Pete Carroll confirms ankle surgery for Zach Miller

RENTON – Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Monday that tight end Zach Miller underwent ankle surgery during Seattle’s bye week, confirming a report from FOXSports.com.

The good news? While an exact timetable for Miller’s recovery isn’t known, Carroll said it’s not something that will threaten to end his season.

“There’s a lot of speculation as to how long it’s going to take. We’ll just have to wait and see,” Carroll said. “We don’t know yet. We’ll be going week to week. Give him a couple weeks and then we’ll go week to week and see how he does.”

Carroll characterized it as a clean-up procedure to remove loose bodies from Miller’s ankle, which had been causing him a great deal of discomfort. Having a bye last week factored into the timing of the surgery, Carroll said.

Miller’s absence – for however long it will last – leaves the Seahawks without their starting tight end, someone whose significance is measured less by his receiving statistics and more by his blocking contributions. Luke Willson and Cooper Helfet are the other tight ends on Seattle’s roster, and while they may lack Miller’s blocking chops, Carroll said the Seahawks would prefer to stick with their in-house options over adding a temporary reinforcement.

“We’ve looked hard. We’ve had a lot of guys in here and worked out a lot of people,” he said. “We would like to stay with our people, banking on the communication and the system working for us and all of that. So we’re going to get it fixed right here.”

Another one of those in-house options – even if it’s just in a pinch – is offensive tackle Garry Gilliam, an undrafted rookie who began his college career at Penn State as a tight end. Carroll said he discussed with Gilliam the possibility of playing tight end long before Miller’s injury.

“He has it in his background. He played at Penn State for a number of years and he’s already worked there,” Carroll said. “So he’s eligible for that, too.”