Seahawks notebook: Team fears Anthony McCoy tore Achilles again

RENTON – This injury was especially painful.

Not only did tight end Anthony McCoy go down without contact, suffering what the team feared was a torn Achilles tendon.

This hurt even more because McCoy missed all of last season recovering from that exact injury, only it was in his other leg.

“If it is what they think it is, it’s just a real heartbreaker,” coach Pete Carroll said. “He worked so hard to get back. If it was the same Achilles, you might understand it, but they think it’s the other one.”

McCoy suffered an Achilles injury last May and was placed on injured reserve. He rehabbed throughout the season, re-signed with the team in the offseason and was set to compete to be one of Seattle’s three tight ends.

That reality made it especially painful to see him carted off the field before the end of Tuesday’s practice, having suffered an injury to his other Achilles.

Bowie almost back

Right tackle Michael Bowie may be back at practice later this week, having recovered from a shoulder injury suffered the first day of camp.

He’s going to have more than just rookie Justin Britt as competition, though. The Seahawks signed Eric Winston – an eight-year veteran – and Carroll made it pretty clear that Seattle sees Winston’s experience as a potential asset to the team.

“Looking for depth and a competitive guy there to come in,” Carroll said of Winston’s signing. “We like the fact that he has background and experience. We’re very young with the background guys.”

Bowie made the team last year as a seventh-round pick and started eight regular-season games, most at right tackle. Seattle drafted Britt in the second round this year to compete with Bowie for the starting job, but offensive-line coach Tom Cable has said over the offseason that Bowie’s conditioning was something he would watch.

Bowie left the first practice with an injury.

“We think Michael Bowie might get back tomorrow or the next day,” Carroll said.

So Winston wasn’t about filling in for Bowie so much as increasing competition at that spot.

“We would like to have another guy competing for the spot,” Carroll said. “Eric has done a lot of playing in his time so we’ll see how that works out.”

Notes

• LB Kevin Pierre-Louis sat out practice Tuesday. “He’s got a little oblique thing that bothered him last practice,” Carroll said. “We’re just holding him out. It’s not a serious deal, but we just want to make sure we don’t push him too far too fast.”

• WR Kevin Norwood has missed the past three practices with a sore foot but is close to returning. “I’m hoping that tomorrow he’ll get back out, and we’ll just see,” Carroll said. “It’s an old injury, related to a previous surgery. So we’re just trying to figure out if we can solve the problem of it. He’s got a sore foot, but there’s nothing structurally wrong. So it’s a matter of we’ve just got to get him through it.”

• LB Bobby Wagner (hamstring) and LG James Carpenter (calf) sat out the end of practice because of tightness in their respective legs.