{"id":152562,"date":"2025-09-12T23:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/152562\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T23:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:16:07","slug":"injuries-leave-seahawks-short-handed-in-secondary-vs-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/152562\/","title":{"rendered":"Injuries leave Seahawks short-handed in secondary vs. Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Brady HendersonSep 12, 2025, 05:36 PM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Brady Henderson is a reporter for NFL Nation and covers the Seattle Seahawks for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2017 after covering the team for Seattle Sports 710-AM.<\/p>\n

RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks<\/a> are taking a short-handed and banged-up secondary with them to Pittsburgh to face Aaron Rodgers<\/a>, DK Metcalf<\/a> and the Steelers<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon<\/a> is listed as doubtful due to a knee injury, while rookie safety Nick Emmanwori<\/a> is out with his high ankle sprain. Safety Julian Love<\/a> is expected to play, but he’s dealing with a groin injury that sidelined him on Thursday and limited him the other two days in practice this week.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks will have outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu<\/a>, who’s making his 2025 debut after missing much of the offseason and the first game following knee surgery, but their secondary will be thin.<\/p>\n

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Witherspoon was hurt midway through the fourth quarter of the Seahawks’ season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers<\/a>, and while he finished the game, he couldn’t practice all week. Coach Mike Macdonald said he does not think Witherspoon’s injury will be long-term.<\/p>\n

Emmanwori, a second-round pick whom Seattle has planned to play extensively this season as the third safety, was hurt on the opening drive. Macdonald said that as of now, the plan is to not place Emmanwori on injured reserve, which would require him to miss at least four games. The Seahawks are hoping that he won’t be out for that long, but Macdonald sounded far from certain about that, calling it a tricky timeline to project.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, Macdonald was noncommittal when asked whether Riq Woolen<\/a> will start against Pittsburgh after the former Pro Bowl cornerback was beaten twice on San Francisco’s game-winning drive. Woolen’s struggles coincided with Josh Jobe’s strong performance in the No. 3 role. But Woolen figures to remain in the starting lineup with Witherspoon likely out, with Shaquill Griffin<\/a> Seattle’s next option at corner.<\/p>\n

Nwosu took a pay cut over the offseason to remain with the Seahawks after playing in only 12 games over the past two seasons because of several injuries, including one to his knee that required surgery. He’s likely to be on a snap count Sunday.<\/p>\n

“We’ll see how many plays, but Chenna will make his debut,” Macdonald said. “We’re really excited. He’s working his tail off, he’s practicing great. Really happy for him because of the work that he’s put in. We had an initial timetable, and he’s knocked that out of the park, so can’t wait to watch him play.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brady HendersonSep 12, 2025, 05:36 PM ET CloseBrady Henderson is a reporter for NFL Nation and covers the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-152562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}