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INGLEWOOD, CA - JANUARY 05: Seattle Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (10) walks off of the field after an NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams on January 05, 2025, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA. (Jordon Kelly / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)
The Seattle Seahawks activated linebacker Uchenna Nwosu off the physically unable to perform list on Sunday.
Nwosu, 28, had offseason knee surgery after missing all but six games last season due to injuries.
"It’s exciting, because to my knowledge, we're ahead of schedule, which is cool," head coach Mike Macdonald said. "I know Uchenna has been working his tail off, which is par for the course for him. Our training staff had a great plan, guy has done a great job. He's going to be back with us. We have a plan to ramp him up here over the course of the rest of training camp, going into the first game, and gives us the option to possibly get out there early in the season."
Nwosu injured his knee last preseason when Wyatt Teller of the Cleveland Browns delivered a diving block into his leg. He then sustained a torn thigh just 20 snaps into his first game back from the knee injury and was sidelined again.
"It's been tough," Nwosu said at the time. "Pretty much my whole career I've dealt with little injuries there, but nothing that's kept me out for this long.
"I feel like it's really things that has kind of been out of my control, especially with the knee injury that I had. And then one thing leads to another, so who knows? Kind of just re-figuring myself out and just trusting my process and knowing that I know my career is going to be great. I'm going to still be the same player I am and just continue to trust myself."
Macdonald didn't make any commitments to Nwosu being ready for Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers. His activation from the PUP list does mean he will be on the roster to begin the season, however.
"It's probably too early to come to any conclusions, but we have a preliminary timetable that gets us around the beginning of the season," Macdonald said. "There’re some checkpoints we have to hit along the way. The first thing is to do an individual, going through walkthrough, staying sharp mentally. He'll be ready on all that, but we have to get through that first."
Nwosu can practice with the team now that he's passed a physical.
In his last full season in 2023, Nowsu played all 17 games and had 9.5 sacks, 66 tackles and 26 quarterback hits.
"I think you felt it in the Minnesota game, that was probably his best game last year, probably when he felt his best," Macdonald said. "Uchenna is a leader for us on defense. He's a great edge player on early downs. He's got physicality. He's incredibly smart. He's got a great feel for the game, so, activating on those pass rush opportunities in the play action game, he's really good at.
"Then on third down he can run inside and outside, he's a great game runner. He's got great chemistry with guys like Leo (Williams) and obviously he plays hard, so a lot of boxes right there. He's a heck of a player."
The Source: Information in this story came from FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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