Injury updates: Seahawks’ Bruce Irvin, Marquise Blair both out for season

The Seahawks had two key members of their defense leave Sunday’s win over the Patriots with knee injuries, and while there seemed to be hope that at least one wasn’t so serious, the mood didn’t last into Monday morning.

Carroll Show: Hawks’ pass rush better than it looked, final play ‘fantastic’

Both pass rusher Bruce Irvin and defensive back Marquise Blair will miss the rest of the season due to knee surgeries required to repair torn ACLs they each suffered Sunday.

The injury to Irvin, 32, looked potentially disastrous on the field, but he tweeted after the game that he was “good” and thanked the 12s – Seahawks fans – for their support. While that may have caused some hope for the night, it turns out it may have been premature. In fact, Irvin shared a tweet Monday afternoon that appeared to confirm the worst.

I guess I am human after all. 😩🤦🏾‍♂️

— Bruce Irvin (@BIrvin_WVU11) September 21, 2020

On Monday morning’s Pete Carroll Show on 710 ESPN Seattle (listen here), the Seahawks head coach was asked about Irvin in a way that presumed he only had a sprain or another injury of a less-serious nature. Carroll’s answer was foreboding, however.

“I don’t know yet, but he was hurt for sure,” Carroll said. “He got banged pretty good and all that so we’ll have to wait and see.”

Carroll confirmed the injury was season-ending in his usual Monday afternoon press conference.

Irvin, a 2012 first-round pick of the Seahawks, rejoined the team in the offseason as a free agent after four years playing elsewhere in the league. Losing him for the season would be a huge blow to a Seahawks pass rush that is already struggling to produce pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Through two games, Seattle has just three sacks, two of which have come from safety Jamal Adams.

The loss of Irvin will likely lead the Seahawks to look for additional pass rush help. Clay Matthews, a 34-year-old outside linebacker who had eight sacks in 13 games for the Los Angeles Rams last season, is still a free agent, as is Mychal Kendricks, another linebacker who appeared in 18 games for Seattle over the past two seasons.

Irvin was the second player on the Seahawks’ defense to leave Sunday’s game with a knee injury following Blair. In the second quarter, the nickel cornerback/safety was rolled up on by linebacker K.J. Wright and quickly ruled out for the rest of the night.

Seattle was already thin in the secondary for the game as Blair had taken over at free safety for Quandre Diggs, who had been ejected for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Patriots wide receiver N’Keal Harry (Pelissero reported Monday morning that Diggs isn’t expected to receive a suspension for the play but may be subject to a fine).

Carroll indicated Monday morning that Seattle was prepared to move forward knowing Blair’s injury was likely serious, though at time MRI results had not yet come through.

“It looks like Ugo’s going to have to take over there for a bit and we’ll count on him to do well,” Carroll said of backup nickel corner Ugo Amadi.

Amadi, who was the favorite to win the nickel corner job before Blair wound up taking it, played quite a bit against the Patriots, making eight tackles including a tackle for loss. Carroll loved what he saw from the second-year player.

“I thought he did a great job coming in. The expectations for the position are so high because Marquise has been playing so well and is just getting started,” he said. “Ugo does have the experience from last year. I thought he was really aggressive and really went after it … I was really fired up for him.”

710Sports.com’s Brent Stecker and Brandon Gustafson contributed to this post.

Rost: Playing like ‘man on fire,’ Wilson leads in empty-stadium win