RENTON, Wash. — One week after arriving via a trade, Seattle Seahawks All-Pro left guard Quenton Nelson needs a “minor procedure” on his knee, coach Mike Macdonald said Friday.
Sources told NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport that Nelson’s surgery will be to clean out cartilage in his knee.
Macdonald said Nelson will not go on injured reserve, and he’ll be designated as week-to-week.
Nelson and quarterback Sam Darnold, who has a quad injury, are among six starters ruled out by the Seahawks (4-4) for Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals (3-5) at Lumen Field. The others are defensive tackle Leonard Williams (stinger), outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (ankle), left tackle Charles Cross (ankle) and wide receiver/returner Rashid Shaheed (knee).
While Nelson is out, Seattle will move Grey Zabel back to left guard and reinsert Anthony Bradford into the starting lineup at right guard. After acquiring Nelson from the Indianapolis Colts for a 2027 third-round pick and a 2028 fifth-round pick, the Seahawks moved Zabel to right guard, where Bradford had been their starter.
“He had something that he was dealing with when he got here and we re-imaged it and it was aggravated to some degree,” Macdonald said of Nelson’s injury. “We’ve kind of done the due diligence, and everybody agrees that it’s best to take care of it now and play the long game. He’ll be week-to-week at this point.”
Nelson, 30, played every offensive snap in the Seahawks’ loss to the Chicago Bears on Monday night. He was seen this week with a sleeve on his right leg, was listed as limited Wednesday and did not practice the past two days.
“I can’t give you all the details on what it was and what we found,” Macdonald said. “Obviously, he passed the physical, so I think two things are true: One, that it was something that he was dealing with coming out of whatever game it was before the trade, and I think it’s been aggravated since he got here.”
Darnold, who suffered a cracked rib on the second play of Monday’s game and then injured his quad toward the end of the game, will not go on IR, Macdonald said.
Macdonald on Friday said Drew Lock will be the starter against the Cardinals, despite a right elbow injury that had him inactive the past two games and limited his throwing in recent weeks. He was again listed as a limited participant Friday, as he has been on all 12 injury reports released since the start of Week 6.
Macdonald said earlier in the week that the Seahawks had to also get Jalen Milroe, who has not appeared in a regular-season game since Week 5 of last year, ready to play in case they needed to turn to their third quarterback against Arizona. He said Friday that they’ve had to manage Lock’s reps this week, which was “more precautionary than anything else.”
After Darnold suffered a glute injury on the fifth play of the opener, Lock played most of the first two games, posting an 82.5 Total QBR that ranked sixth best in that span. Three of his four touchdown passes came in a win 31-7 win over the Cardinals in Week 2.
The Seahawks also added some quarterback insurance earlier this week by signing former United Football League MVP Adrian Martinez to their practice squad.
Cross, Shaheed and Nwosu all missed the Bears game, while Williams went down in the third quarter. The only one of the four who practiced at all this week was Nwosu, who was limited Wednesday.
Josh Jones will start again at left tackle for Cross.
Seattle also ruled out backup defensive tackle Brandon Pili (back) and lists backup outside linebacker Connor O’Toole (foot) as questionable.
