Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin left the season opener against the Denver Broncos in the first quarter with a knee injury. He briefly returned to the field but was ultimately ruled out of the game.
Coach Pete Carroll announced during his postgame press conference Baldwin had suffered an MCL sprain.
“He’s got a little MCL sprain in his other knee,” Carroll told reporters. “And so we’ve just got to see what that means. He went back in the game and played some but we just eventually talked him out of playing because he wanted to keep going.
“Just make sure we take care of him.”
Baldwin sat out the entire preseason with an injury to his other knee, costing him all of training camp, save for the first two practices. Carroll had declared Baldwin ‘really ready to go’ just last week.
Quarterback Russell Wilson acknowledged Baldwin might have to miss some time saying, “I know he’s going to do everything he can to get back as soon as possible.”
Seattle has two receivers on its practice squad in Caleb Wilson and Keenan Reynolds and might have to make a move this week to add depth before next Monday night’s game at Chicago.
Seattle also is reportedly going to sign Malik Turner — who was with the team throughout the preseason — to the practice squad this week.
Lockett said Baldwin’s absence was noticeable.
“That is big,” Lockett said. “Doug is our number one receiver and our go-to receiver. We know that he provides a lot of attention when he is out there. With him being out, it hurt. We were happy that he tried to come back in and continue to fight and be able to help us out. It was one of those things that was just hard to overcome. We had to make do with what we had. A lot of guys were out there making great plays, we just didn’t make enough. Doug has been a great leader, helping people out and making sure people are ready because you never know when your name is going to be called.”
