As the 49ers offense took the field for their fourth possession of Thursday night’s game, Michael Jackson took over for the Seahawks at right cornerback for Riq Woolen.
A team spokesman said initially that there was no injury with Woolen. Coach Pete Carroll said after the game that Woolen was pulled because of a lingering shoulder issue.
Woolen was listed as limited in practice on Wednesday and Thursday because of a shoulder injury, though he was not listed on the final game status report for the week.
“Riq wasn’t back all the way,” Carroll said. “He didn’t tackle well.”
“Went into the game wanting to see if he could hold up and didn’t feel like he was ready,” Carroll said. “And Mike was 100% ready to go.”
On the possession before the change, Woolen missed a tackle at the line of scrimmage on a run by 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey that turned into a 16-yard gain.
Jackson played the rest of the game.
While Woolen was dealing with a shoulder injury, his missed tackle early also accentuated seasonlong struggles in tackling for Woolen, who, according to Pro Football Reference, had four missed tackles heading into the game. He had five all of his rookie season.
In praising Woolen’s play following the Washington game, Carroll said during his weekly radio show that the team is “trying to get his tackling cleaner.”
Carroll was asked about Woolen on Wednesday with a question that referenced Woolen saying he wanted to make up for mistakes in coverage in the 49ers’ 41-23 win over Seattle in the wild card playoffs in January.
“He was one of the sophomores coming back after that first year that things just seemed so much clearer to him,” Carroll said. “When you get back away from it, you can look back at the errors and the plays that haunt you a little bit and you can make adjustments and work to find the awareness that you need to avoid that happening again. He’s done all of that.”
Woolen was one of the highlights of the Seahawks’ 2022 season, evolving from a fifth-round pick to earn a starting job and tie for the NFL lead in interceptions with six, earn a Pro Bowl bid and finish third in the voting for the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Walker among inactives
As expected, second-year running back Kenneth Walker III was among the Seahawks’ inactives after suffering a strained oblique Sunday against the Rams.
That meant rookie Zach Charbonnet got his first career start at running back and that rookie Kenny McIntosh was active for the first time.
Carroll said Wednesday he did not expect Walker to play because of a strained groin suffered Sunday against the Rams, but the team listed him as doubtful instead of out just in case he was able to play.
With the offense unable to do much in the first half, Charbonnet didn’t get many chances to handle the ball, finishing with 7 yards on three carries.
Charbonnet appeared to go the wrong way on the Seahawks’ first offensive play of the game, which forced Smith to keep it for a 1-yard gain.
On the second series, Smith tripped over Charbonnet’s foot as he dropped back to pass and was touched down at the 1-yard-line, a play that seemed to typify the Seahawks’ ineptness in the first half.
Clark a surprise inactive
The Seahawks’ six inactives included one surprise: outside linebacker Frank Clark Sr.
Clark was not on the injury report this week, so he was apparently a healthy scratch to get down to the gameday active roster limit of 48.
Clark signed with the Seahawks on Oct. 26 in the wake of a season-ending injury to Uchenna Nwosu and played in all four games before Thursday night.
He had five tackles and no sacks or quarterback hits in 108 snaps in those four games. Clark played 31 snaps in Sunday’s 17-16 loss to the Rams and had two tackles, each assists.
Other inactives were defensive lineman Cameron Young, receiver Dareke Young and offensive linemen Raiqwon O’Neal and McClendon Curtis.
Dareke Young was out the last two games with an abdomen injury, while the others are healthy scratches to get the roster down to 48.
Cameron Young, a fourth-round pick out of Mississippi State, played in each of the first 10 games as a reserve/rotational player on the defensive interior, with eight tackles and one quarterback hit.
The Seahawks decided to go with Myles Adams as the fifth interior DL. Adams was inactive the last three weeks, the odd man out in the rotation following the addition of Leonard Williams via trade.
Bryant activated to the 53
As expected, the Seahawks activated defensive back Coby Bryant to the 53-man roster off injured reserve and placed safety Jerrick Reed II on IR.
Reed, a sixth-round pick out of New Mexico, suffered an ACL injury against the Rams on Sunday and will be out for the season.
Bryant started the first two games of the year at nickel before being sidelined with a toe injury. He returned to practice this week off IR and was listed as a full participant on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Bryant saw action on special teams throughout the first half.
Notes
- The Seahawks elevated quarterback Brett Rypien from the practice squad to add depth at quarterback with Geno Smith dealing with his elbow/triceps injury.
- Jason Peters started his second straight game at right tackle ahead of Stone Forsythe. The rest of the OL remained the same. Peters played all of the first half until coming out of the game during the final possession. Forsythe stayed in the game to start the second half with Peters listed as questionable to return with a shoulder stinger.
- NL Cy Young Award winner and Shorewood High grad Blake Snell raised the 12th Man flag before the game.