All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson played in his first game for the Seattle Seahawks on Monday. Nelson now has his first injury with the Seahawks.
Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald told reporters Friday afternoon Nelson won’t play in Week 9 against the Arizona Cardinals. Macdonald added that Nelson will not need a stint on injured reserve, but he will have surgery on his knee.
“Quenton’s going to be out. We’re going to get him a minor procedure,” said Macdonald. “He’s week-to-week at this point. We’re not going to put him on IR. So, we’ll go from there.
“There’s a timeline right now that warrants not IR. So, that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Seahawks acquired Nelson from the Indianapolis Colts on Tuesday, October 27. The guard made his Seattle debut on Monday versus the Chicago Bears.
Sunday’s matchup against the Cardinals will be the first game Nelson misses this season. In fact, he hasn’t missed a contest since the 2021 campaign.
Nelson is a six-time All-Pro that the Seahawks expect to make a major difference along their offensive line going forward. In addition to three first-team All-Pro nominations and three nominations on second team, Nelson has made the Pro Bowl in all eight of his previous NFL campaigns.
Seahawks’ Quenton Nelson Aggravates Previous Injury
However minor it may be, Nelson needing a procedure a little more than a week after arriving in Seattle should bring plenty of questions. Macdonald added clarification on the obvious concerns around Nelson’s injury.
“He had something that he was dealing with when he got here. We re-imaged it, and it was aggravated to some degree,” Macdonald added. “So, we’ve kind of done the due diligence and everybody agrees that it’s best to take care of it now and play the long game.
“He’ll be week-to-week at this point.”
After the Cardinals, the Seahawks will have a road matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders on November 15 in Week 10. Then, the Seahawks have their bye in Week 11.
Macdonald didn’t get any more specific than calling Nelson “week-to-week.” But with no IR stint, perhaps the Seahawks are targeting, at the latest, Nelson being ready for the road trip to the San Francisco 49ers on November 29.
On injured reserve, Nelson would automatically miss at least four games.
The Seahawks head coach answered one follow-up question on what the team knew or didn’t know about Nelson’s knee before the trade.
“I can’t give you all the details on what it was and what we found. Obviously, he passed the physical,” Macdonald said. “I think two things are true. One, it was something he was dealing with coming out of whatever game it was before the trade.
“And I think it’s been aggravated since he got here.”
Mike Macdonald Details Seattle’s Plan at Guard for Week 9
To accommodate Nelson’s arrival, the Seahawks flipped Grey Zabel from left to right guard for Week 8. That also meant Seattle benching previous starting right guard Anthony Bradford.
With Nelson out Sunday, though, Zabel and Bradford will go back to their roles before last week’s trade.
In front of reporters, Macdonald joked about the two guards returning to those jobs for this Sunday.
“So actually the grand plan was to really just try to shake everything up because we felt like we were too comfortable,” said Macdonald. “So AB will go back to right guard and Grey will go back to left guard.”
The Seahawks will host the Cardinals on Sunday. Kickoff is set for 1:25 pm PT at Lumen Field.
Seahawks Get Bad News on Quenton Nelson Before Cardinals Game