Seahawks Injuries: Where Geno Smith, Jamal Adams stand

Oct 3, 2023, 12:09 PM

The Seattle Seahawks' Jamal Adams walks to the locker room on Oct. 2 during a game against the Giants. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

(Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

BY BRENT STECKER

Editor of SeattleSports.com

Two of the biggest names on the Seattle Seahawks roster had injury scares in Monday’s 24-3 win over the New York Giants. Will they be able to return when the Hawks return to play on Oct. 15 after their bye?

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Those players are quarterback Geno Smith, who missed time in the second quarter with a knee injury, and strong safety Jamal Adams, whose return after over a year out of action lasted just nine plays before he sustained a concussion.

When it comes to their status with nearly two full weeks until Seattle’s next game, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is not concerned.

On a special Tuesday edition of Seattle Sports’ Pete Carroll Show following the Hawks’ Monday Night Football victory, Carroll seemed relieved that Smith wasn’t hurt more after he was pulled down in a horse-collar fashion on a sideline tackle by New York linebacker Isaiah Simmons.

“I think so. He went back in the game and was able to get back out there, so I think so,” Carroll said when asked if Smith’s knee was OK. “It was a really scary moment. You know, he wants to keep playing, he don’t want his career to go that way, and so that’s all.”

Smith was able to play the full second half, but he was clearly upset about the tackle. Not only did he jaw with Giants defenders about the play on the field, but he called it a “dirty play” when he was interviewed after the game by ESPN’s Lisa Salters.

Carroll understands where Smith was coming from. While he hopes to not see tackles like that out of the game, he doesn’t necessarily think Simmons was trying to hurt Smith.

“Honestly, it’s kind of a natural thing for a guy to do,” he said. “… Players know now that’s a really dangerous situation. I don’t know if the kid tried to do it and I don’t have any thought about that. It just should have been recognized (as a penalty) – I wish. I don’t even care about the penalty. We just gotta get that out of ball because it’s so dangerous. It was so lucky that Geno didn’t get just wiped out because he could have easily.”

On the other side of the ball, Adams took a knee to the helmet when he dove at Giants QB Daniel Jones’ lower half for a tackle. Carroll sounded optimistic during his postgame press conference that Adams would be able to return in Week 6 against Cincinnati, and that continued to be the case the next morning.

“It was great to get him out there. You know, he’s gonna be fine. I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’s got time to recover and all of that,” Carroll said.

Adams had last played in Week 1 of the 2022 season when he suffered a torn quad that required surgery. To date, Adams has played in just 26 of the Seahawks’ 54 regular season games since his acquisition in a 2020 trade with the New Yorks Jets.

“It’s a little disheartening for him,” Carroll said of Adams suffering another injury in his first series back on the field. “He was in the in the tank over it because he just wanted to keep playing. But he got out there, he got back, he got out there and played, he got hit in the head – you know, that could have happened anytime. So he’s reintroduced to the game is the way I’m looking at it, and I’m excited for him. We’ll come back two weeks from now and then he’ll be ready to fit right back in and we’re going again.”

The Pete Carroll Show airs live at 9:30 a.m. on Seattle Sports the next weekday after each Seattle Seahawks game. Listen to this week’s full edition in the podcast at this link on in either of the video and audio players above in this post.