Will Dissly on IR with injury Seahawks haven’t seen before. So Jacob Hollister comes back
Will Dissly is a rugged native of Montana. Last week talking about games in cold weather, he talked about playing in 8 below zero as a middle-schooler, as if it was no big whoop.
So, no, he doesn’t miss games because of minor or routine issues.
His regular season is over because of an injury the Seahawks had not encountered before his.
“He has a really unusual injury that we have not seen before. Not that it makes it so bad, it’s not that, but it’s just a rare injury at the top of his fibula and where it connects. We haven’t had that situation,” coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday.
“But it’s serious enough that it’s going to be a bit. That’s why we had to go with the way we went.”
Dissly had a season-ending torn ACL and reconstructive knee surgery in his rookie year, 2018. The former defensive lineman at the University of Washington tore an Achilles tendon in 2019 to end his second Seahawks and NFL year.
Asked if this latest season-ending injury will require surgery, Carroll said: “It’s still in question. We have to wait and see.
“They wanted to give it a chance to heal first and then see what happens. We won’t know that for a few weeks.”
The Seahawks re-signed Dissly in March for 3 years and $24 million, to keep him from leaving in free agency. He’s been a primary part of Seattle using multiple-tight end formations more than any other NFL team.
He had a career highs of 34 catches and 349 yards this season, but only one reception in each of the last two games. He missed a practice Dec. 7 and was limited later that week with what the Seahawks listed as a calf injury. He played a season-low 21 snaps in that week’s game, against Carolina.
Yet he played on. He caught a 19-yard pass from Geno Smith late in the third quarter of Seattle’s loss at Kansas City last weekend, then left after playing 28 snaps.
“He did play with it for a while and then it was too aggravating, and he knew something was up,” Carroll said. “So he had to get out of there.”
Jacob Hollister returning
DK Metcalf did a double take on his way out of the locker room to the practice field Wednesday when he saw a locker being prepared for a familiar face arriving.
The Seahawks are bringing back a familiar tight end to help restore depth with Dissly being out.
Jacob Hollister was due in to Seattle Wednesday night and practice Thursday as the newest member of the Seahawks’ practice squad.
Las Vegas released the 29-year-old Hollister on Dec. 17. The native of Bend, Oregon, played three games with the Raiders and two with the Minnesota Vikings this season, almost exclusively on special teams. In 2021, he caught nine passes in seven games with Jacksonville.
He was a backup tight end for the Seahawks in 2019 and ‘20. He was productive, catching 66 passes for six touchdowns from Russell Wilson over 27 games those two seasons.
The Seahawks let Hollister’s contract expire after the 2020 season. They had acquired him from New England in a trade in April 2019.
Now they are getting him for next to nothing, a practice-squad contract, for the final two games of this regular season.
To make the playoffs Seattle must beat the New York Jets (7-8) Sunday and the Los Angeles Rams (5-10) also at home the following weekend plus have Green Bay and Washington each lose at least once in the final two weeks.
