Rashid Shaheed practices post-concussion; a Seahawks situation at left tackle

The Seahawks have an issue at the most important position on their offensive line for a title game.

Two, actually.

Regular starting left tackle Charles Cross has missed the last two games. He injured his hamstring blocking for Jason Myers’ game-winning field goal on the final play of Seattle’s win over Indianapolis Dec. 14.

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Fill-in starter Josh Jones has been hurting this week. That’s in the aftermath of the veteran swing tackle’s second consecutive start last weekend, the Seahawks’ win at Carolina.

The team signed undrafted rookie Amari Kight off the practice squad to the active roster Tuesday. That raised some eyebrows around the Pacific Northwest about whether the first-year free agent from Central Florida who’s played just two offensive snaps all season is going to be starting Saturday night when the Seahawks (13-3) play the NFC West championship game against the San Francisco 49ers (12-4) in Santa Clara, California.

The winner gets the top seed and first-round bye plus home field in the NFC playoffs.

What is the situation at left tackle, the blind-side, backside protector of right-handed quarterback Sam Darnold, for Saturday night? Coach Mike Macdonald wasn’t about to advertise that for the 49ers Wednesday.

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“We have some tackles that can play,” coach Mike Macdonald said with a coy grin. “I mean, (if) Josh can play he’s going to play. If Charles gets better and can play, he’ll play.

“If not, we’ve got some other guys that can play.”

Yeah, we already knew that.

Cross was not scheduled to practice Wednesday, as he hasn’t for the last couple of weeks.

Asked if the four-year starter at left tackle is getting better enough to play against the 49ers, Macdonald said: “Well, I mean, some things need to happen before...but I would say it’s a non-zero chance that he plays.

“We’ll see.”

The team this week listed Jones with new ankle and knee issues. Macdonald said Jones is “just banged up a little bit” from the Carolina game. He was going to try to practice later Wednesday. He was the left tackle in Seattle’s walk-through work in the morning on the game plan for San Francisco.

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“We’ll see how Josh practices today,” Macdonald said before the full practice in the afternoon.

Rashid Shaheed progresses

Rashid Shaheed, Seattle’s Pro Bowl kick and punt returner plus wide receiver, was on the field participating at the start of practice open to the media. He’s practiced each day the Seahawks have been on the field this week.

Earlier this week Macdonald said Shaheed was doing “well” in the early stages of his recovery from a concussion.

Shaheed is progressing through the NFL’s concussion protocol. He needs to not show any residual symptoms through each increasing phase of football work each day before a team plus independent doctors must clear him before he can return to play.

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Shaheed was concussed last weekend at Carolina. Panthers cornerback Mike Jackson, a former Seahawks starter, threw Shaheed into and well beyond the sideline boundary at the end of a short catch and run by the wide receiver. Shaheed banged his head into the turf on the sideline among Panthers personnel.

Officials didn’t penalize Jackson for the play. Seahawks players and coaches believed they should have.

That was one of multiple plays Macdonald and the Seahawks turned into the league for feedback and interpretation of why they were officiated as they were. That process is typical after most games. All brains and thus all head injuries heal differently, but the typical time for players to return to playing from a concussion in the NFL is roughly nine days.

Seattle is playing at San Francisco six days after Shaheed got concussed.

Seahawks know the stakes

A lot of talk echoed this week inside Seahawks headquarters about not making the game Saturday night a bigger deal, of just keeping it the “next game.”

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That includes because this one is against Seattle’s archrival in the division. San Francisco has beaten the Seahawks seven of the last eight meetings.

“For me, because I’ve been in this division for so long it’s been a rivalry for me personally,” said defensive tackle Jarran Reed, whom Seattle drafted in 2016. “But typically we try not to make any game bigger than the other. We try to be 1-0 every week.

“But,” Reed said, “we know what’s at stake and who we’re playing. We’re not shying away from that. We know what we’ve got to do out there Saturday night.

“It’s a big moment. We’re not going to shy away from that. It’s down to it. Everything is on the line right now. And we know that. Like I said, we’re not making it bigger than any other game that we’ve had because, overall, we’re just going to be right here. We want to be 1-0 and be where our feet are.”

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Wide receiver Cooper Kupp is a veteran of huge games. He won an NFL title as Super Bowl MVP with the Los Angeles Rams at the end of the 2021 season.

Kupp, 32, said it can be difficult for players to keep a game the magnitude of Saturday’s in proper perspective if you aren’t taking that even-keeled approach each week all season.

“But it’s something that’s talked about when we talk about week in and week out here, about our process and how we’re going to handle our day to day and winning the day,” Kupp said. “What’s important right now, and handle that.

“I think because we’ve taken that approach every single week since back in April, makes it easy to just say this is just another game. We got an opportunity to go play against a really good football team and execute ourselves.”

Kupp and Reed, 19 seasons in the NFL combined, sound like their 38-year-old head coach in his second year ever at the position.

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“Yeah, we got here by our mentality on how we approach every day. That’s what we’ll do this week,” Macdonald said. “That’s what we’ll do next week, whether we’re playing or not.

“That’s just how we’re going to roll. Just cleans it up.”