Notebook: Seahawks tackle Charles Cross has finger surgery

RENTON, Wash. – Seattle Seahawks left tackle Charles Cross will miss the next two or three weeks of practice while recovering from surgery Wednesday in Los Angeles to repair a dislocated finger.

Coach Mike Macdonald said Thursday the team is confident Cross will be ready for the regular-season opener on Sept. 7 against the 49ers at Lumen Field.

Macdonald said Cross had surgery on the ring finger on his right hand to fix an issue Cross had been dealing with for a little while.

Macdonald said Cross wanted to play through it, but the team decided it’d be best to get it fixed now with enough time to recover for the regular season.

“We felt like it was a good opportunity to get it fixed so he didn’t have to worry about it once it heals,” Macdonald said. “We’re looking at a couple few weeks here and expected him back before the San Francisco game. Sometime between the Green Bay game (on Aug. 23) and the first week.”

Macdonald said Cross agreed with surgery “once he understood the time table and played the long game. Seemed like it made sense.”

Cross had taken part in every practice, taking every snap at left tackle with the starting offense, before sitting out Wednesday when he had the surgery. Cross has been a mainstay of the offensive line since being taken ninth overall in 2022 out of Mississippi State, starting all but three games since.

Without Cross, veteran free-agent signee Josh Jones and second-year player Michael Jerrell shared reps at left tackle with the starting offense during Thursday’s practice at the VMAC, the third in the past four days in full pads and the eighth practice overall since training camp began last week.

Jones has often played backup right tackle and can play guard and has been considered as the likely backup at both tackle spots in the regular season.

Macdonald said he has a chance to show what he can do.

“He gives us much-needed versatility,” Macdonald said of Jones, who has 24 career starts and 76 games played dating to 2020. “But we’re not just bringing him in here to be a swing tackle. Go compete and win yourself a job. He’s pushing Abe (Lucas at right tackle), now there’s an opportunity at left tackle where you can put your stamp on things.”

Jerrell, a seventh-round pick last season who started three games at right tackle, got his first full-contact snaps at left tackle with the starters so far during camp.

“Eager to watch the tape and see how he did,” Macdonald said.

Here is more of what we learned from Thursday’s practice:

Another big play by Emmanwori

The pads going on seems to have brought out the best in second-round pick Nick Emmanwori, a safety from South Carolina taken 35th overall.

Emmanwori had his second interception of camp, again coming on a Jalen Milroe pass. Emmanwori picked off a short Milroe pass out of the end zone Monday and returned it for a TD.

This time, he had to dive and extend and use all of his 6-foot-3 frame to corral a pass Milroe threw in the flat after the rookie quarterback evaded pressure. Emmanwori ran excitedly to the other side of the field to celebrate with teammates and fans gathered on the berm.

Emmanwori continues to be used mostly as a third safety in nickel and dime formations while showing that he is picking up the role well.

“We keep giving him stuff and he just keeps executing,” Macdonald said.

Macdonald said he’s learning that he needs to make sure he doesn’t overload Emmanwori with assignments and puts him in position to make plays.

“You have to be careful that you don’t take the playmaker out of the player so that’s something that’s kind of on my mind,” Macdonald said. “But he just keeps learning and keeps executing and keeps making plays.”

Milroe bounces back

Emmanwori’s pick of Milroe happened about midway through a two-hour practice.

As such, it provided Macdonald with a good test of how Milroe would respond to adversity.

Macdonald got exactly the answer he wanted as Milroe proved a standout the rest of the way, particularly during some situational work in late-game settings at the end.

Milroe completed about a 35-yard pass to tight end Brady Russell and during a final two-minute drill had a couple of nice runs.

Macdonald said a few of Milroe’s early struggles were due in part to the defense “throwing a lot at him schematically. But it’s good for him to kind of get trial by fire on some of those situational things and he’ll learn from those.”

He called Milroe’s fast finish to practice “awesome to see. …. To be able to come back in a critical two-minute situation and basically win the game for the offense making two really great plays, it’s great to see. Just shows you the rebound, the poise. We ended practice the right way.’’

It’s worth noting that Milroe continues to work almost exclusively with the No. 3 offense, typically against the No. 3 defense, with Sam Darnold operating the ones and Drew Lock the twos.

While there has been speculation that the Seahawks could put in a special package of plays to take advantage of Milroe’s running ability, Macdonald said that is not something the team has yet worked on.

“We haven’t really looked into like exclusively how are we going to use him yet,’’ Macdonald said. “Right now he is training at quarterback.”

Macdonald added: “There’s plays that he can do that probably we’re not going to run with Sam or Drew that are in the installs up to this point,” but that the team for now is in its initial phase of installing the playbook and hasn’t worked on those.