The latest on when Seahawks could get LG Quenton Nelson back

The revelation last week of a knee issue for Seattle Seahawks left guard Quenton Nelson just one game into his tenure with the team put a damper on the blockbuster addition that the defending Super Bowl champs made last month.

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On Monday morning, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald answered a couple questions regarding Nelson’s status during Seattle Sports’ weekly Mike Macdonald Show on Brock and Salk.

Three days after calling Nelson “week to week,” Macdonald said he would miss a second straight game this coming weekend against the Raiders in Las Vegas, a week after he sat out Sunday’s win over the Arizona Cardinals. Macdonald reiterated that Nelson will not be put on injured reserve, which would rule him out for a minimum of four weeks. Asked if Nelson could return for the team’s Nov. 29 road game against the NFC West-leading San Francisco 49ers, which will come after a bye week, Macdonald responded that “it’s possible.”

While Nelson was set for surgery on his knee, Macdonald did somewhat clear up Monday what exactly that means.

“It’s not really a surgery, it’s more of a procedure,” the coach said. “You know, semantics.”

Macdonald called Nelson’s surgery a “minor” knee procedure when talking to the media last Friday.

That’s all in line with a report from ESPN and NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport last Friday, who wrote on social media that the goal of Nelson’s surgery was to “clean out some cartilage in his knee, sources say, as fragments had been causing an issue lately.”

The 30-year-old Nelson is a ninth-year NFL veteran and a three-time All-Pro. He was named a Pro Bowler in each of his first eight seasons, all with the Indianapolis Colts. Prior to his trade to the Seahawks, he missed just four regular season games during his time with the Colts, all of which came in 2021.

The Seahawks traded a third-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft and a fifth-round pick in the 2028 draft to the Colts for Nelson, who played all 63 offensive snaps in his Seattle debut on Nov. 2, a 34-17 loss to the Chicago Bears. Nelson is set to be a free agent after this season, but the Seahawks have made a trend of big in-season acquisitions on expiring contracts that they then sign to long-term extensions in recent years.

Seattle moved second-year left guard Grey Zabel to the right side after acquiring Nelson. Zabel struggled at right guard against the Bears and returned to left guard for the win over the Cardinals with Nelson out of action.

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