A high-ankle sprain has forced Seahawks first-round pick Germain Ifedi to miss Seattle’s first three games against the Miami Dolphins, Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers.
But Ifedi could finally make his regular season debut this Sunday against the New York Jets.
“He’s doing quite well,” head coach Pete Carroll said on Monday. “He’s really excited about coming back. He was really close last week, you wouldn’t know that there was anything wrong with him at this point.”
Ifedi returned to limited participation in practice on Friday for the first time since suffering the injury in the Wednesday practice before the season opener with Miami. J’Marcus Webb has started the first three games of the season in Ifedi’s place at right guard. Carroll said that once Ifedi is ready to go, he’ll jump right back in the starting lineup.
“He worked really hard today and he’ll take a light day tomorrow, then he’ll get after it and practice with us on Wednesday,” Carroll said. “I think that gives him a chance to get right back in there, if he can put together a day after today. It’s really a day-to-day thing and see how he responds to the work. Today was a really big indicator that he’s in good shape and ready to go.”
Ifedi’s return would be welcomed by Seattle, but it also would create some question marks. The Seahawks have to face one of the best defensive lines in the league in the Jets and they have a quarterback in Russell Wilson with a sprained right ankle and sprained MCL in his left knee. Jets head coach Todd Bowles loves to bring pressure as well. Seattle feels strongly about Ifedi’s potential, but it wouldn’t be the easiest first test this weekend.