The Seattle Seahawks have ruled out receiver Doug Baldwin and linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright for Monday night's game against the Chicago Bears.
Seattle could be without as many as five starters, with right guard D.J. Fluker and cornerback Tre Flowers listed as doubtful. Shaquill Griffin is questionable, but coach Pete Carroll said Saturday that the cornerback will play.
Baldwin and Wright have been dealing with knee issues, while Wagner's groin injury stems from last week's defeat to Denver, according to Carroll.
"He had a groin thing that showed up kind of late [in the opener]," the coach said. "He felt it but thought it was a cramp during the game, and it just took him a couple of days to get it assessed. He's running, he's already working hard, but he's not quite ready, so we'll get him probably next week."
The situation at linebacker prompted the Seahawks to sign former Eagle Mychal Kendricks, who last week pleaded guilty to insider trading charges and faces potential prison time and league discipline. Kendricks is expected to play Monday night.
Griffin, a rookie, started for Wright at weakside linebacker last week and shared time there with Austin Calitro. It's not clear what Seattle will do Monday with Wright and Wagner both out, though Kendricks has played weakside linebacker as well as inside linebacker when the Eagles ran a 3-4 defense.
"He has so much ground that he's going to gain that every week is important to him and he'll get better and he'll do better and he's ready to play this week for sure," Carroll said of Griffin.
Asked about Wright's progress," Carroll said: "I watched him run today. He ran great. I can't imagine him not competing to play the next week. He really looked great today. He had an extensive workout and I was just thrilled for him.
"To come back in two and a half weeks and look like that, it's a fantastic recovery. Great job by the trainers in working him back through it, but also just him handling it and dealing with it. It depends on how it works next week. He could have some setbacks. You never know, but he looks like he'd be ready to go."
Flowers hurt his hamstring last week in Denver, and Carroll said "he had a hard week getting back. He's going to travel with us and we'll see how he is on gameday."
Justin Coleman and Neiko Thorpe are two of Seattle's healthy cornerbacks, though the team could add one to its roster this weekend. Coleman is Seattle's nickelback.
Also on Saturday, the Seahawks released defensive tackle Tom Johnson, who started in their opener, and promoted safety Shalom Luani from their practice squad. Carroll said Johnson could be brought back later.
"Yeah, because of what happened with the numbers, we just, we had to do something to make a move and we had to figure out which is the best way for us and over the long haul of this thing," Carroll said. "Tom did a great job for us. We love him. We hated to have to separate like that. He's a good ballplayer."
Luani's promotion from the practice squad comes with backup safety Delano Hill being listed as doubtful.