The Seattle Seahawks will be without Kenneth Walker in their NFC West showdown with the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday after ruling out their leading rusher because of a calf injury.
Walker was initially listed as questionable because of calf and ankle injuries that kept him from practicing Thursday and Friday. The team downgraded Walker to out on Saturday while only listing the calf injury as the reason.
Seattle elevated running back George Holani off its practice squad for backfield depth behind Zach Charbonnet and Kenny McIntosh. Charbonnet, who made two fill-in starts earlier this season while Walker was out with an oblique injury, will take over again as Seattle’s lead back.
The Seahawks also elevated backup punter Ty Zentner from their practice squad on Saturday and added cornerback Tre Brown (hamstring) to their injury report as doubtful. Seattle signed Zentner on Friday as Michael Dickson continues to work through a back injury that kept him from punting late last week in Seattle’s win over the New York Jets.
Coach Mike Macdonald said Friday that Dickson is expected to be available Sunday, but Zentner is a contingency in case Dickson’s back locks up again.
Walker handled his usual workload in terms of snaps and touches against the Jets last week, then showed up on the injury report Wednesday as limited.
“To my knowledge, he got out of the game fine,” Macdonald said. “Some of these things, they pop up later. It gets kind of funky, so to my knowledge, I don’t think he was limited as the game wore on.”
Holani, an undrafted rookie from Boise State, also gives the Seahawks another option in the return game. The Seahawks moved on from their two primary returners this week, waiving Laviska Shenault Jr. and Dee Williams after each lost a fumble on kickoff returns against the Jets.
Seattle claimed returner Jaelon Darden off waivers from the Cleveland Browns. He has mostly returned punts in his career, while Holani returned punts in college. Macdonald said wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba is an option on punt return and that Charbonnet could return kickoffs. McIntosh and receiver Cody White also have experience returning kickoffs.
“I just can’t give you an answer right now because there’s things that we don’t know right now, so we’re trying to figure that out, but we’ve worked it, guys have practiced it,” Macdonald said. “… We’ve got a good plan, just not sure on who’s going to be out there right now based off of who’s available and all those things.”
The Seahawks (7-5) are looking to maintain their one-game lead in the NFC West. According to ESPN Analytics, they enter Sunday’s game against Arizona (6-6) with a 38% chance to win the division. That would increase to 63% with a win and drop to 20% with a loss.