RENTON — Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin will be a game-time decision for Sunday’s matchup with the Carolina Panthers.
Baldwin had the groin issue surface on Tuesday as the team returned to practice after their weekend break following last week’s Thursday night win over the Green Bay Packers. He has been listed on the injury report with a groin injury at other times this season, with the last instance two weeks ago.
“We’re going to work him out in pregame and make sure that he’s OK. We’ve got him as questionable right now,” coach Pete Carroll said Friday.
Carroll had said on Tuesday that Baldwin was feeling the best he had all season after knee injuries in training camp and opening week kept him from being 100 percent most of the first half of the schedule.
“I’m not going to say that again,” Carroll said with a chuckle.
Linebacker K.J. Wright has officially been ruled out due to a knee injury. It will be the eighth game he’s missed this season because of the knee, which required surgery in late August and kept him sidelined the first six games.
“We’re going to keep working on it,” Carroll said. “There’s a couple things that we’re going to do. It will probably take him another week.”
Running back J.D. McKissic had a good first week of practice after being designated to return from injured reserve. A foot injury late in training camp forced McKissic to be held out the first 11 weeks of the season. Despite the progress, Carroll said they would not activate McKissic for this week’s game in Carolina.
“It just doesn’t make sense for us to try to do it in one week’s time,” Carroll said. “We’ll go next week and take a look at him again and anticipate that he’s going to be in pretty good shape and pretty close to going the next week. We’ll wait and see, but he looked terrific.”
The Seahawks aren’t in any hurry — they have four healthy running backs on their roster, and three that have posted 100-yard rushing games already this season.
Cornerback Neiko Thorpe is set to return after missing the last four games with a groin injury. Defensive end Dion Jordan is also back after sitting out the Packers game on a short week as the team tries to manage his knee issues.
