Former Indianapolis Colts All-Pro offensive guard Quenton Nelson, who was traded last week to the Seattle Seahawks for a 2027 3rd round pick and 2028 fifth round pick, will undergo minor cleanup cartilage surgery on his balky knee and miss at least a few weeks—although he’ll not be placed on injured reserve at this time:
The Seahawks have two games and then their BYE week, so the hopeful expectation for Seattle must be that Nelson could be ready in 3 weeks’ time as opposed to the minimum 4-game period of inactivity that any stint on injured reserve requires before any ensuing activation.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald indicated that Nelson had the knee condition prior to arriving in Seattle via trade, having suffered it in on the road in Week 7 against the Minnesota Vikings while still formerly a member of the Colts.
However, he aggravated the knee injury further, during the Seahawks’ 34-17 Monday Night home loss against the Chicago Bears.
It’s unfortunate timing for the playoff hopeful Seahawks and Nelson, who was rather unsurprisingly very impressive during his Seahawks debut on primetime. The future Hall-of-Famer figured to be a ‘plug-and-play’ elite left guard for Seattle in no time and didn’t skip a beat during his Pacific Northwest debut.
What is interesting is that it seems as though both the Colts and the Seahawks knew of Nelson’s initial knee condition, which likely came up in his physical. Although to be fair, it worsened this past Monday Night.
Perhaps that may have been some of interim GM Ed Dodds’ eagerness and motivation in moving Nelson well before the trade deadline, knowing that his knee condition could eventually lead to the perennial All-Pro and pending NFL free agent missing games down the road in 2026. It’s hard to say for sure at this time.
Nelson has been incredibly durable in his Canton-bound NFL career to-date, having only missed 4 starts—all of which occurred during the 2021 campaign with the Colts. We wish Big Q a speedy recovery the rest of the way.
