Seahawks second-round pick Malik McDowell hasn’t reported to training camp after he suffered “facial injuries” and a concussion in an ATV crash on July 30. McDowell said after the accident that his injuries weren’t life- or career-threatening, but his recovery will take a while, and could eat into his rookie season.
McDowell reported to the team Monday and was placed on the non-football injury list before returning to Michigan, where he’s recovering. The Seahawks had remained vague on details in the immediate aftermath of the crash, possibly because they hadn’t seen him in person, but after McDowell reported, head coach Pete Carroll offered a realistic evaluation of the player’s condition. From Gregg Bell of the Tacoma News Tribune:
“You know, he had a serious accident,” Carroll said following Monday’s mock game, the eighth day out of eight in this training camp McDowell has missed. “He had multiple injuries; he had an injury to his head. It’s going to be quite a while. You know, we have to wait it out. So, he’s on NFI (the league’s non-football-injury list). And he’s going to be there for a while. And we’re just going to have to see how he progresses, really down the road.
“We are not looking for him to get back in the immediate, not even for the first game of the season, that kind of stuff. We are going to wait it out and see how it is.”
That quote doesn’t make it sound like McDowell is going to be rushed back; Bell also reported that McDowell will “not likely” play for any part of the 2017 season. Fortunately, his life wasn’t jeopardized by the crash, but he’ll face a rough start to his NFL career. All the physical activity McDowell can do at the moment is walk around, and he’s also a rookie.