The Seattle Seahawks have no plans to hurry one of their best pass rushers, Cliff Avril, back on the field, already ruling him out for Sunday's tilt against the Los Angeles Rams.
"Cliff's not going to play this week. We're going to take some time to make sure that we're evaluating him well like we talked about, and we're going to hold him out," coach Pete Carroll told reporters before practice on Wednesday.
Avril suffered a serious stinger in the first quarter of Seattle's 46-18 win over the Indianapolis Colts. NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that he's experiencing numbness down his arm and will be week to week until the numbness subsides.
Avril told Carroll the other day that he feels fine but the team plans to seek second opinions before he sees any more playing time.
"It could be [a long-term thing], it could be," Carroll said. "Like I said, we're going very slowly and making sure that he takes all of the opportunity to talk to as many people as he needs to talk to so he knows what he's got and what we need to do with it. We're just going to take care of him and make sure that he's well and if he wants to come back and we want to bring him back then we'll let you know when we know, but right now we don't."
In the four games that Avril started this season, he had two tackles and a sack. Last season he recorded 20 tackles and 11.5 sacks.
The Seahawks have a nice backup plan in place with Frank Clark. The third-year end replaced Avril during Sunday's game recording four tackles in the win over the Colts. In 2016 he had 25 tackles and 10 sacks. Earlier this week, the Seahawks re-signed defensive end Quinton Jefferson from the Rams' practice squad to add depth in Avril's absence.
