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RENTON — A day after Pete Carroll indicated that safety Jamal Adams was on track to return for Sunday's game against the Tennessee Titans, the Seahawks coach reversed course pretty starkly.
In his weekly news conference Wednesday before practice, Carroll said Adams would not be on the field for the workout and it was unclear when he will be. Tuesday on his radio show on Seattle Sports 710, Carroll said, "We can't wait to get him back this week," indicating he would play.
But Wednesday, Carroll noted the team essentially evaluates Adams and his troublesome knee on a daily basis, and it was decided he was not well enough to practice.
"I just talked to him a little bit ago, and today is not the day to go," Carroll said. "He's not ready for this day. We're just one day at a time."
In fact, Carroll didn't dismiss outright the possibility that the Seahawks could decide to sit Adams for the rest of the year to let his knee further heal.
"We kind of don't talk about that, but it's been something that we have acknowledged and that's a decision," Carroll said. "So far, he's wanted to keep going and driving and see what he can make of it. I just support everything where he's coming from, in every way. We'll take it one shot at a time, and we'll figure it out together."
Adams was at the team's facility Monday wearing his jersey but was not on the field during the early portion of practice open to the media.
Adams suffered a torn quad muscle in the 2022 season opener and sat out the rest of the season. He also missed the first four games of the 2023 season before returning Oct. 2 to play against the Giants.
After missing much of that game with a concussion, he returned and played regularly the next five games.
But with the team trying to manage his injury, he sat out the Nov. 19 game against the Rams with Carroll saying Adams would have had a hard time playing the following Thursday against the 49ers if he had. He returned for the next three games, playing all but one snap.
But Adams has said repeatedly he doesn't feel 100% and that undoubtedly contributed to some of his shaky play — he allowed the winning TD pass against Dallas and was beaten for a 54-yard touchdown pass in the loss to the 49ers.
Carroll also said after the 49ers game that Adams made a poor decision on that play, getting caught flat-footed while anticipating a quicker and shorter throw and allowed Samuel to run past him — a no-no in Seattle's defense where the responsibility of the safeties is to first eliminate big plays.
But Carroll insisted again Wednesday that decisions regarding Adams' status are based solely on his health.
"He's still in recovery mode," Carroll said. "He's been in recovery mode for months. He just continues to do everything he can possibly do to try to get right and get back. We've just seen it, the rigors of the season, it's been taxing and all. Every day is a day that we have to reevaluate, see if we can get him to the next day."
Carroll said Adams wanted to play Monday but the team decided to hold him out due in part to Adams not having practiced all week.
"He thought he could play," Carroll said. "We talked about it earlier in the week, but we needed to see how right he could be for the game, and we had to just take it. He really couldn't during the week, so it just led us down that road. That's where we wound up."
The team told Adams before Monday's game that he would be inactive and Adams then decided not to attend the game with Carroll saying he was "at home." Players are often told of such decisions at the team hotel where the team stays the night before home games.
Julian Love, who had been playing mostly situationally after Adams returned, went back to playing full time as the other starting safety alongside Quandre Diggs and played the entire way against the Eagles, picking off two passes in the fourth quarter on deep balls to seal the win.
That performance earned Love NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors Wednesday.
Love missed practice Wednesday with his wife, Julia, set to give birth to the couple's son.
Geno Smith full go in practice
Carroll said before practice that the plan was for quarterback Geno Smith to be a full participant.
"Geno will come back to practice," Carroll said. "He's going to practice today and go full-go, and we'll see how that works. That's exciting for us."
And indeed he was able to take part without limitations with the team's practice report listing Smith as having worked fully, though the team officially held a walk-through and gave estimations of what a player could have done had it been an actual practice.
Smith was listed as limited for all three practices last week and then as questionable for the game Monday. The Seahawks decided to start Drew Lock after Smith went through a pregame workout that the team felt showed he was healthy enough to be used in an emergency but not enough to get the start.
The plan is for Smith to return to the starting job this week, though Carroll held out the usual caveat that he'll have to make it through practice.
"It's day to day," Carroll said. "He's got to go through today, see how he is tomorrow, and just do that like anybody else that's coming back. But we're really encouraged that he's going to be all right, and we won't overtax him during the week either. Just the workload being mounted should give him the confidence and the trainers and everybody supporting him that he's ready to go."
Witherspoon also sits out
Among those sitting out was rookie cornerback Devon Witherspoon, who suffered a hip pointer against the 49ers that also held him out of the Eagles game.
Carroll said it remains unclear if he can play Sunday.
"We're going to take it one day at a time," Carroll said. "We don't know yet. He's much better. He's moving around better just getting around the building, but we don't know what's going to happen during the week with him, so we'll just have to take it one day at a time. Today is a walk-through day for us, he won't be out there participating. He'll be with us, but he won't be in the movement stuff again, so we'll just so how close he is tomorrow."
Notes
— Also sitting out Wednesday were receiver Dee Eskridge (ribs), running back Kenneth Walker III (shoulder) and Diggs (noninjury related/resting vet). Eskridge has missed the past three games. Shoulder is a new listing for Walker.
— Five players were listed as limited — guard Anthony Bradford (shoulder/elbow), linebackers Nick Bellore (knee) and Jordyn Brooks (ankle), cornerback Tre Brown (heel/knee) and defensive lineman Leonard Williams (ankle).
— Michael Jackson started at right cornerback Monday in place of Riq Woolen, with Jackson playing 50 snaps and Woolen 19. Carroll was asked if the competition for that spot will continue. "We'll see," he said. "I didn't expand on that last week, and I'm not going to now."
