Jon Ryan’s concussion may force Seahawks to add a punter

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Friday morning that “everything looked good” with punter Jon Ryan according to doctors who examined him after he sustained a concussion in Seattle’s win over Los Angeles. Ryan’s wife has tweeted out several updates of her own, including one from Thursday night of Ryan smiling while sitting up in a hospital bed and another on Friday from a restaurant, indicating that he’s been discharged.

Ryan will go through the NFL’s concussion protocol once the Seahawks return to work after getting the weekend off. With nine days between games, he has more time to recover than he would on a normal week, but there’s still no guarantee that he’ll be cleared to play by the time Seattle hosts Arizona on Christmas Eve, which is a Saturday.

That means the Seahawks could be in the market next week for some temporary help at punter.

“We’ll see,” Carroll said. “Of course, we’ll just wait it out with Jon, but if he can’t play we’ll have to do something and we’ll figure it out. There’s a lot of guys that dropped notes in my suggestion box that they can punt. Guys like (wide receiver Jermaine Kearse and quarterback Russell Wilson), they all think they can punt, so if we need it, we’ll have some guys. We’ll have a punt, pass and kick contest this week if we need to.”

Or they could look at some actual punters. Some of the recognizable names on the list of available free agents are former Packer Tim Masthay, former Charger Mike Scifres and also Drew Butler, who was released earlier this week by Arizona.

A few other injury updates:

• Carroll reiterated that it was a neck issue and not a concussion that knocked defensive lineman Michael Bennett out of Thursday night’s game. Carroll said Bennett was feeling alright Friday morning.

• Linebacker Brock Coyle will be back next week, Carroll said, after missing the last four games with a foot injury.

• Carroll said the Seahawks will know more about the status of running back C.J. Prosise when he’s evaluated again on Monday. Prosise has been out indefinitely since fracturing his shoulder blade in Week 11. Carroll has said the team hopes he can return for the playoffs but that there’s no certainty that he will.