The Seahawks saw two of their best defensive players go down with season-ending injuries last season, with safety Jamal Adams tearing his quadriceps tendon in Week 1, and with linebacker Jordyn Brooks tearing his ACL in Week 17.
Both players still have work to do in their rehab processes, but Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said on Wednesday that Adams and Brooks are both holding out hope that they can be available for training camp.
"They're doing well," Carroll said when asked about those two during his and John Schneider's pre-draft press conference. "The progress is being made. I think it's this week that we're meeting with them to make sure that they're making their progress, but everything's going fine so far. They're very optimistic on their sides, they're really thinking that they're going to make it, so we'll hold a good thought."
Asked to clarify what "going to make it" meant, Carroll said, "Making camp. that's what they're shooting for. They're not resigned to the fact that it's going to take them past that, so they've got the right mindset. We'll see what happens."
Of course, there's always a difference between what a player is shooting for and what a medical staff will actually clear that player to do. Carroll said that while the team will err on the side of caution with those two, a return for camp is indeed a possible outcome for both.
"It could happen," he said. "There's some optimism that it could happen. We'll be conservative through that timeframe to make sure that we don't screw it up by hurrying them along, but I'm wide open to it that they think they can do it, so we'll see what happens."
In other injury news, Carroll said that tight end Will Dissly is doing well and confirmed he did not need surgery this offseason. Dissly finished his season on injured reserve with what Carroll described as an unusual knee injury, and at the end of the season Carroll said it was not clear yet if Dissly would or would not need surgery.
"Will's doing really well," Carroll said. "Will's doing well at this time. There were some questions marks in that process for him, whether they were going to have to do surgery after they gave him a chance to recover. He's recovered, so there's no surgery in the near future."
