Sidney Jones’ iffy status for Seahawks opener another reminder of NFL’s head-trauma danger
Sidney Jones’ concussion from nearly a month ago hasn’t gone away.
Dee Eskridge and Clint Gresham know the feeling.
Even with 16 days between the Seahawks’ preseason finale at Dallas Friday and the opener Sept. 12 it’s no sure thing for Jones that Seattle’s starting cornerback is going to be able to play against Denver.
The 2021 starter at left cornerback got a concussion taking on a block in one of the first training-camp practices with pads this month. That was in the first days of August.
Jones hasn’t completed a practice since. He tried to return Aug. 11. He couldn’t get through the entire practice that day.
He still wasn’t practicing Tuesday. This is the first of two weeks of drills before Seattle hosts Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos to begin the season at Lumen Field.
Will the former University of Washington standout cornerback be able to play in that first game?
“They won’t let him practice yet. He feels fine and he can run and do everything, but he hasn’t been cleared yet,” coach Pete Carroll said. “So he’s still getting cleared from the doctors.
“The symptoms didn’t just flat out go away. And that’s what we’re looking at, if he have symptoms still. And until he’s symptom-clear they’re going to take care of him. And he’s got to clear some days past that, as well.”
Carroll said the team and its doctors are “just trying to do everything right and give him a chance to play in the first game.”
Carroll said Jones has a history of this. That is always an additional concern with head trauma — especially on the Seahawks. They had a leading doctor in head injuries for the last three decades.
Team physician Dr. Stan Herring retired this summer after 30 years known as a pioneer in player safety.
“He does have some concussions in his past,” Carroll said of Jones. “I don’t know the number, but he does have some.”
Since Jones got sidelined, rookie Coby Bryant, veteran Artie Burns and Michael Jackson have gotten time starting at left cornerback. For the last three weeks, rookie Tariq Woolen has held down the starting right cornerback job and appears that’s where he will start the season.
Burns is returning from a groin injury. The Seahawks have moved Bryant inside to nickel cornerback. After the team released Justin Coleman, at least for now, Tuesday Bryant is the primary nickel.
That leaves left cornerback in doubt for the opener. As in doubt as Jones is.
The Seahawks had an extended absence from a serious concussion at the start of last season. Wide receiver Dee Eskridge got slammed out of bounds by a Colts defender in the first game of his rookie season last September, at Indianapolis.
Eskridge missed the next seven games. The Seahawks and Eskridge consulted multiple medical experts. The team eventually sent him to a specialist in Florida. It wasn’t until November, more than two months after the concussion, that Eskridge was finally able to get through extensive physical activity without ill effects.
Clint Gresham, the Seahawks’ Super Bowl-winning long snapper from the 2013 season who played for Seattle from 2010-15, posted his struggles with head trauma still today. Six days after his 36th birthday and 6 1/2 years after his last game, the father of two young children with his wife of seven years posted his concerns on his Twitter account online Tuesday.
Gresham tweeted: “I severely underestimated the effects of head trauma from football.The symptoms are depression, addiction,anxiety,PTSD, etcI dont have answers yet,but hoping the @nfl @NFLPA @playerstrust have resources for the guys who sacrificed their brains & bodies to make “the show” happen”
This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 7:19 PM with the headline "Sidney Jones’ iffy status for Seahawks opener another reminder of NFL’s head-trauma danger."
