Darrell Taylor injury update: Seahawks lineman dealing with sore neck, Pete Carroll says

Tom Gatto

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Darrell Taylor injury update: Seahawks lineman dealing with sore neck, Pete Carroll says image

UPDATE, OCT. 18: Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Monday on his weekly radio show that Taylor is dealing with a sore neck but feels "good" otherwise. Carroll didn't rule Taylor out for Week 7 vs. the Saints. 

"The initial return is that he didn't have any major damage at all," Carroll said. Taylor flew with the team back to Seattle on Sunday night. He will undergo follow-up test this week, Carroll said.

"Relative to what it looked like and what we were having to deal with, he really had a great turnaround, great news," Carroll said on his show.  

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

The Seahawks experienced a frightening injury to a key player Sunday night against the Steelers.

Defensive end Darrell Taylor was immobilized and then carted off the field after being hurt on a tackle in the fourth quarter. The game was delayed as medical personnel stabilized his head and neck as he lay on the field. Players and coaches from both teams looked on with great concern.

NBC's Michele Tafoya, citing Seahawks public relations, later reported that Taylor was moving all his extremities. He was taken by ambulance to the level 1 trauma center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Tafoya reported after the game that Taylor was alert and undergoing tests.

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There were immediate comparisons to former Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier, who was paralyzed while making a tackle against the Bengals in 2017. Shazier tweeted well wishes for Taylor:

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Taylor, 24, was drafted by the Seahawks in the second round (48th overall) out of Tennessee in 2020. He missed all of last year while recovering from January 2020 surgery to repair a stress fracture in his leg that he played with in 2019.

He came into Sunday leading the Seahawks with four sacks in five games.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.