Seahawks coach Pete Carroll told 710 ESPN Seattle that the team is unlikely to acquire an offensive tackle in light of Bradley Sowell’s knee injury.

Sowell left Sunday night’s game against Arizona in the fourth quarter with what Carroll said afterward was a sprained MCL of unknown severity. Carroll didn’t have any update on Sowell’s injury when he joined “Brock and Salk” Monday morning, saying that the team would know more once he undergoes an MRI later in the day.

The sight of Sowell being taken to the locker room on a cart with a towel over his head and the issues Seattle was having in pass protection before that raised anew the discussion about whether the Seahawks should consider trading for a tackle before the NFL’s Nov. 1 trade deadline. A report from Pro Football Talk Sunday night stated that San Francisco’s Joe Staley is available along with Cleveland’s Joe Thomas.

Carroll didn’t quite dismiss out of hand the possibility of the Seahawks acquiring a tackle, but he said it’s much more likely that they go with an in-house replacement, either rookie George Fant or veteran J’Marcus Webb. Fant is as raw as they come, an undrafted free agent from Western Kentucky and a former basketball player who played one season of college football – as a tight end. He replaced Sowell Sunday night. Seattle signed Webb as a free agent over the offseason.

Asked by Bob Stelton if the Seahawks have an answer to replace Sowell on their roster or if they’ll have to find outside help, Carroll said they’ll look – as always – but that a move is unlikely given the relative lack of available and viable options.

“What would you have in mind there, Bob?” Carroll said. “You got somebody that wants to give you a left tackle? Those guys don’t exist, dude.

“We’ve been working with George Fant for a long time here with the thought that he’s going to really do something really special. He’s made enormous progress. He didn’t play football before in his life, so it’s a little bit of a wait-and-see here, but he is busting his tail, and as the game went on he became more comfortable, and we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.

“We’ve got some choices with J’Marcus as well. We’ll see how that works out, but I don’t think there’s a guy out there that’s going to come flying in here. Now if there is, (general manager John Schneider) will figure it out. He’s already all over it. He’ll figure out if there’s something we can do, but we have never not been looking for another player at every position. So we’re always looking. That’s the way we do it, so when something happens, we have a backlog of guys that we’ve worked out and things that we’ve looked at and the options that are there. But right now, this is like the most difficult time to find a player that’s just sitting there, so it’s not likely.”

Fant played 24 snaps after replacing Sowell and was flagged for a hold on one of them.

“He settled in better,” Carroll said when asked to assess Fant’s play. “He got a little bit overanxious. He’s a really gifted athlete and there’s times when he kind of, he lunged at some guys and got overanxious and stuff, missed on a game one time and got knocked back a couple times. But then he settled in pretty good. He’s strong, he’s quick, he gets it, he’s really competitive. He’s gonna be a terrific – he is a terrific prospect. Let’s see if we can bring him to life right now.”