The Seattle Seahawks' secondary took a hit when second-round rookie safety Bud Clark broke his ankle on the very first snap of Saturday's preseason loss to the Tennessee Titans.
After missing practice on Monday and waiting for the verdict over the weekend, the Seahawks shared what was the worst-case scenario: Clark will miss the entire 2026 season as he was moved to season-ending IR by the team on Tuesday afternoon.
Offensive lineman Mason Richman was also given the same designation, and will also be sidelined for the entirety of the season.
"The Seahawks announced they've placed S Bud Clark and OL Mason Richman on injured reserve. That means their seasons are over." Brady Henderson of ESPN reported on Tuesday. "Clark, a rookie second-round pick, broke his ankle in Seattle's preseason game vs. the Titans Sunday. Richman suffered a right leg injury in that game."
Although Clark was not listed as a starter at safety; those roles were currently donned to Ty Okada and Julian Love; he was expected to play a reasonably heavy role in the secondary rotation.
Especially in light of the fact that starting nickel and do-everything DB Nick Emmanwori is still on his way to returning to full practice after having had ankle surgery this past July from an injury sustained mere days prior to Super Bowl LX.
Whilst Seattle's safety group with no Clark and â for the moment â no Emmanwori runs fairly thin behind the starting duo of Love and Okada, luckily for Seattle their depth at corner has appreciated substantially over the past few weeks.
2024 fifth round pick Nehemiah Pritchett and rookie third rounder Julian Neal are set to backup All-Pro corner Devon Witherspoon alongside Josh Jobe. Yet the team have signed former All-Pro Trevon Diggs this month, and it appeared last week that they had also bought in Terrion Arnold, although The Athletic revealed on Thursday that an official deal had yet to be signed .
In Clark's place the team will turn to D'Anthony Bell and A.J. Finley as the next two men up, as well as former Colts starter Rodney Thomas II, who signed a one-year deal with Seattle this past offseason.
The Seahawks also have Maxen Hook and Tysheem Johnson at the position group as options further down the training camp roster.
Between the current starting safeties and the hopefully imminent return of Emmanwori, this should not have too drastic an effect on the reigning champions' defense, but it is certainly not the way Mike McDonald would have wanted to kick off the career of second round rookie draft pick in 2026.
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