.
The plan for Browner was to return to practice Thursday in preparation to play against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night,
“He’s going to practice tomorrow,” Carroll said during his Wednesday press conference. “He’s been running all week. Monday, Tuesday and now today, Wednesday, it looks like he’s got a good chance to make it back.”
However, Browner was again a spectator for practice on Thursday as he was listed as not participating on the team’s injury report. Carroll said Thursday would be a “big day” to understand whether Browner would have a chance to play or not. They hoped to see how he would be able to make it through a practice and if he continued to show improvement the following day without any issues.
Instead, Browner wasn’t able to practice at all which seems to indicate it’s taking longer than expected for his hamstring to come around.
That doesn’t mean Browner won’t be ready to play Sunday - he was listed as questionable for last week’s game against Carolina before ultimately being inactive - but it’s a threshold the team was hoping he’d be able to make in his recovery and wasn’t able to. It appears as though Browner will likely be a game-time decision again this week for Seattle.
If he can’t play, Walter Thurmond and Byron Maxwell would again serve as his replacements opposite Richard Sherman.