Seahawks vs. Washington injury report, odds, spread: Alex Smith out, Dwayne Haskins in; Antonio Gibson, Carlos Dunlap in doubt

Were the NFC playoffs to begin today, the Washington Football Team (6-7) would be the NFC East champion and fourth seed in the conference. It would host the Wild-Card and fifth-seeded Seattle Seahawks (9-4) in the first round. We get a possible preview of that matchup Sunday when the Seahawks head to FedEx Field in Maryland. Washington will not have starting quarterback Alex Smith due to a calf injury, though, and the team is a 6.5-point underdog on the William Hill Sportsbook NFL odds. The total already has dropped a point to 43 and the spread has risen from 6 to 6.5 with former starter/turned third-stringer/turned backup Dwyane Haskins under center. 

Smith, who is the lock NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award winner, left last Sunday's win against San Francisco near the end of the first half with the calf problem, but X-rays were negative and Coach of the Year favorite Ron Rivera basically said that Smith didn't re-enter the game out of caution. It has been diagnosed as a minor strain to Smith's right calf, which is the same leg that Smith broke in gruesome fashion during the 2018 season and nearly lost due to infection.

Washington was optimistic early this week about Smith, who has won four straight starts, but ruled him out Friday. "He went through some of the drills [at Friday's practice] and he said, 'I still feel it,'" Rivera said.

Thus, it will be 2019 first-round bust Haskins, who was 7-for-12 for 51 yards in place of Smith last week and who opened the year as the No. 1 -- Washington was 1-3 in Haskins' four starts. Most believe the WFT will trade Haskins this offseason, although a good showing could change things. 

"The nice thing about it is this isn't foreign to him. He's prepared for an NFL game multiple weeks this year," receiver Terry McLaurin said of Haskins "I feel like [his benching] gave him some time to grow as a person and a player. I feel like his attention to detail has only grown." 

Who will be the No. 2 this week? Either rookie Steven Montez or most likely Taylor Heinicke, who got into six games in 2018 with Carolina when Rivera was coach there. 

Meanwhile, stellar rookie running back Antonio Gibson missed the 49ers game with turf toe and is not likely to play this week, although that may not be officially known until Sunday. Gibson leads Washington with 659 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns (most of any rookie). The Football Team split carries between JD McKissic (11 for 68 yards) and Peyton Barber (12 for 37 yards) without Gibson vs. the Niners.

Washington has won and covered the spread four straight games, the longest for the team on both since 2016. WFT hasn't won or covered five straight games since doing both seven in a row from Week 11-17 in 2012.

Seattle is very good against the run, allowing just 95.5 points per game. After a slow start, the Seahawks defense also has been able to get after the quarterback since the trade for former Bengals Pro Bowl defensive end Carlos Dunlap. He was inactive for the Week 14 blowout of the Jets with a foot injury and may be given another week off ahead of a mammoth Week 16 home game vs. the NFC West co-leading Los Angeles Rams. Dunlap has 13 tackles and four sacks with Seattle since the deal.

The Seahawks could get back two players off injured reserve, though, in running back Rashaad Penny and cornerback Quinton Dunbar. Penny has yet to play this season off a torn ACL suffered last year, while Dunbar has been out since Week 9 with a knee injury. Both returned to practice last week but have yet to be activated. Coach Pete Carroll seemed to hint that would happen this week. 

So which teams should you back in Week 15 of the 2020 NFL season? And which Super Bowl contender goes down HARD? ... Join SportsLine right now to see who wins and covers every single NFL game this week, plus get the exact final score, all from the acclaimed model that has returned over $7,800 on its top-rated NFL picks!