Seahawks’ Cullen Gillaspia needs knee surgery, roster spot likely to be opened up

While the Seattle Seahawks avoided their usual serious injury to a key player on the road against the Arizona Cardinals, they did not come away unscathed.

Linebacker Cullen Gillaspia, who plays exclusively on special teams, suffered a knee injury during a Seahawks punt in the 3rd quarter of last Sunday’s 31-21 win. He did not return to the game and according to Pete Carroll, Gillaspia will need surgery.

Carroll did not say it was a season-ending injury but “long haul” sounds like another way of saying he’ll need to be placed on injured reserve.

Seattle’s currently at the maximum of 53 players on the active roster, but if Gillaspia is out long-term then it stands to reason that a spot will be made vacant through his absence. My guess is that cornerback Tre Brown will fill that spot in the coming days. Brown has been designated to return to practice but hasn’t officially moved to the active roster yet. There’s a 21-day window for him to be put on the active roster, and that window expires on November 16th.