The Seahawks are back to work Wednesday ahead of a Week 9 game in Buffalo, and they'll take the field with one newcomer on defense, defensive end Carlos Dunlap II, and with another key defensive player, All-Pro safety Jamal Adams, practicing fully for the first time in more than a month.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll provide updates on those two and more on Wednesday, and here are seven things we learned from Carroll's press conference:

1. No restrictions on new defensive end Carlos Dunlap II.

Dunlap was acquired in a trade with Cincinnati last week, but due to COVID-19 testing protocols, he could not play in last weekend's game, and has not been able to practice prior to taking the field Wednesday.

Despite being new to the team, Dunlap shouldn't have any trouble being ready for Sunday's game, Carroll said: "The good thing is he just took a week off. He's been practicing, preparing, playing games, all that. So no concern about anything other than how he handles the learning part of it, which he's a vet, and getting through our first walk-through, he handled everything just right. I don't see any restriction at all on him playing this week. We'll find out during the week and all, but really excited to have him out here, and he's really pumped about being part of it.

Carroll thinks Dunlap is going to enjoy the change of scenery after 10-plus seasons in Cincinnati.

"He's really upbeat, looking forward to it," Carroll said. "Has the big eyes looking around, wondering what's going on. He's going to come to practice for the first time today, hear the music and have a good time—playing football might be different than he's done, I don't know. I'll keep my eye on him. It's always kind of fun to see how we do stuff around here for the first time. Nine or ten years, whatever it was there, he's really excited for the fresh start."

2. Safety Jamal Adams a "full-go" in practice.

Adams has missed the past four game due a groin injury, but should be able to practice fully this week. The hope was to get Adams back on the field early last week, but an illness caused him to miss Wednesday and Thursday, meaning the limited work he got on Friday wasn't enough for him to be ready for Sunday's game against the 49ers.

"He's practicing today, he's full-go," Carroll said. "I'm really excited to tell you that. He's gotten all the way to the point—he was close last week and would have had a chance last week, couldn't get him caught up—but he's ready to go and pumped, and we are too, really looking forward to it."

3. The situation at running back.

The Seahawks played last week's game with only two running backs, DeeJay Dallas and Travis Homer, and Homer was very limited in his playing time due to a bruised knee. The status of Chris Carson (foot) likely won't be known until late in the week, and Carlos Hyde (hamstring) is unlikely to make it back, but the Seahawks still head into the week feeling better about the depth there, both because Homer is getting healthier, and because they added Alex Collins to the practice squad Wednesday.

"We'll see Chris on Friday and see how he looks," Carroll said. "We're going to give him until Friday to see what we can find out. It doesn't look like Carlos is going to make it. We've got to take care of the hamstring. We brought in Alex Collins to help us out if we need it. He's on the practice squad right now. We'll see how he works today. For sure it looks like Homer is back ready to go. That really helps us. DeeJay did a nice job last week. He and Homer, if they handle it, we'll be in good shape. If we have an opportunity to get Chris back out there, we'll do that, for sure."

4. Shaquill Griffin's status.

Cornerback Shaquill Griffin missed last week's game with a concussion and hamstring injury, and while he is expected to be cleared from the concussion protocol, his status this week is unclear due to the hamstring injury.

"I don't know about him yet," Carroll said. "We've got to take it later into the week. He will not practice today."

5. The Seahawks are keeping an eye on the election but it shouldn't be a distraction this week.

The Seahawks kicked off a competition Wednesday on a day when the entire country was waiting for results in the 2020 presidential election. The Seahawks have been talking about voting and this election for a long time, so while they'll monitor what happens this week, Carroll doesn't see it distracting his team.

"Really because this is such a big focus day about competing, I started off just talking about how the whole country is in the midst of a battle, competing and all that," Carroll said. "We didn't talk to anybody specifically about the anxieties and all that. We'll see what happens here, then we'll deal with it. We've been on the topic for such a long time, I don't think our guys are going to be really overly anxious about it. They're concerned and they're watching and they've got their partisanship and allegiance, all that. We'll see what happens. But definitely the coaches will be touching base with these guys all week long as we respond to what happens."

6. Surgery for Phillip Dorsett II

Receiver Phillip Dorsett has been on injured reserve throughout the regular season with a foot injury, and after having surgery this week, his stay on IR will be quite a bit longer, if not for the entire season.

"Phillip got operated on," Carroll said. "I just saw him before the walk-through. I don't know what those weeks are. They throw some weeks at you, I'm not going to throw it out. It will be a couple months anyway before he gets back. We'll see what happens."

7. COVID-19 Concerns.

The Seahawks have so far avoided having to place any players on the COVID-19 list this season, but there's a bit of extra concern in the building today following the news that 49ers receiver Kendrick Bourne was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list just three days after the 49ers played the Seahawks at CenturyLink Field.

"We're concerned, yeah," Carroll said. "Of course we are. We just played them a few days back. We are doing our homework on the timing of his exposure, all that kind of stuff, when he showed first, make sense of it. We have to be tuned into that and see what happens. I know they shut down today—they're playing tomorrow, I believe. We'll see what happens there. All we can do right now is test and be aware of the connections. We just played a football game against the guy, so lot of guys had some exposure."