The Seahawks finished Sunday's game without safety Ryan Neal, the result of an injury suffered on a third-down stop earlier in overtime.

And while Neal presence was missed on the Raiders' game-winning 86-yard touchdown run, the good news for the Seahawks is that he isn't expected to miss much time, if any, with the elbow and shoulder injuries that knocked him out of the game.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Neal might miss some practice time this week with what he described as a "pretty serious" elbow bruise, but could return this weekend, which is better news than they thought might be coming following the injury.

"He's a little banged up," Carroll said. "His elbow is the lead concern, but he did bang his shoulder as well, so we'll be taking care of both. His elbow is of more concern. They think he's going to be OK—might miss a couple of days here, but we think he'll have a chance to play this weekend. That's really good news for what it looked like. We were concerned that it might be more than that."

If Neal does have to miss playing time, Seattle's depth options include Josh Jones, who opened the season in the starting role before Neal eventually took that over, as well as Teez Tabor and undrafted rookie Joey Blount.

Asked about Blount, who has been a special teams mainstay, Carroll said they wouldn't hesitate to play the rookie on defense if needed.

"There's a chance that that this week will be a good week for him, because he'll get a lot of reps," Carroll said. "Joey's a good football player and we've really liked everything that he shows. He's really fast, he shows it on his kick coverage stuff, and he seems very instinctive and he's aggressive and all that. He's still new in the scheme, and the scheme is demanding for the position, so the longer we can wait, the better he'll be, but I wouldn't hesitate for him to play. I really like what he brings. He's got the right mentality to be in there and be accountable and strong and tough and all of that, as well as running to the ball. As a matter of fact, just last week, he had a couple plays on the ball in practice that were the best plays of the week. So he's shown some really good stuff and built a pretty good resume for a pup."

In other injury news, Carroll gave an update on two outside linebackers who are on injured reserve, Alton Robinson, who hurt his knee in the preseason, and Darryl Johnson, who injured his foot early in the season shortly after earning a starting role. The hope initially had been that Johnson could return this season, but Carroll reported that he had season-ending foot surgery. Robinson is still rehabbing his injury, but has a chance to get back this season.

"Darryl's quite a ways away," Carroll said. "He had surgery and he'll miss the rest of the season. Alton is much closer than that. He's running and moving. He's not ready to be released yet from the rehab, so he's still there."