Despite earlier reports suggesting that he could miss at least a month of the regular season, we heard a few weeks ago that new Seahawks defensive end Ziggy Ansah was expected to be ready for Week 1.
And that timeline still seems accurate, as Brady Henderson of ESPN.com writes that Ansah practiced for the first time with his Seattle teammates today. Henderson says that Ansah, who had been limited to training on side fields, was seen taking part in warmups and positional drills. The longtime Lion is trying to rebuild strength in his surgically-repaired shoulder and to recover from a more recent groin injury.
Since Seattle likes to have players returning from long, injury-related absences to practice for at least two weeks prior to suiting up for game action, it’s significant that Ansah returned to the practice field 12 days before the team’s September 8 opener against Cincinnati. Head coach Pete Carroll said, “[j]ust to get the newness out of him and have a couple days to get back to practice again, I think will be really important to him … He has worked really hard on the outside, he’s been doing all kinds of drills and movement stuff and throwing heavy things and butting into stuff and all that to get ready and we feel very secure that he’s ready to go now.”
Ansah will not play in the team’s preseason finale, but his presence should be a boost to a Seattle pass rush that lost Frank Clark and will be without Jarran Reed for the first six games of the season.