Cody Barton in new Seahawks role Sunday. But should he, NFL be playing after Damar Hamlin?

Cody Barton is preparing for his larger role in the middle of the Seahawks’ defense this weekend.

The agent for Seattle’s linebacker and many other NFL players wonders if Barton and his team should be playing this weekend, believing the league should take a pause.

Damar Hamilin going into cardiac arrest on the field in Cincinnati during the Bills-Bengals game Monday night and needing 9 minutes of CPR has shaken those in and around the league in an unprecedented way.

David Canter, agent for Barton, Miami Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard, Dallas Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and others, posted online Tuesday he’s heard from players and coaches traumatized across the NFL. He wonders if the games should stop.

“Honest question; is there a way to push back the NFL schedule entirely 2-3 weeks? I think players and their families would appreciate it and actually need it. Getting many texts and calls from players and coaches league wide who are hurting right now. Games quite irrelevant,” Canter posted on his Twitter account.

“Or let’s push back 1 week and cancel the Pro Bowl and give everyone league wide this weekend off and move the schedule back a week. I understand the logistics are difficult but considering the circumstances the callousness of playing a slate of games seems ridiculous,” Canter posted in a follow-on statement on Twitter.

That was while Hamlin remained in the intensive care unit of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center into Tuesday night. The Bills said 24-year-old safety remained in critical condition. He reportedly remained on a ventilator to maintain his vital signs.

Hamlin’s uncle, Dorian Glenn, told the Post-Standard and syracuse.com Bills beat reporter Matt Parrino that Hamlin was needing half the oxygen through a ventilator to breathe than he needed when he arrived at the hospital Monday night.

“Damar has a little lung damage but he’s now breathing using only 50% of ventilator. He needed 100% yesterday,” Parrino reported Tuesday night.

“That’s a good thing. That’s a good sign,” Glenn told Parrino.

“A lot of people don’t see how much they’re loved when they’re alive. To see that he (has) chance to eventually recover and see all the love he’s gotten ... it’s gonna mean a lot to him.”

Hamlin fell unconscious onto his back and was eventually driven from the field in an ambulance during the second quarter Monday night of Buffalo’s game at Cincinnati. A national-television audience watched the grieving Bills players, coaches and staff pray for their teammate and form around him and emergency medical personnel that rushed to give Hamlin CPR.

The NFL suspended the Bills-Bengals game after about an hour delay following Hamlin collapsing.

The league announced Tuesday that after speaking with both teams and the NFL Players’ Association, commissioner Roger Goodell decided the Bills-Bengals game will not resume this week.

He also decided there will be no changes to the schedule of games for the NFL’s final regular-season weekend Saturday and Sunday.

The Bills and Bengals are both qualified for the playoffs in the AFC.

The Seahawks remain on schedule to host the Los Angeles Rams Sunday at 1:25 p.m. at Lumen Field. To qualify for the postseason Seattle (8-8) needs a victory plus Detroit (8-8) to win at Green Bay (8-8) in a game the NFL controversially put at 5:20 p.m. Sunday.

The league has an open week built into its postseason: the weekend between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. The NFL could conceivably push games back from this weekend to next, begin the playoffs a week later, Jan. 21-23 instead of the currently scheduled Jan. 14-16, and still have the Super Bowl as scheduled in Glendale, Arizona, Feb. 12.

Cody Barton’s new role

For the second consecutive January, Barton will have a new role in the Seahawks’ regular-season finale.

The team’s third-round draft choice in 2019 is moving from next to Brooks as an inside linebacker on the weak side of Seattle’s 3-4 scheme to the middle, “Mike” linebacker who calls the defense’s plays. Barton took that role of relaying signals from defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt through a helmet speaker after Brooks tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

That was in the first half of the Seahawks’ 23-6 win over the New York Jets last weekend.

“There is definitely an adjustment, going weakside to ‘Mike,’ and then also having to call the plays. It’s nothing too crazy because all week even when Jordyn’s calling the plays, I’m calling them with him,” Barton said. “Making adjustments, whatever. Nothing crazy, as far as the communication goes.

“Obviously, the assignments are a little different, but you just kind of slide over and then go from there.”

Sunday against the Rams will be the second game in Barton’s career he’s been the middle linebacker calling the Seahawks’ defensive signals. He did that in the final game of the 2021 season, when All-Pro Bobby Wagner was out injured.

The Seahawks released Wagner in March to save more than $16 million in salary-cap space for 2022. He signed as a free agent with his native Rams. Sunday will be Wagner’s first NFL game in Seattle as a Seahawks opponent.

He played one of his better games in recent years last month against the Seahawks. He was flying all around SoFi Stadium in Seattle’s 27-23 rally past Los Angeles Dec. 4.

Barton might be in the middle linebacker role beyond Sunday’s game, even if the Seahawks don’t make the playoffs. Coach Pete Carroll said Brooks is having ACL surgery after the swelling subsides in his knee. That usually involves a recovery and rehabilitation of at least eight to 12 months. That would be up to or through the opening game of next season, in September.

So until then, it’s Barton — unless the Seahawks sign, acquire or draft a middle linebacker to supplant him before next summer.

“He’s been working at it for a long time, so it wasn’t a big deal. All we needed to do was change his helmet and away we go,” Carroll said of Barton taking Brooks’ play-calling role.

“You’ve heard me say this a number of times: You don’t replace these guys, and you are not getting the same guy coming in. You may get a better version of somebody else in the opportunity of it. We are going to keep a real positive thought about it.”

Jon Rhattigan to get a shot?

Tanner Muse moved from his special-teams jobs to back-filling for Barton at inside linebacker against the Jets.

Carroll said this week also is an opportunity for Jon Rhattigan to possibly get his first NFL snaps on defense, at inside linebacker. The 2021 rookie free agent from Army West Point has impressed his coaches and teammates since he returned to special-teams duty last month, off a 12-month recovery from a torn ACL.

Asked if Muse will take over in Barton’s usual spot against the Rams on Sunday, Carroll said: “Well, you will have to wait and see that. We will have a good week of practice and figure it all out. It does open up opportunities, so we will see.

“Jon Rhattigan has been looking for a chance. And Alexander (Johnson, a practice-squad inside linebacker) has been looking for a shot. So we will see what happens.”