Quandre Diggs' injury in Sunday's win over Arizona cast a pall over an otherwise impressive season-ending victory for the Seahawks, with the Pro-Bowl safety getting carted off the field with a dislocated ankle during the fourth quarter.
Diggs will need surgery to repair the damage—he also broke his fibula, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said—and while Carroll did not have more details on the surgery as of Monday, he did say Diggs is expected to make a full recovery ahead of the 2022 season.
And while Diggs is set to become a free agent when the new league year begins in March unless the Seahawks were to sign him to an extension first, Carroll made it clear that the hope is to have Diggs back with the team next year.
"He's an awesome part of our team, and we'd love to have him with us," Carroll said. "This injury is not going to be one that's going to keep him from playing, so we've just got to go through it. It's unfortunate it's a very difficult offseason for him for those first three or four months and all of that, but he'll get back and get going, and we'd love to have him with us."
Carroll was also optimistic about two other Seahawks who finished the year on injured reserve after having surgery, running back Chris Carson (neck) and safety Jamal Adams (shoulder), saying both should be ready for the start of training camp.
"I talked to Jamal last night, just missing him that he wasn't a part of the finish of the season," Carroll said. "He's going to be such a significant part of it coming back… Those guys are both as gung-ho as you can imagine. To listen to Jamal and how much it hurt him to not be there with his teammates—these guys are ballers and they want to be part of everything. They're really raring to go and expect to be back at full steam when it's time to go again at camp."
Receiver DK Metcalf, who had to manage a foot injury through much of the season, is still determining whether or not the injury will require surgery, Carroll said. Carroll had not other specifics to offer when asked about other offseason surgeries that could be coming, but acknowledged that every offseason brings surgery for some players to clean up injuries they were playing through during the season."
Overall, however, Carroll said he felt like the team, "had a really successful year in terms of keeping guys healthy. In particular, all the soft-tissue injuries, we had very few of those, which is really because of the management of the strength and conditioning and training departments here. We're really pleased with that."
