The Seattle Seahawks have had their bye week (with a couple of practices mixed in), and now it’s time to prepare for Saturday’s NFC Divisional Round showdown with the San Francisco 49ers. It’s not often
that a team plays the same opponent twice in a row, but that’ll be the case for the Seahawks, whose first-round bye was earned through their Week 18 win in Santa Clara.
That extra week off is a valuable time for players to get healthier, and in some cases it may benefit players who are on injured reserve and wouldn’t otherwise be able to return until deeper into the playoffs. For the Seahawks, they could get more than just left tackle Charles Cross and safety Coby Bryant back ahead of the 49ers trilogy.
Let’s review who’s currently on Seattle’s injured reserve list.
Seahawks players on injured reserve
- WR Tory Horton (likely out for the season)
- WR Cody White (out for the season)
- RB Kenny McIntosh (out for the season)
- SS A.J. Finley (out for the season)
- RB George Holani
- TE Elijah Arroyo
- LB Chazz Surratt
How many players can the Seahawks activate off injured reserve?
Teams in the regular season have eight “IR-designated for return” activation slots they can use. The same player can be activated twice if necessary, although that will count as two slots used and not one. For playoff teams, they’re granted an additional two IR-designated for return slots, and any unused regular season slots carry over into the postseason.
The Seahawks used seven regular season IR return slots: Robbie Ouzts, Jalen Sundell, Julian Love, Dareke Young, Eric Saubert, Christian Haynes, and Jarran Reed. If you’ve ever taken upper-level mathematics courses in University, you’ll know that eight minus seven equals one, and adding two means the Seahawks have three available IR-designated for return slots for however long they’re in the playoffs.
Elijah Arroyo is already practicing, so he will likely be back for the 49ers game. There hasn’t been any update on either Holani or Surratt, but unless Mike Macdonald indicates otherwise, the Seahawks can feasibly activate of their injured reserve players who otherwise are not confirmed to be out for the year.
Of course, the Seahawks would have to waive three players in order to get all of Arroyo, Surratt, and Holani back on the active roster, so for the time begin the main focus should be on Arroyo since his 21-day practice window was activated and the other two were not. It’s a great problem to have if you’re the Seahawks.
