Seahawks scramble to replace Nate Burleson after season-ending knee injury

Seahawks scramble to replace Nate Burleson after season-ending knee injury
The Seahawks are more short-handed then ever at receiver. The team was left with three available receivers on the active roster Monday: Logan Payne, Jordan Kent and Courtney Taylor. All three are in their second years as Seahawks.
By José Miguel Romero
Seattle Times staff reporter


RENTON — Nate Burleson's characteristic wide grin and fun-loving attitude were missing Monday, and for a very good reason.

Burleson received some bad news. So did the Seahawks and their fans. The effervescent wide receiver and punt returner is lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Burleson's injury, suffered in the third quarter of Sunday's 34-10 season-opening loss at Buffalo, will require surgery. Burleson planted while running a route and his left knee gave out. He originally thought the injury was less serious, but an MRI exam confirmed the torn ACL.

"I looked down and I saw my knee go right to left, and I collapsed," Burleson said. "I couldn't move. I didn't know it was that bad, I just knew it wasn't good.

"Things like this, they happen for a reason. You've got to deal with the good and the bad. I know I'll probably have a tough journey for the next few months but at the end of the day I'm a football player, so I'll be back on that field soon."

Burleson said he felt a tweak in his knee earlier in the game but continued to play. After returning to Seattle on Sunday night, Burleson said he thought team doctors would tell him he'd miss only a few weeks. Holmgren said doctors originally thought it was an injury to Burleson's posterior cruciate ligament.

Burleson said he was shocked to hear the diagnosis.

Now the Seahawks are more short-handed then ever at the position. Burleson and Ben Obomanu are out for the year. Obomanu was injured in the exhibition finale. Deion Branch and Bobby Engram, already dealing with injuries, are likely out this week, coach Mike Holmgren said Monday. That left the Seahawks with three available receivers on the active roster Monday: Logan Payne, Jordan Kent and Courtney Taylor.

All three are in their second years as Seahawks — Payne and Kent are about to play their second games in the NFL. Their inexperience showed Sunday, and Burleson's injury sent team executives and coaches into scramble mode Monday afternoon.

Holmgren said a personnel meeting was scheduled to address the situation. One possibility is elevating rookie Michael Bumpus from the practice squad, but it seems more likely that the team will sign a veteran free agent.

"We don't have much of a choice right now," Holmgren said. "If there are guys out there that played for us at one time and kind of understood it [the Seattle offense] maybe that would be the way to go."

One possibility is veteran Bryan Gilmore, who has played for this week's opponent, the San Francisco 49ers, and spent training camp and the exhibition season with the Seahawks. Maurice Mann, a formers Seahawks practice squad member, was waived by Washington at the end of August.

Not that big-name players who have never been Seahawks aren't being considered. Among the prominent possibilities are Joe Horn, Reche Caldwell, Keenan McCardell and Peerless Price.

Horn's agent talked with the Seahawks a week and a half ago but said his client could draw interest from Cleveland or Tennessee. Also the Seahawks are thought to be bringing Mark Bradford, a receiver released by Dallas last month, in for a workout this week.

"The terminology might be a little different," Holmgren said when asked about bringing in a receiver who isn't familiar with the offense. "But if you tell him what route to run and things like that, you can get through it."

Holmgren said the Seahawks' personnel department has a hot list and an emergency list of players at every position.

"We'll look at those guys, and you look at guys that were in training camp, perhaps with you, that the transition would be easier," Holmgren said. "But my feeling is that we need a couple of guys that have played the game a little bit, and so that might go to a different pool of players."

Holmgren would not yet say if Kent would replace Burleson as a starter along with Taylor. Seneca Wallace, the backup quarterback who got in a few plays at wide receiver Sunday and caught punts, could also be an option at both positions this week.

"It's a huge loss and we've got to get some answers," quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said.




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THIS ABSOLUTELY SUCKS I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS HAS HAPPENED BUT I GUESS THE SEAHAWKS WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT, IF WE CAN'T GET PAST THIS, THEN IT WILL BE A LONG SEASON.

Torn ligament shelves Burleson for the year
Hawks' receivers green as can be
By CLARE FARNSWORTH
P-I REPORTER

RENTON -- Nate Burleson woke up Monday expecting to be told he would miss two or three games because of the knee he injured in the Seahawks' season opener.

But then the team's split end -- and only healthy receiver with any experience -- got the shocking news: He will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the third quarter of the Seahawks' 34-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

"It was quite a shock," Burleson said Monday, just before leaving the locker room at the team's practice facility on crutches. "I was coming in thinking they were going to tell me I'd be out a few weeks."

Even Sunday, after the team got back from Buffalo, Burleson was flexing the knee and "figuring out my mind-set and how I was going to sit out for three or four weeks, and how I was going to deal with it."

Now, it's how the team is going to deal with losing Burleson.

Talk about a snake-bit position. The Seahawks already were without leading receiver Bobby Engram and flanker Deion Branch, and neither will play this week in the home opener against the San Francisco 49ers at Qwest Field. Engram has been out since suffering a broken bone in his right shoulder in the preseason opener. Branch is in the final stages of his rehabilitation since undergoing reconstructive surgery on his left knee in February.

Ben Obomanu, next in line as far as NFL experience, was lost for the season when he broke his left clavicle in the preseason finale.

That leaves the second-year trio of Courtney Taylor, who is starting at flanker and caught two passes against the Bills; Logan Payne, who had his first two NFL receptions Sunday; and Jordan Kent, who went catchless in his NFL debut Sunday.

The injury news was better on running back Maurice Morris, but only in the relative sense. He is out indefinitely because of a sprained ligament in his right knee suffered against the Bills. Julius Jones will be the starter until Morris returns.

The hope at Seahawks headquarters is that Morris, Engram, Branch and right tackle Sean Locklear will return to the lineup after the team's Week 4 bye, though Locklear could return sooner.

"I remember when I saw the schedule, I said, 'Oh boy, that bye is awful early,' " coach Mike Holmgren said Monday. "But now, it's probably going to be a really important thing for us to have that week."

Until then, it's make do with what they have -- and can find. The one productive receiver they did have was Burleson. Until Monday. Holmgren and Burleson were told after the game that Burleson had aggravated an old injury to his posterior collateral ligament. Burleson tweaked the knee in the first quarter, he said, and then went down for good -- without being touched -- when he was running a pass route in the third quarter.

"I tried to plant -- nobody around me, didn't get tangled up at all," he said. "I looked down and I saw my knee go right to left and I collapsed. I couldn't move.

"I didn't know it was that bad. I just knew it wasn't good."

Even in pain, and with his season over before it ever really got started, Burleson looks for the silver lining in the dark cloud that has been hovering over the team's wide receivers.

"Obviously there's a reason behind it," Burleson said. "Maybe it's time for some of these young guys to make a name for themselves and put themselves in a position to be household names in Seattle."

Burleson already had that distinction. He was a three-sport star at O'Dea High School. He signed with his hometown NFL team in free agency in 2006 after playing three seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. He led the team with nine touchdown receptions last season, when he also scored on punt and kickoff returns.

"It's tough, just for the simple fact that I felt great," Burleson said. "This is the first time I've ever had to sit out a season.

"I'll be around. I probably won't be smiling as much, but I'll be around talking to my guys and doing whatever I can to help."

HAWK TALK: Defensive tackle Rocky Bernard and defensive back Jordan Babineaux returned Monday from their one-game suspensions for violating NFL policy. The team will have to make two moves Tuesday to clear roster spots for them. ... Linebacker Lofa Tatupu will continue to wear a protective device on his right thumb, injured against the Bills.

FOCUS ON: MATT HASSELBECK

Seahawks fans, Matt Hasselbeck not only feels, he shares your pain.

The "sky is falling" attitude running rampant after the Seahawks' dismal 34-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills in their season opener Sunday is not lost on the team's Pro Bowl quarterback.

"It's understandable. My family is the same way," Hasselbeck said Monday, when "fans" and "hysterical" were used in the same question.

"We're even more disappointed and frustrated after a loss like that. It's just embarrassing. It's really embarrassing. If I could pick one word, that's the word -- being on the field like that and playing not up to your potential. But I think a player's life is a little bit easier ... because we get to go out there and play another game."

That would be Sunday's home opener against the San Francisco 49ers at Qwest Field.

"We've got a bigger game this week -- a division opponent, San Fran," Hasselbeck said. "That's why we're able to put it behind us, probably easier than fans or even coaches."

Hasselbeck and coach Mike Holmgren assured everyone Monday that the team will play better this week than it did Sunday.

The punch line to those predictions, of course, is: Could they possibly play any worse?




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