Seahawks inactives: Seattle finally close to healthy

The list of Seattle Seahawks inactives for week 16 is mostly full of healthy backups. They are finally getting healthy after a season defined by injuries.

The Seattle Seahawks enter week 16 surprisingly healthy. The Seahawks inactives list is almost entirely a list of healthy players. That hasn’t been the case for the Seahawks at any point this season.

Seattle has clinched the NFC West and are now playing for playoff seeding. Arizona’s season has gone in the opposite direction. The only thing they’ve clinched is losing record this season.

Seahawks Inactives

Seahawks inactives vs. the Cardinals pic.twitter.com/raNUYqBW8a

— Seattle Seahawks (@seahawksPR) December 24, 2016

As seems to always be the case, it is the guys who are not listed here that are the real story. Michael Bennett, who hurt his neck last week, has recovered and will play without restrictions today.

Jon Ryan, who suffered a concussion last week on his fake-punt run, cleared the league’s concussion protocol. The Seahawks were prepared to signed a punter this week if they needed to do so, but Ryan recovered in time.

Bradley Sowell, the starter at LT early in the season and at RT the last few weeks is inactive. He was benched last week for Gary Gilliam, who seems to have earned his job back at RT.

It is also a bit surprising to see Nick Vanett inactive. The rookie has been playing well in limited opportunities. The Seahawks have decided to suit up veteran Brandon Williams instead.

Cardinals Inactives

Seahawks inactives vs. the Cardinals pic.twitter.com/raNUYqBW8a

— Seattle Seahawks (@seahawksPR) December 24, 2016

Unlike Seattle, Arizona is far from healthy. Their list of injured players is long, and that doesn’t even include star safety/corner Tyrann Mathieu. The honey badger was placed on injured reserve this week with a shoulder injury.

Along with Mathieu, the Cardinals are very banged up in their defensive secondary. Marcus Cooper is also out. Their entire secondary has been decimated by injured in recent weeks.

Brandon Williams is active, but his status was uncertain all week. There is almost no depth left at the position, so it would seem that he is going to play despite being clearly less than 100%.