RENTON, Wash. — Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin says he’s ready to return to the lineup this week against the Arizona Cardinals.
Baldwin has missed the past two games for Seattle after injuring the MCL in his right knee in the team’s season opener against the Denver Broncos.
Baldwin returned to the practice field on Wednesday for the first time since defensive tackle Domata Peko rolled up on the back of his leg in Denver.
“I know Pete has a press conference coming up eventually (on Friday) so you’ll have to ask him. … I’m ready to go,” Baldwin said on Thursday.
“That’s going to be their call. There’s a lot of things that go into it, obviously, the precautionary reasons of making sure that I’m healthy fully so that I can go for the rest of the season and not just this game.”
Mad. Doug Baldwin was mad on the sideline pic.twitter.com/jSR7zoYARH
— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) September 23, 2018
Said Carroll on Wednesday: “He looks really good and light on his feet. He looks very confident that he can have a chance to play this week, so we’ll see how that goes. He’s confident, that’s not a surprise. Let’s see if he can pull it off.”
Baldwin hadn’t missed a game for Seattle since the 2012 season. He had appeared in 89 straight regular-season games and 12 post-season games since the previous time he was sidelined for an injury. The two games he missed that season were the only absences he’s had in his first seven years in the NFL.
“Still a little frustrating because I feel like I’m still being held back a little bit,” Baldwin said. “I understand why and the precautionary reasons, but I’m chomping at the bit. I’m ready to go. This is what I do, so I’m excited about getting back out there.”
Baldwin hasn’t enjoyed being forced to watch practice and games from the sideline. He got just two days of practice in with the team at the start of training camp before being shut down for nearly a month because of an issue with his left knee. He didn’t appear in any of the team’s four preseason games before ramping back up for the start of the season.
He played just 11 snaps in Denver before injuring his right knee, most coming before the injury while a couple came as he tried to see if he could play through it.
“I wanted to do everything I could to go back in and I did that and realized it wasn’t getting better,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin has been limited in both practices he’s participated in on Wednesday and Thursday.
Carroll said they will need to see how Baldwin can handle a workload with essentially two troublesome knees.
“We need to find out,” he said. “We need to find out how it goes. Doug’s (Baldwin) a guy that we communicate with very directly over a long period of time. We’ll work our way through it and we’ll just assess how he’s doing and how it’s going.”
Notes: Safety Earl Thomas did practice on Thursday — as he did a week ago — despite missing practice for non-injury reasons on Wednesday. Thomas has said he doesn’t intend to practice if he feels even the slightest bit diminished as he tries to look out for his health absent a contract extension from the team. … LG Ethan Pocic (ankle), RB C.J. Prosise (abdomen), DE Dion Jordan (hip), DE Rasheem Green (ankle) and LB K.J. Wright (knee) did not practice for a second straight day. RB Chris Carson (hip), RG D.J. Fluker (knee), DT Shamar Stephen (foot) and S Delano Hill (hamstring) were limited.
Associated Press
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Curtis Crabtree, The Associated Press