Pete Carroll on Seahawks’ J.R. Sweezy: ‘He’s not for a second thinking he’s not going to play’

The Seahawks are fairly healthy heading into their wild card matchup against the Dallas Cowboys. Seattle will see the return of right guard D.J. Fluker and safety Tedric Thompson, and will also have starting cornerback Shaquill Griffin, who exited a Week 17 game against the Cardinals with an ankle injury.

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Still to be determined is the status of starting left guard J.R. Sweezy. A foot injury forced Sweezy out of Seattle’s Week 16 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said Sweezy’s injury would normally necessitate a three- to four-week recovery. After just two weeks of rehab, though, Sweezy is prepared to try a return Saturday.

“He is such a tough kid, and he is not for a second thinking he’s not gonna play,” Carroll told 97.3 KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson during an interview Friday morning. “And so I’m just adding to it and building on him and following his lead. He’s one of those guys. And not everybody’s like that. But if somebody can do it, he will. If it can’t be done, then it couldn’t get done. So he’s going for it. We’ll find out (Saturday).”

The Seahawks won their last game against the Cowboys in Week 3, but Carroll said it’s a different team that they’ll meet at AT&T Stadium this time around.

“They’re really balanced since we played them,” Carroll said. “Their seven of last eight games they’ve won, everything’s been tight, they’ve had some good come-from-behind wins, they run the ball, they don’t turn it over, they play good D, and they’re good on teams. So they’re a really well-rounded football team and they get to play at their place. So they’re going to be tough and we’re going to have to do really well in all areas to play a good football game to get those guys.”

Listen to Monson’s full interview with Pete Carroll at 12:30 p.m. on KIRO Radio.

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