Seahawks defensive end Ziggy Ansah is expected to make his season debut with Seattle on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints
Head coach Pete Carroll said on Monday that Ansah is on track to return this week after being inactive for the first two games of the season while working back from shoulder surgery
“The expectation is that he’s going to play this week,” Carroll said. “It’s just taken us this long to get through. We wanted to make sure that everything was right and he was right and mentality was right. He had enough reps. He has three good weeks of work now behind him and he’s in really good shape. He’s worked really hard. He’s in terrific condition. He’s going to be able to play, if he gets through the week and everything goes well, and he’ll play a considerable amount because he’s practiced hard enough to do that.”
Ansah had been listed as questionable to play in each of the first two games of the season with Seattle ultimately deciding to hold off an extra couple of weeks to allow him to get more work under his belt. He returned to the practice fields for the final week of the preseason after only being able to take part in walkthroughs for the first month of training camp. He’s now had three weeks of practices to get back up to speed and will have a fourth week of work prior to Sunday’s home game against the Saints.
The Seahawks saw first-round pick L.J. Collier return to the field Sunday in Pittsburgh for his debut with the team. Ansah will be just one week behind Collier is taking the field for the first time in Seattle.
“That’s really going to be fun to see him out there,” Carroll said of Ansah. “You’ll see how we use him and where he’s going to fit in and all that at game time but I’m really excited about this. This is a guy that was really important to us in the offseason to get him so that he could help us with the losses of the guys that were going other places and so that’s finally coming together.”