Bye Week Comes At An Opportune Time For Seahawks

The Seahawks went into New York New Jersey and got themselves a bit of a Pyrrhic victory this week as it seemed at one point that almost every starting player went out with one injury or another. 

The game started with starting wide receiver Mike Williams out with a concussion, and starting cornerback Marcus Trufant out with back spasms. Throughout the game though, Seahawks started dropping like flies. Left tackle Russell Okung went out with an ankle ... thing. Right guard John Moffitt went out for unknown reasons. Tight end Zach Miller went out with a concussion. Linebacker Leroy Hill went out with hamstring issues. I heard, though I don't remember, that linebacker K.J. Wright went out for a while. Special teamer Jameson Konz went out with a knee injury. Starting QB Tarvaris Jackson hurt his pectoral on a designed run (of course), and Marshawn Lynch left the game briefly. 

Apart from that, linebacker Malcolm Smith and cornerback Byron Maxwell, two key special teamers, are banged up and were unable to play and starting left guard Robert Gallery is out with a groin injury.

All this comes after key players, tight end John Carlson, defensive end Jimmy Wilkerson, linebacker Matt McCoy, and linebacker Dexter Davis have already been placed on the injured reserve. Key players Roy Lewis and Cameron Morrah are on the PUP list, and won't be available until week six. 

So it's fair to say that the Seahawks are banged up. 

The bye week then comes at a very helpful time as this team looks to get some guys healthy and keep the momentum earned in Sunday's game moving in a positive direction. With these two weeks of rest and recuperation, the Hawks will look to get Mike Williams and Zach Miller back from their respective concussions. It was earlier reported that the Hawks were looking to get Robert Gallery back following the bye after he underwent groin surgery. 

Players currently on the PUP can start returning to practice so look for Cameron Morrah to hopefully make his presence known. I'm not sure if Roy Lewis or Deon Butler will be healthy enough to return but they're guys to keep an eye on as well.

Russell Okung will have two weeks to rehab his, hopefully, only slightly tweaked ankle. Malcolm Smith and Leroy Hill will have two weeks to rest their hamstrings -- always tricky injuries that require nothing but healing time to improve. 

Byron Maxwell, a special teams gunner that shined in the preseason, will look to get back to full speed -- he practiced in limited manner last week and will look to fully rehab his high ankle sprain in the next 13 or so days. 

Also important to this discussion is of course the status of Tarvaris Jackson. Jackson has a strained pectoral muscle that could prove to hinder him for a few weeks - possibly longer. With this time off, Charlie Whitehurst will get a lot of reps and have a couple of weeks in preparation for the Browns if Jackson can't go. It's not ideal of course, but getting Charlie the first team reps will help immeasurably if he is asked to start in Week 7. 

The other important thing to note here is that after an emotional and hard-fought battle, teams often suffer an emotional hangover and we've seen it a million times -- a let-down game happens the next week. This time the Seahawks will have a week to talk about the Giants and learn from that game, and then another week to look forward and get back to neutral on an emotional scale. 

Retain the momentum. Get back off the cliff of the emotional high they're feeling after this win. I really think this bye week comes at a perfect time.

Look for a physically rejuvinated and energized Seahawks football team to emerge from their bye week, ready to go back to work and not still reeling from their injury-riddled and emotional win on Sunday. 

Check out more Seahawks analysis and discussion over at FieldGulls.

 Follow @FieldGulls on Twitter | Like Field Gulls on Facebook