SEATTLE -- The Seahawks could be without sixth overall draft pick Russell Okung for a while after he left the team's second preseason game with an ankle injury.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said after Saturday night's 27-24 loss to the Green Bay Packers that the rookie left tackle to whom Seattle just guaranteed $29 million to replace retired All-Pro Walter Jones could have a high right ankle sprain, pending an MRI exam Sunday. High ankle sprains sometimes take two months or more to heal. "It's pretty significant," Carroll said of losing Okung, the foundation to the coach's changing offensive line. "Obviously, we made it as big a priority as we could make it to get him." Carroll said he didn't know how Okung was injured, only that it stings a team that's banking on improved offensive line play to lead a comeback season after going 9-23 the last two years. Okung sprained the same ankle during Oklahoma State's opener against Georgia last season, but he missed just a few plays. The 6-foot-5, 310-pound stalwart started all 13 games for those college Cowboys last season, although the ankle continued to bother him late into the year. Mansfield Wrotto, normally a guard, replaced Okung on Saturday. Seattle already is without backup tackle Ray Willis for an indefinite time because he's facing knee surgery. After Okung missed the first eight days of training camp because of a contract impasse, the Seahawks gave him a six-year deal that has a maximum value of $58 million earlier this month. "That's a big loss if he can't come back. We put a lot of time and effort to get this guy right, and he's done everything we've asked of him," Carroll said. "We'll see what it is. I don't know how long it's going to take." Asked if it could be more than a couple of weeks that a more conventional, lower ankle sprain sometimes needs to heal, Carroll said: "It could be. We don't know that yet. We'll figure him out. We don't know him as a healer, either." For a point of reference at the same position, Seattle was without fill-in left tackle Sean Locklear for six games last season because of a high ankle sprain. Locklear is now starting on the right side, but he could be headed back to left tackle with Okung's injury. Okung wasn't in the Seahawks' locker room following the game. Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
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