The Seahawks will be without tight end Greg Olsen for their regular-season finale, though the hope is that by giving him the weekend off, he'll be ready for the postseason. Olsen, who returned from injured reserve last week, had what Seahawks coach Pete Carroll called "a little bit of a tweak" of his foot injury. Olsen did practice Friday and is listed as questionable on the injury report, though Carroll said Olsen won't play.
"We're going keep him out of this game is what we're going to do," Carroll said. "Just to make sure that he's ready next week. Just a little flare-up from last week, but he handled it well, practiced today and got through it and all that, but we just think it's the best thing to do is to give him another weekend.
"He just had a little bit of a tweak last week and we just want to make sure that it doesn't develop and go past that. So we were real careful with him this week, got him a little bit of work today. So we think giving him all the way to Wednesday will help him."
Right tackle Brandon Shell is also listed as questionable, though not because of injury. Shell, who has been dealing with an ankle injury for more than a month, initially wasn't on the final injury report, indicating he was good to go, but as Carroll explained, there was a COVID-19 close-contact situation that caused him to be removed from practice Friday and has him now listed as questionable. Shell has not tested positive for COVID, Carroll said, but was around someone away from the team who did.
"There was a close-contact situation," Carroll said. "He's tested negative and all of that, but we're just monitoring it to make sure he's OK, so he wasn't out today, we didn't have him on the field today. It's a developing situation we've got to figure out. He's tested clear, but somebody that he's worked with hasn't, outside of the program, so we just got to make sure he's OK. We don't know, I don't know what to tell you about that other than that."
Asked if Shell will be placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list, Carroll said, "I don't know that yet. I don't know all the details yet, it happened as we were at practice."
Also questionable is running back Carlos Hyde, who has been home sick all week with a non-COVID illness.
"He's been sick all week," Carroll said. "It's not a COVID sick, but he's had other symptoms. He had flu-like symptoms, so he's just been home. We've kept him away to make sure, and he was just not quite feeling right enough today. We thought he would practice today, but we're going to carry it until tomorrow and see what happens tomorrow."
Cornerback Tre Flowers is expected to be activated from injured reserve, Carroll said: "He's ready to go. He had a great week of practice and he's ready to play."
Flowers' return won't necessarily mean a return to the starting lineup with D.J. Reed playing so well, but at the very least it'll give the Seahawks better depth at cornerback.
In non-injury/illness news, the University of Arizona announced that it has named Brennan Carroll its new offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Brennan, Seattle's run-game coordinator and one of Pete Carroll's two sons on the Seahawks coaching staff along with receivers coach Nate Carroll, will finish out the season with the Seahawks before joining the Wildcats.
"I'm real grateful—Brennan and I are both really grateful for having a chance to be that close to our family, kind of intact for a while here," Carroll said. "We've cherished it and dreaded the time it was going to come (to an end). He's had a couple chances at other times, and we were able to keep him here, but this one is just right with the right guy with Jedd Fisch and all that. And he's really excited about it, so we're excited for him. But we've been very lucky to have this kind of connection that we've had, and he's done an incredibly good job for us. I've loved having him here."
Seattle Seahawks
Out
- RB DeeJay Dallas (ankle, did not participate)
- CB Jayson Stanley (hamstring, did not participate)
Questionable
- G Mike Iupati (neck, did not participate)
- TE Greg Olsen (foot, limited participation)
- RB Carlos Hyde (illness, did not participate)
- S Damarious Randall (foot, limited participation)
- T Brandon Shell (ankle/non injury related, limited participation)
San Francisco 49ers
Out
- WR Brandon Aiyuk (ankle, did not participate)
- DT Kevin Givens (not injury related, did not participate)
- DT Javon Kinlaw (knee, did not participate)
- WR Deebo Samuel (hamstring, did not participate)
- CB Richard Sherman (calf, did not participate)
- CB K'Waun Williams (shin, did not participate)
- LB Dre Greenlaw (calf, did not participate)
Questionable
- S Tarvarius Moore (ankle, limited participation)
- CB Emmanuel Moseley (hamstring, limited participation)
- LB Mark Nzeocha illness (limited participation)
