"He had a significant injury that occurred really early in the game last week," Carroll said. "He's going to be out for a while. I don't know all the details of how long that's going to be, but he's going to be down for a while. It's kind of an Achilles-tendon-area injury that's pretty sensitive right now so he's going to be slowed down."

Hill didn't necessarily suffer a season-ending injury, but Carroll's description leaves open that possibility.

Hill, 28, missed five games last season after suffering an injury to his groin muscle. He missed four games in 2008 after suffering a stinger in Seattle's game at Dallas.

Hill was not starting, playing behind David Hawthorne at weakside linebacker. Seattle had renegotiated Hill's contract from $6 million down to $2 million in base salary this season, which indicated the team had plans to use him. He missed the season-opener because of a league suspension for violating NFL policy on substance abuse. He was reinstated Week 2, but now Seattle's plans for him will have to wait to determine when he can return this season if at all.

• Chester Pitts will practice at left guard on Wednesday, and Carroll indicated that he's pushing Pitts in his recovery. He has been inactive the first two games, but Carroll said the team isn't going to just wait for him to come back after the bye, but hopes to get him closer to playing this week.

• LT Russell Okung remains out, but began on-land running Tuesday, which means no treadmill. He could begin practicing next week.

"Russell ran yesterday and got through that OK so we're anxious to see how far he can take it," Carroll said. "We're just going to go day by day and see what happens and how he responds to the work. That's encouraging that we're finally getting him on the road to recovery."

• Quinton Ganther will not practice Wednesday because of a sore knee.

Note
Guard Ben Hamilton was looking for me in the locker room, calling me out by name. "Where's Danny O'Neil," several reporters heard him asking.

I was interviewing Aaron Curry at the time.

"You owe me $200," he said, apparently a reference to the fine offensive linemen are levying among themselves. I was in the midst of an interview when he said it. After concluding it, I went to confirm in fact that he had told me, "You owe me $200." His response: "No." After that he requested the rest of our friendly discussion be off the record. I was going to consult my notebook to confirm the quote was, "You owe me $200," however I could not because at one point in our cordial off-the-record conversation, Hamilton took my notebook, tore out that page, crumpled it up and placed it down the front of his pants.