Seahawks personnel updates: ‘One day at a time’ with Marshawn Lynch

RENTON – Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is offering no assurances about running back Marshawn Lynch’s status after last week’s sudden change of course.

Carroll had expressed his optimism throughout the week that Lynch would play in Sunday’s wild-card game against the Vikings, even saying at one point that he would before a surprising series of events ended with Lynch not even making the trip to Minneapolis.

Asked on Monday about the plan for Lynch this week, Carroll said the Seahawks are “just going to go one day at a time, see what happens, see how it goes, get him out there practicing and see what that means.”

That the team plans on Lynch practicing is a good sign for his potential availability for Sunday’s divisional-round game against the Panthers in Charlotte. Then again, Lynch was listed as a full participant in all three of Seattle’s practices last week and appeared to be on track to play for the first time since his Nov. 25 abdominal surgery. But according to the Seahawks, he informed the team just before it left for Minneapolis that he didn’t feel like he could play.

Lynch’s agent, Doug Hendrickson, told The Seattle Times that Lynch suffered a setback during Friday’s practice. Carroll said twice on Monday that he didn’t.

“No, he just didn’t feel like he could go. He didn’t have the confidence that he would be able to go,” Carroll said before referencing his interview with “Brock and Salk” from earlier Monday.

“I said earlier today that this is his first surgery ever and it happens to be right in his core, and you all have watched him – you know what kind of runner he is and all of the lateral things that he does with his body that are so abrupt and so sudden – he needs to feel that he can do those things. Even though he could run fast and look like he’s moving, he didn’t have the confidence that he could go out there and react to guys and do that. So there’s nothing that we could do about that.”

And so the Seahawks are again in wait-and-see-mode with Beast Mode. Carroll said it might be another situation in which his availability isn’t determined until game-time.

“It really could,” he said. “I don’t know. I can’t tell you because he doesn’t know yet. So we’ll have to wait and see.”

Here are some more personnel-related notes from Carroll’s media availability:

• The knee issue that sidelined defensive lineman Michael Bennett for one play Sunday wasn’t much of an issue, according to Carroll. “He had a strawberry. That’s a little scuff that your kids get.”

• Carroll said fullback Will Tukuafu sustained a hamstring injury Sunday that “we’re going to have to deal with. We’ll have to wait and see what that means.”

• Asked how punter Jon Ryan is doing after breaking his nose on a face-plant Sunday, Carroll said: “Not looking too good. He’s not looking too good. He’s got a couple shiners. What a great effort by him. Jon got his face smashed on the turf, nose all over here and over there, and they fixed it on the sideline. ‘Stick the cotton up your nose and get back in there, kid.’ He went back in and pulled it off. He did a great job.”

• Tight end Luke Willson is expected to return this week after missing the last two games with a concussion. Carroll said as much on “Brock and Salk” and reiterated it Monday afternoon.