By Gregg Bell
The News Tribune
Doug Baldwin will indeed have a third surgery this offseason.
Coach Pete Carroll confirmed Tuesday morning to reporters at the NFL’s annual meetings in Phoenix the Seahawks’ top wide receiver will soon have a procedure to repair a sports-hernia abdominal injury.
Baldwin has already had surgeries for knee and shoulder issues since Seattle’s last game, the playoff loss at Dallas on Jan. 5.
Last week, Baldwin went on KJR-AM radio in Seattle and told host and former teammate Cliff Avril he has “more surgeries on the way, most likely” before training camp begins in late July. Baldwin is scheduled to see Dr. William Meyers, a noted specialist on core-muscle injuries based in Philadelphia, in the first week of April, according to a report by NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.
Carroll didn’t confirm the exact date of Baldwin’s upcoming sports-hernia surgery.
The Seahawks have sent star players to Meyers in the past. Meyers operated on running back Marshawn Lynch during his final, 2015 season with Seattle, to fix Lynch’s abdominal issue related to a sports hernia.
At the league’s scouting combine in Indianapolis four weeks ago general manager John Schneider said Baldwin is on track to be ready for the start of the 2019 season.
“I mean, he’s been in the building rehabbing,” the GM said Feb 27. “So, yeah.”
Baldwin has two years and $19.5 million in salary remaining on his contract. Of course, that money is not guaranteed. Few things are in the NFL.
Carroll has said Baldwin remains squarely in Seattle’s plans for 2019.
“I’m counting on it,” the coach said Feb. 28.
Baldwin, 30, was Seattle’s Pro Bowl wide receiver in 2016 and ‘17. Last year was his first injury-filled season of his eight years in the NFL with the Seahawks.
He ended up missing three games in 2018, the first time he’s been out in the regular season or playoffs in 6 1/2 years.
In August he went away for what Carroll called “special treatment.” It kept him out all last training camp, plus two of the Seahawks’ first three games of 2018. His streak of 102 consecutive games played ended Sept. 17 when he was inactive for the loss to the Bears.
Then, it was pain in the other knee. He also had a nagging shoulder injury. He was on a team injury report missing practice time each week last season season, except the one following the team’s bye in October. That after the win over Oakland in London, and before he had two catches in the victory at Detroit after the bye.
In November he played through a groin pull that had marveling how Baldwin could walk, let alone catch five passes in a key road win at Carolina. The Seahawks’ locker room that Sunday in Charlotte, N.C., was a mad house of chanting and players dancing over blaring rap music. Yet Baldwin sat pushed back into his locker stall, talking in relatively hushed tones and looking subdued if not completely spent.
When he’s healthy
Baldwin finished with 50 receptions for 618 yards and five touchdowns in 2018 inside Seattle’s run-first offense that led the league in rushing. It was his second-fewest catches for a season of his career, after 29 in 2012. He scored five touchdowns, his fewest in six seasons. In 2015 he co-led the league with 14 touchdown receptions.
His current deal is from the $46 million extension he signed in the summer of 2016, a year removed from Seattle’s second consecutive Super Bowl. He was still in his prime then, still in his 20s.
Not anymore.
“Oh, I am on the downside of my career. I’m 30 years old,” Baldwin said in December.
“I would not be able to play at the caliber I’m playing now at 38,” he joked.
“I am definitely on the downside.”
Asked in December if he thinks about his future, whether he will be a Seahawk in 2019 with this team in a successful youth movement, Baldwin chuckled.
“I do,” he said.
“But if you know me, you know I always have a plan. …If you know me, you know I’ve got a plan for everything.”
He knows he’s at the age the Seahawks waived Richard Sherman this time last year. Earl Thomas’ contract ended with the All-Pro signing with Baltimore this month in free agency.
With Avril, fellow Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Bennett, safety and soul of the team Kam Chancellor also gone on the 2018 Seahawks, Avril asked Baldwin on the radio last week what Seattle’s locker room was like last season.
“Lonely,” Baldwin said. “(Like) ‘What the hell is going on?…Where are those rocks?
“I really had to do some soul searching coming into (last) year,” Baldwin said..
“It was very difficult on me.
“But, personally, I think I did a hell of a job.”
