Seahawks hope Luke Willson can return ‘within weeks’ from surgery

RENTON – Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is hopeful that tight end Luke Willson can return “within weeks” after having arthroscopic knee surgery Tuesday, two days after he was hurt in Seattle’s win over Atlanta. It sounds like Carroll is even expecting as much.

“I think he’s going to make a miraculous return,” Carroll said Wednesday. “He’s as upbeat as you could imagine. Very, very minimal stuff they had to do to him. Everybody was really pleased about that. So we are really expecting him to kind of break records coming back. So we’ll see what that means. He’s going to respond really well.”

Carroll’s optimism isn’t unfounded. Willson has developed a reputation as an incredibly quick healer during his time with Seattle. During his rookie year in 2013, for instance, Willson went down in a heap and had to be carted off the field with an air cast on his right leg. That was in the regular-season finale. He was back on the field 13 days later following Seattle’s first-round playoff bye.

“We call him Wolverine because he’s had some pretty bad injuries that seem like he’s going to be out for a long time and in one week he’s back,” offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said, referring to the character from the X-Men series.

Willson was hurt in the fourth quarter Sunday when Christine Michael fell into his knee during the second of his two touchdown runs. Carroll said initial tests revealed some cartilage damage and “stretched ligaments” while mentioning the MCL.

“It was less than anything that they expected,” Carroll said Wednesday of the extent of the damage in Willson’s knee. “Everybody was real fired up about that. They barely had to do anything at all to fix him. They went in there and took a look and got back out of there really quick, is the way I understand it.”

Rookie Nick Vannett will take on a bigger role in Willson’s absence. Brandon Williams is the other tight end on Seattle’s roster behind starter Jimmy Graham.

Here are more personnel updates from Carroll’s press conference:

• Carroll said strong safety Kam Chancellor is day-to-day with the groin injury that sidelined him Sunday. He said Chancellor was running in between Seattle’s morning walk-through and afternoon practice to determine how he’s feeling. Chancellor didn’t end up practicing.

• It sounds like rookie running back C.J. Prosise is on track to play Sunday for the first time since breaking a bone in his wrist in the opener. Prosise has been practicing, but the protective devices he’s had to wear on his wrist have been too cumbersome to play in games with. “In my mind, C.J. is playing this week,” Carroll said. “It’s the first time I can finally tell you that. I’m looking at it a bit optimistically like I might tend to do, but we’re going into this week thinking that he’s going to play.”

• Defensive lineman Michael Bennett practiced Wednesday as the knee injury he sustained Sunday isn’t serious. Same for defensive end Frank Clark, who missed Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury. Both are listed as full participants.

• It was also a knee injury that landed defensive tackle Garrison Smith on Injured Reserve, a move that Seattle made Tuesday while re-signing Sealver Siliga to replace him. Carroll said Smith came out of Sunday’s game with some cartilage damage in his knee, which required surgery.

• Carroll said linebacker Mike Morgan is progressing well from sports-hernia surgery and reiterated that he should be able to return this season. Morgan went on IR two weeks ago, so he wouldn’t be eligible to be recalled until Week 13 at the earliest. The other stipulation of note with Morgan is that teams can only bring back one player of IR each season. “I just talked to him,” Carroll said. “Mike is doing really well. He feels much improved. You can tell that the surgery was effective. Still a little bit of soreness but he’s doing well. He’s going to be able to make it back, so whenever the time frame allows, we’ll have him available, which is great news.”

Did not participate

• RB Thomas Rawls (fibula)
• TE Luke Willson (knee)
• SS Kam Chancellor (groin)

Full participation

• LT Bradley Sowell (back)
• QB Russell Wilson (ankle/knee)
• TE Jimmy Graham (knee)
• RB C.J. Prosise (wrist)
• DE Frank Clark (hamstring)
• DE Michael Bennett (knee)
• DT Quinton Jefferson (thumb)