Seahawks Dodge Bullet as Grey Zabel Avoids ‘Significant’ Knee Injury

Seattle Seahawks guard Grey Zabel (76) lays on the field injured during the second half against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

While the Seattle Seahawks could be without starting left guard Grey Zabel for a while after the rookie exited Sunday’s 21-19 loss to the Los Angeles Rams with a knee injury, both the player and team appear to have dodged a bullet.

Speaking with Mike Salk and Brock Huard on his weekly radio show on Seattle Sports 710 on Monday morning, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald indicated there’s “optimism” about Zabel’s injury not being a season ender after initial testing on his knee on Sunday night, but he still needed to undergo scans on Monday morning to confirm any diagnosis. Several hours later, that optimism yielded the best news possible with those scans not showing a significant injury for the standout rookie.

“The words I heard were day-to-day and you know how that goes. It could be day-to-day, it could be a week, could be more than that, but nothing significant, which is a huge positive,” Macdonald said.

Starting his 10th game for the Seahawks at left guard, Zabel suffered the injury late in the fourth quarter on a touchdown run by Ken Walker III as his left leg was rolled up on by teammate Charles Cross at the line of scrimmage. He immediately clutched his left knee and trainers rushed to the field, where he remained down for a couple of minutes before being helped to the sideline and spending a few moments in the blue injury tent for further evaluation.

Third-year guard Christian Haynes replaced Zabel for Seattle’s final offensive drive, which unfortunately ended with Jason Myers’ 61-yard field goal attempt falling short and wide right as the clock expired, sealing a tough two-point defeat.

“For Christian (Haynes) not having been active in seeing his first football action, I thought he did a good job,” Macdonald remarked. “There are some things he's going to clean up, and he'll do that.”

A key catalyst for the Seahawks making dramatic improvements in pass protection this season, Zabel has played like a seasoned veteran coming out of North Dakota State, helping limit opponents to just 11 sacks on Sam Darnold in 10 games. Among qualified guards, per Pro Football Focus charting, Zabel ranks seventh in Pass Block Efficiency Rate (97.9%) and is one of only five blockers at the position who has yet to allow a single sack. He also sits in the top 10 with 12 pressures allowed, barely over one per game.

While PFF has not graded Zabel well in the run blocking department and he has had more bumps in the road in that aspect of his game thus far, the rookie has demonstrated significant growth in recent weeks, helping Seattle rush for nearly 200 yards in a blowout win over Arizona in Week 10 and hit the 135-yard mark against Los Angeles on Sunday.

Time will tell whether or not Zabel has to miss any games, but based on how bad the injury looked on Sunday in real time, sitting out a couple of games with a less severe knee issue should be viewed as a positive compared to a far worse alternative of losing him for the rest of the season as initially feared. Still, with center Jalen Sundell already on injured reserve with his own knee injury, losing him for any length of time would put serious strain on a Seahawks line that has started to deal with major attrition while having no shortage of depth question marks in the interior.

In the event Zabel does need to miss at least next week’s road contest against the Titans, Haynes likely would be the starter in his absence, while rookie Bryce Cabeldue would be next in line behind him and Anthony Bradford as guard depth. Rookie Mason Richman also spent some time at guard and center during training camp and may need to be active for the time being as additional insurance.