Seahawks fans got a gut punch about 1 play into Sunday night's preseason game against the Titans. Rookie safety Bud Clark, Seattle's No. 64 overall pick out of TCU, went down on Seattle's first defensive snap and had to be carted off the field.
The early images out of Nashville weren't good. Clark was carted to the locker room with what appeared to be an air cast on his leg, the kind of visual that immediately sets off alarm bells for anyone who's watched a lower-leg injury before. Seattle went on to lose the exhibition, 19-16, at Nissan Stadium, but the score was the least of it.
By Monday morning, the diagnosis was out: a broken ankle, and according to Adam Schefter, head coach Mike Macdonald says Clark is expected to be sidelined multiple months.
That's a brutal way for a promising rookie campaign to open. Clark was Seattle's second-round selection this spring and had been in a legitimate competition with Ty Okada for the safety spot next to Julian Love — the kind of opportunity that doesn't come around every summer for a rookie defensive back. Macdonald called the injury one of the 'heartbreakers' of the night, and it's easy to see why: Seattle was reportedly resting most of its usual starters in that game, and Clark was one of the few young players getting real run to make his case.
Multiple months puts Clark's return somewhere in the range of midseason at best, which likely means he opens the year on injured reserve. The Seahawks, fresh off a Super Bowl run, will now lean more heavily on Love and whoever wins the reps Clark was fighting for. It's a tough break, literally, for a kid who hadn't even gotten through his first defensive snap of the preseason before his rookie year hit a major detour.