Pete Carroll held court with the local media for a final time this season, reflecting on his team's 2017 campaign and expressing excitement over what the future holds for his Seahawks.

Throughout the nearly 40-minute press conference, Carroll touched on a few of the club's injury situations as Seattle heads into the offseason. Here's some of what the Seahawks head coach had to say: 

Uncertain Futures For Cliff Avril & Kam Chancellor

Defensive end Cliff Avril and strong safety Kam Chancellor each saw their 2017 seasons cut short because neck injuries, and on Tuesday morning Carroll said on 710 ESPN Seattle that the pair of defensive standouts "are going to have a hard time playing football again."

Asked if he could elaborate on Avril and Chancellor's futures later Tuesday morning, Carroll said "Honestly, I really can't, and I shouldn't say anything more than that we don't know yet. I don't know what to tell you there. Both those guys were marvelous people and competitors and all that and we'd love to see them through the rest of their career. I don't know what's going to happen there."

Carroll affirmed quality of life concerns outside of football as one of the main factors surrounding the uncertainty.

"Whatever those guys decide will be the right thing and whichever direction they go," Carroll said. "They've got such great brains and character and all that stuff. They'll make great choices and we'll support them whatever that is."

Another Surgery For Richard Sherman

Fellow defensive standout Richard Sherman, whose 2017 season ended early with a torn Achilles, has a surgery coming up in the next couple weeks to take care of "bone spurs and things like that he's got to clean up" in his other leg, Carroll said, noting it was a problem Sherman was bothered by throughout the season. 

"Not the same Achilles surgery that he had, but he will have a much lesser degree recovery and all that, it'll be a four to six week thing he thinks," Carroll said. "But he's going to take care of them to make sure that he's right, that's really important."

Carroll added that Sherman's recovery from his Achilles injury "is going beautifully."

"On the positive side he's had a tremendous attitude about it and he feels pretty darn good," he said. "I think he's out of the boot like this week or something like that, so on goes his progress."

Wait And See With Malik McDowell

Rookie Malik McDowell, the Seahawks' first pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, spent the season on the team's reserve/non-football injury list after he sustained injuries in a vehicular accident prior to training camp. On Tuesday, when asked about McDowell's status, Carroll said he was unable to provide much more clarity on McDowell's future at this time.

"There's not much I can tell you," he said. "He had a traumatic accident and it took a big toll. At this point nothing has changed in the evaluation of it. That's a young man's future in the balance of whatever the doctors say and whatever he can and is capable of doing. We really don't know. At this point we have to just wait. I don't have anything else to offer to you.

"It's extraordinarily unfortunate for him as a young man and extraordinarily unfortunate for our organization as well," Carroll added. "Because he's a tremendous prospect and would have been a beautiful fit, and if that ever comes back around where that happens we'll benefit from it and of course he will. I don't have any information for you that upgrades us from what we've known."

Extra Points

• Outside of Sherman, Carroll noted "just a few guys" may need to undergo surgery this offseason. "We go into the offseason very, very fortunate in that regard. We've kind of taken our hits during the year and guys have had their chance to recover. There's a couple ankle cleanups and stuff like that, a couple shoulder things," he said. Carroll only called out linebacker D.J. Alexander as one who will undergo offseason surgery for sure, "He's got some cleanups to do, a shoulder and a knee I think. But there's not many guys like that, so we're in pretty good shape."