With star linebacker K.J Wright on the shelf with a knee injury, the Seattle Seahawks turned to rookie Shaquem Griffin to make his first NFL start. The rookie struggled at times in his debut and spent some time on the bench in the second half – replaced by Austin Calitro.

Coach Pete Carroll indicated a rotation between the two young linebackers could be in the cards while Wright is out.

“We did rotate [Calitro], he played first and second down and Griff played third downs,” Carroll explained during his postgame interview. “They were kind of in a rotation there. We will see what it looks like.”

Calitro was in on 33 snaps against the Broncos, recording three tackles. Griffin saw 45 snaps, with two tackles of his own. Calitro had an excellent preseason, recording a team-high 21 tackles and one sack across all four games.

Calitro, who went undrafted in 2017 and bounced around multiple practice squads before landing with the Seahawks, had primarily been acting as a backup middle linebacker but made the transition to the weak side when Wright got hurt.

“Austin has done a really good job for us,” Carroll continued. “He has been playing the other spot and we just switched him over when K.J. got banged up, but I think as we look forward that was a really positive move to get him in the game.”

With Wright very unlikely to suit up against the Bears, look for Calitro and Griffin to split time once again on Monday night.