Seahawks players offer to punt for next game if Jon Ryan is out
By Jason Parker
The Seattle Seahawks may have to find someone else to kick on fourth down after Jon Ryan’s injury Thursday – and some players are saying they can do it.
During Thursday’s NFC West showdown – if you can call it that – between the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams, one of the oddest plays of the season took place when Seattle’s punter, Jon Ryan, ran a fake punt for 31 yards – when the Seahawks were up 21 points in the fourth quarter.
It’s a play head coach Pete Carroll defended the day after, telling reporters it was something he planned on doing the whole game and the circumstance didn’t matter. It kind of matters a little bit, considering Ryan got knocked out and is in the concussion protocol – leaving his status in question for next week’s game against Arizona.
Carroll tried to have a little fun with the situation, taking that whole “next man up” thing to the next level, via the Seattle Times:
"“There’s a lot of guys who dropped notes in my suggestion box that they can punt. Guys like (Jermaine) Kearse and Russ (Russell Wilson), they all think they can punt if we need it. We’ll have some guys. We’ll have a punt pass and kick contest this week if we need to.”"
You know, Pete…there is one way to make sure you don’t need a punt, pass and kick contest with your NFL team: not running a fake punt in the fourth quarter of a game you are up by 21 points against one of the worst teams in the league.
After all, the Rams are the worst team in the league in total offense statistically – you could put the ball on the one-yard line and they might not have scored.
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The Seahawks finish their regular season with two more divisional games: next Saturday against the Cardinals and on New Years Day against the San Francisco 49ers. Hopefully, Carroll doesn’t get any more bright ideas before the playoffs.