Getty Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll did not hold back.
The Seattle Seahawks are likely hopeful they won’t be in desperate need of a field goal at any point during the final stretch of their wild-card matchup with the Dallas Cowboys. If so, then backup kicker (and starting punter) Michael Dickson will need to do quite a bit better than he did in warmups.
As FOX Sports NFL showed, Dickson, who’s an All-Pro punter, didn’t exactly showcase much ability to put the ball through the uprights.
The Seahawks may be without K Sebastian Janikowski for the rest of the game, which would make P Michael Dickson the field goal kicker.
This was him kicking field goals earlier.
For what it’s worth, Dickson can’t really be faulted for this. After all, it’s literally not his job to make field goals. With that said, you have to imagine that the Seahawks coaching staff was aware of Dickson’s field goal kicking abilities, considering the labeled him as the backup.
This whole situation got to this point after veteran kicker Sebastian Janikowski suffered an apparent hamstring injury on an attempt just prior to halftime. Here’s a look at the vide of the injury, courtesy of Sporting News.
Sebastian Janikowski looked in pain after his long FG attempt.
Sebastian Janikowski’s Injury Status
The Seahawks will indeed play the remainder of their opening round game against the Cowboys without Janikowski. David Helman of the Cowboys’ official website revealed that the kicker has been ruled out officially.
Janikowski, who’s 40 years old, is in his first season with the Seahawks after spending his entire career with the Oakland Raiders. Over the span of the regular season, he made 22-of-27 field goal attempts (81.5 percent) while knocking in 48-of-51 extra points.
The man known as ‘Seabass’ proved he hasn’t lost much (if any) of his leg strength this season by making 3-of-5 kicks from 50-plus yards and 8-of-9 from 40-49 yards. His season long in 2018 was a 56-yarder.
Seattle’s Potential Plan Moving Forward
Obviously, how Pete Carroll and company approach this situation moving forward depends largely on the outcome of the game against the Cowboys. But if the Seahawks win and move on, then they’ll need to find a new kicker over the span of the next few days for the divisional round if Janikowski is going to miss time.
It’s tough to gauge who Seattle could target if they have to sign a kicker, but their own former player in Blair Walsh is a free agent currently. Along with him, both Caleb Sturgis and Nick Novak are two of the other options available, according to Spotrac. At the very least, Seahawks fans can feel positive that there are options out there to consider.
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