Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor out another week with ‘substantial’ groin pull; RB Thomas Rawls still ‘a couple weeks away’

The Seahawks will play a third straight game on Sunday against the Saints without starting strong safety Kam Chancellor, who continues to be bothered by a groin injury suffered in practice prior to the Atlanta game. Chancellor was initially hurt on Oct. 13. Kelcie McCray will fill in for Chancellor for a third straight week.

As he had last week, coach Pete Carroll held out hope that Chancellor would return for Sunday’s 10 a.m. game against the Saints. But Chancellor was unable to take part in any practices this week.

“I was real hopeful going in that this would be the week to turn it and we just didn’t quite get it done,” Carroll said, later elaborating on what has happened with Chancellor the last few weeks. “He had a groin pull. After the week one in his rehab it didn’t improve. He pushed it a little bit, we pushed him a little bit, however you want to look at it, and it just didn’t turn the corner for him. So we’re just going to have to wait it out. What it’s turned out to be is a substantial groin pull. More than we had hoped.”

That appears to leave it unclear when Chancellor will return. The good news is that the team can be patient with McCray having proven an able replacement, on the field for 108 total snaps last week against the Cardinals, the most of any player in the NFL this season.

The timetable also seems to be getting pushed back for a return for running back Thomas Rawls.

Carroll had said earlier in the week that the team hoped that Rawls would run in practice this week and then possibly return to practice next week with the potential of playing against Buffalo on Nov. 7.

Carroll said Rawls did run this week. But he also indicated that the earliest Rawls would return now is Nov. 13 against the Patriots.

“That did begin, yeah,” Carroll said of Rawls’ running on the side. “And he is going about it — talked to him this morning about it — very aggressively. He’s going to work his way back. He’s going to make sure that he’s in really good shape before we get him going. Just kind of pass the test along the way here. So we’re still a couple weeks away. We won’t know until he starts to do the workload and all of that. But now we’ve got to get him in shape, again, and get him right. And we’ll take our time doing that so that once he’s back he’ll hopefully be coming back for good.”

Rawls has not played since suffering a hairline fracture in his fibula on Sept. 18 against the Rams in Los Angeles.

Christine Michael has started the last four games in his absence and will continue to get the starts until Rawls returns, though running backs coach Sherman Smith said Thursday he’d like to see more physical running out of Michael.

Here are a few other injury updates:

• Receiver Tyler Lockett was officially listed as questionable after suffering a thigh injury when he was kneed during practice on Wednesday. But Carroll said Friday that Lockett is fine and will play. “He did well had a really nice day today (Friday) so he’s ready to go,” Carroll said. In fact, Carroll said Lockett is beginning to move past the sprained knee he suffered against the Rams, as well. “I would think the knee thing is all but gone — it’s not an issue for him,” Carroll said. “He got kneed in the thigh on Wednesday’s practice but he responded fine so we thought it would have been a problem but it looks like it’s going to be fine for the game.’’
• Rookie cornerback DeAndre Elliott, who has emerged as a special teams standout in recent weeks — he had 20 snaps last week against the Cardinals — was ruled out with a hamstring issue. “He’s got an ongoing hamstring thing, and it just got aggravated in the game, and he just wasn’t able to respond this week to get back out,” Carroll said. “So it’s not a real pull. It’s just like inflammation or something that’s bothering him. He’s had it on and off for a few weeks now, and it just seems like after that game, he was more bothered by it than others, and it’s going to take us a little while to get him back. Tyvis Powell will jump in, do some stuff for him and fill in for him.” Like Elliott, Powell is an undrafted rookie free agent. Powell, from Ohio State, played 14 snaps on special teams last week.