Seattle Seahawks first-round draft pick, defensive end L.J. Collier, could be making his regular-season debut Sunday in Pittsburgh when the team squares off against the Steelers.
After spraining his ankle early in training camp, Collier sat out the rest of the preseason as well as the Seahawks’ opener in Seattle. With Ezekiel Ansah inactive for the Week 2 matchup, Collier should see some action in the Steel City.
“L.J. is back – he’s ready to play in this game if we want to put him up, he can go,” coach Pete Carroll said Friday. ”He had a great week and that’s a real good return for him. He worked really hard. He maintained his conditioning through the rehab. He looked really well-conditioned in the practice, wasn’t overburdening him at all. In our mind, he can play, and we just have to wait and see what the rotation would be if we put him up.”
But Carroll isn’t going to rush Collier onto the field, rather, the team will ease him if he’s needed in the lineup on Sunday.
“One thing, we won’t overplay him,” Carroll told KIRO’s Dori Monson on Friday. “We won’t play him too much. We want to make sure he gets some playtime if he’s ready for us. Just get him going kind of; get him started. He just hasn’t had any background with us. So just the fact that he’s with us traveling and he’s got his (uniform) on is a big step.
“And then we’ll try to break him in a little bit and just see how he handles it and what he looks like with the rest of the fellas.”
The Seahawks (1-0) and Steelers (0-1) are set to kick off at Heinz Field at 10:00 a.m. PT.
