The Seahawks had optimism that receiver DK Metcalf could return this week. He won’t.
He has missed six consecutive practices and has not played since spraining the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in the Seahawks’ win over Atlanta on Oct. 20.
The Seahawks ruled him out for Sunday’s game against the Rams.
Tight end Noah Fant also won’t play.
Nose tackle Cameron Young (knee) and offensive tackle Abraham Lucas (knee) are the other Seahawks ruled out. Lucas remains on injured reserve.
Linebacker Ernest Jones IV (neck) is questionable.
Offensive tackle George Fant (knee) does not have an injury designation, so the Seahawks could activate him from injured reserve Saturday so he can return Sunday.
Though Rams receiver Puka Nacua exited Thursday’s practice with a knee injury, he still has a chance to play in Sunday’s game against the Seahawks.
Head coach Sean McVay told reporters in his press conference that Nacua won’t practice on Friday and will be listed as questionable for Week 9.
“Fortunately there’s nothing structurally [wrong],” McVay said, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN. “He’ll be listed as questionable, but I wouldn’t bet against this guy. My expectation is he’s going to do everything in his power to be ready to roll, and that’s the mindset that we have.”
McVay added that the hope is that it was more of a scare than anything else.
Nacua returned off of injured reserve to play in last Thursday’s game against the Vikings, catching seven passes for 106 yards in the 30-20 victory.
McVay also noted that punter Ethan Evans (illness) is out for Sunday. Los Angeles has Ryan Sanborn and Ty Zentner on its practice squad at the position and will elevate one or the other to punt and serve as the holder.
Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua left practice on Thursday with a knee injury, but it doesn’t look like the team is looking at another absence for one of their top players.
According to multiple reports, Nacua avoided a major injury. Nacua hurt the same knee this summer and went on injured reserve after aggravating the injury during the first game of the regular season. Nacua returned to action last weekend.
Friday will bring another practice session and they will issue injury designations for their game against the Seahawks this weekend.
Nacua had seven catches for 106 yards in the Rams’ 30-20 win over the Vikings in Week Eight.
Last Thursday, the Rams had receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua together for the second time this season. Now, there’s a chance the streak won’t last.
Via Jordan Rodrique of TheAthletic.com, Nacua left practice on Thursday with a knee injury. As a result, he skipped his weekly press conference, which was set for today.
He’ll officially was listed as “limited” on the injury report. That doesn’t reveal anything about the severity of the injury. Typically, a player who is injured during an otherwise normal practice is listed as limited, because he participated before the injury.
Nacua originally suffered a knee injury in camp. He aggravated it Week 1, against the Lions. Last week, he had seven catches for 106 yards.
It’s unclear whether he re-injured the same knee, or freshly injured the other knee.
The 3-4 Rams face the 4-4 Seahawks in Seattle on Sunday.
UPDATE 7:48 p.m. ET: Via Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times, the Rams say that Nacua injured the same knee he previously injured.
Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf remained out of practice Monday.
It was his fourth missed practice since spraining the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in the Seahawks’ win over Atlanta on Oct. 20.
Coach Mike Macdonald is hopeful Metcalf can return to practice Thursday and return to the lineup against the Rams on Sunday.
“Guy is doing a great job. Confident,” Macdonald said, via Gregg Bell of The News Tribune. “Optimistic for [Thursday], so we’ll kind of play it day by day.”
Macdonald said he remains “optimistic” Metcalf will play against the Rams.
Cornerback Devon Witherspoon (foot) missed practice with a new injury. Wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. (knee) and defensive end Leonard Williams (rest) also sat out.
Receiver Tyler Lockett (oblique), offensive tackle George Fant (knee), offensive tackle Abraham Lucas (knee), linebacker Dre’Mont Jones (shoulder), cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett (ankle), nose tackle Cameron Young (knee), tight end Noah Fant (groin) and offensive guard Laken Tomlinson (rest) were limited.
Bears defensive end Montez Sweat’s status will be something to watch heading into Sunday’s game against the Cardinals.
Sweat hurt his shin during last Sunday’s loss to the Commanders and the team listed him as a non-participant in practice on Wednesday. That listing was an estimation because the Bears only held a walkthrough.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said at his press conference that the team is hopeful Sweat will be on hand to chase down Kyler Murray, but there should be a better idea about his availability later this week.
Tackle Kiran Amegadjie (calf), safety Jaquan Brisker (concussion), cornerback Kyler Gordon (hamstring), and tackle Braxton Jones (knee) were also listed as out of practice. Offensive linemen Ryan Bates (shoulder) and Teven Jenkins (knee) were listed as limited.
The Seahawks were held to a season-low 10 points in Sunday’s loss to the Bills and that effort unfolded without one of the team’s key offensive players.
Wide receiver DK Metcalf missed the game with a knee injury he suffered in Week Seven and it made sense that the Seahawks struggled to adapt to his absence. It was only the second game Metcalf has missed since joining the team and head coach Mike Macdonald said on Monday that he doesn’t expect the team to be without him much longer.
“Looking optimistic,” Macdonald said, via the team’s website. “He hasn’t practiced yet, so let’s let him practice and see how he feels before we start making judgements on the week, but we’re optimistic for this week.”
The Seahawks also hope to have tackles George Fant and Abe Lucas back soon and the more healthy bodies on hand the better as the Seahawks prepare for a Week Nine game with the Rams.
A report over the weekend said that the Rams are open to trading veteran cornerback Tre’Davious White and head coach Sean McVay confirmed that on Monday.
White signed a one-year deal with the Rams this offseason and he started the first four games of the year before falling out of the lineup. He’s been inactive in the team’s last three games and McVay said that the team has given White and his representatives permission to look for a team that is interested in acquiring him in a trade.
“He’s been such a pro about the way he’s handled obviously a not-ideal situation for him,” McVay said, via the team’s website. “If you guys saw the way he’s practiced, the way that he’s been a pro in every sense of the word, and approaches some things where, he hasn’t been active the last three weeks. Guy wants an opportunity to be able to compete, and we love him here. We’d like to be able to keep him here, but if that is something that he and his agent want to be able to explore, we’re obviously respectfully understanding of that. And so the answer is yes, we’ve allowed them to be able to talk to some teams to see if that’s a possibility.”
The trade deadline is a week from Tuesday, so we’ll know pretty soon whether White will be on the move.
With two wins since Sunday, the Rams are trying to make it look like they were never trying to shop receiver Cooper Kupp. They remain interested in shopping cornerback Tre’Davious White.
If they can kick-start a market.
On Saturday, ESPN reported that the Rams are open to trading White.
The veteran cornerback has a one-year, $4.25 million deal with the Rams. He has been inactive the past two weeks, due to the return of Darious Williams from injured reserve.
A two-time Pro Bowler with the Bills in 2019 and 2020, White signed with the Rams in April. He has four starts this season.
As one league source characterized the report, the Rams seem to be trying to get the word out that White is available. And if/when they change their mind, they can try to say they were never going to trade him.
There’s nothing wrong with using the media to create a trade market. Other teams have done it. The end result is that, thanks to the ESPN report, everyone knows that White is in play, 10 days from the trade deadline.
At the most basic level, the failure of the officials to see what everyone else saw on the game-clinching safety in Vikings-Rams — a face mask foul that went uncalled — ending Minnesota’s chance to erase an eight-point deficit and force overtime.
At a deeper level, the play short-circuited Minnesota’s slim but not impossible chance to cover the spread, which as of the last time I noticed was 2.5 points.
At a more problematic level, quarterback Sam Darnold had a consensus passing-yardage prop bet of 249.5. At the time of the safety, he had 240 passing yards.
Even if the Vikings hadn’t scored, Darnold was 10 yards away from hitting the over. But he lost the chance to do it, because the NFL inexplicably has failed to make face mask fouls subject to replay review.
Referee Tra Blake said it himself. He didn’t see it. The umpire also didn’t see it. Everyone else who was watching the game did.
It’s not acceptable, not when the NFL is stuffing its pockets with gambling money. Not when pregame shows are telling viewers (and would-be bettors) on whether various prop bets will or won’t hit. And not when owners are allowed to buy up to five percent of any company that operates a sports book.
Those bets as to Darnold’s passing-yardage prop lost because, ultimately, the officials failed to do their jobs. And because the NFL has failed to include within the get-it-right safety net the ability to drop a flag that hadn’t been dropped by the people whose job it is to drop them.
It’s just a matter of time before one of these glitches blows up on the league, in the form of a class-action lawsuit. Each avoidable blunder that turns a potentially winning wager into a loser could be the centerpiece for litigation that could cost the league a lot of money.
A lot more money than it would cost to fix the flaws that are hiding in plain sight.
