Seahawks safety Coby Bryant is expected to miss time with a knee injury suffered in Thursday night’s win over the Rams, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
His absence would deprive Seattle of another key defender for their Week 17 matchup with the Panthers. Outside linebacker Derick Hall was hit with a one-game suspension on Friday, while cornerback Riq Woolen went down with a knee injury of his own on Thursday night. Woolen’s injury is not thought to be serious, per Fowler.
Seattle’s defense has been hit hard by injuries this year, especially in their secondary. Bryant has played the most football of any Seahawks defender with 977 snaps, 95% of the team’s total on the season. No other player has eclipsed 80%.
Bryant is also the only Seahawks defensive back to start every game this season. Fellow safeties Nick Emmanwori and Julian Love have missed multiple games, and cornerback Devon Witherspoon spent October on injured reserve. Even Woolen has been in and out of the starting lineup this year, when healthy.
Both Emmanwori and Love are available now, so the Seahawks have two starting safeties ready to go if Bryant cannot play in Week 17. However, head coach Mike Macdonald may want to keep Emmanwori in his versatile role and could instead tap Ty Okada – who stepped in for Love while he was on IR – to replace Bryant.
Bryant ranks fourth on the team in tackles and passes defended, and his ability to protect the deep areas of the field has been crucial to Seattle’s dominance on defense. The Seahawks are still evaluating Bryant’s knee to determine his return timeline. With a playoff spot secured and the NFC West all-but-one, they may take a cautious approach to ensure that Bryant is ready for the postseason.
Bummer. The league better watch out if this defense is ever all healthy at the same time.