It sounds like Doug Baldwin‘s knee injury is worse than originally feared. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports (via Twitter) that the Seahawks top receiver suffered a Grade 2 partial MCL tear during the team’s season-opening loss to the Broncos yesterday. While the team is still figuring out how much time Baldwin is set to miss, the wideout will presumably sit out at least several games.

Following yesterday’s loss, it was reported that Baldwin had “only” suffered a MCL sprain, leading some to assume that he’d only be forced to miss a single game (if that). Unfortunately, it sounds like the wide receiver will be forced out of the lineup for a bit longer, as partial MCL tears generally take at least a month to heal.

If there’s any good news, the partial MCL tear occurred in Baldwin’s right knee, which isn’t the same knee that forced the veteran to sit out the entire preseason. The 29-year-old returned to practice in late August, and he acknowledged that he’d have to deal with pain in his left knee throughout the season. It’s not good news for Baldwin or the Seahawks that the receiver will now be dealing with injuries to both knees.

Baldwin was only targeted once before exiting today’s game, although there’s no denying his importance to Seattle’s offense. The 29-year-old finished last season with 75 receptions for 991 yards and eight touchdowns. The team could be eyeing some reinforcement at receiver, as the team is currently rostering only four healthy wideouts in Tyler Lockett, Jaron Brown, Brandon Marshall, and David Moore.

There’s some relatively good news for Seahawks fans following the team’s season-opening loss to the Broncos today. Following the contest, head coach Pete Carroll told reporters that wideout Doug Baldwin has a sprained right MCL (via ESPN’s Brady Henderson on Twitter). The injury didn’t occur to the same knee that forced Baldwin to miss a month of training camp.

While Carroll couldn’t give a definitive timeframe for Baldwin’s return, the “ProFootballDoc” over at the San Diego Union-Tribune doesn’t believe the injury is all that serious. Ultimately, the writer could envision the receiver missing up to a week, if anything.

While this is good news, it also means that Baldwin will now be playing through a pair of knee injuries. The 29-year-old returned to practice in late August, and he acknowledged that he’ll have to deal with pain in his left knee throughout the season in his left knee. This pain was attributed to “degenerative joint disease and chronic knee issues” (according to ProFootballDoc), and Baldwin didn’t outright deny that he was forced to go under the knife to deal with the injury.

Baldwin was only targeted once before exiting today’s game, but the Seahawks will surely be counting on him throughout the season. The 29-year-old finished last season with 75 receptions for 991 yards and eight touchdowns.

Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin is expected to miss most, if not all, of the preseason as he deals with a knee injury, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). However, Seattle expects Baldwin to be available to the start of the regular season.

Baldwin is a veteran receiver, so the preseason isn’t a necessity as he prepares for the start of the 2018 campaign. However, it’s not clear at present exactly what type of knee issue is ailing Baldwin. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said the club would take precautions in order to preserve Baldwin’s health.

“We’re gonna give him a couple weeks here before we bring him back out to make sure that we’ve ramped him back up properly,” Carroll said. “He came into camp a little bit off and we just want to make sure that we take care of him. We know exactly what’s going on. He’s doing some special treatments to make sure that we’re taking care of him, and we want to bring him back into shape so we can really get him ready for the long haul.”

If Baldwin is lost for any significant amount of time, the Seahawks’ wide receiver depth chart doesn’t provide much in the way of reinforcements. Perpetual breakout candidate Tyler Lockett would become Seattle’s default No. 1 wideout, while veteran Brandon Marshall could also have a greater chance of making the team’s 53-man roster. Other Seahawks pass-catchers include free agent acquisition Jaron Brown, 2017 third-rounder Amara Darboh, and Marcus Johnson, among others.

The Seahawks and wide receiver Doug Baldwin have agreed to a contract restructure that will create $5.2MM in 2017 cap space for Seattle, reports Field Yates of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

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Baldwin had been scheduled to earn a base salary of $7.75MM for the upcoming season. Instead, the Seahawks have whittled that figure all the way down to $775K by converting the difference into a signing bonus. Seattle, which had been a bit tight on cap space, now have in excess of $13MM in reserves. Baldwin, meanwhile, will see his cap charge rise by roughly $1.744MM in each of the next three seasons. He’s signed through the 2020 campaign under the terms of his 2016 extension.

By reworking Baldwin’s contract, the Seahawks have made it more difficult to part ways with the veteran pass-catcher in future years. That shouldn’t be a problem if Baldwin continues his recent levels of production, however, as the 28-year-old has topped 1,000 yards receiving in each of the past two seasons while scoring 21 total touchdowns. He’s also excellent in the run game, as Pro Football Focus ranked Baldwin as the league’s No. 9 run-blocking wideout.