Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll talked to reporters this afternoon about the team releasing Chester Pitts.

Carroll said the team needed a roster spot this week for a player that knows the team’s system with two new offensive lineman on the active roster in Allen Barbre and Breno Giacomini.

“It’s just an absolute emergency case if those guys had to play because there just isn’t enough days here to get it done,” Carroll said. “They don’t have continuity from the past, like when you see (Brandon) Stokley come in here and he can run the whole offense. That makes sense that he could play right now. The other guys it’s just too much to ask of them.”

Carroll said it’s likely that the team would sign Mike Gibson to the active roster. If that happens, it gives them 10 offensive linemen currently on the active roster, but with Russel Okung (ankle), Sean Locklear (knee) and Ben Hamilton (knee) all nursing injuries, the Seahawks needed the flexibility of another roster spot.

“Chester wasn’t going to make it to the game, and he wasn’t going to be able to play,” Carroll said. “In the situation in we’ve got to make a spot for a guy to be on the roster.

“So we’re hoping Chester is going to get well. He’s just got to get over the hump. He’s close, but he’s not able to go yet. So we needed a spot, and that’s why we had to create that.

Carroll said there’s a possibility that Pitts could be back in the next, few weeks, and with the bye week have a couple weeks to work his way back into the lineup.

“He was a little sore today after yesterday’s workout, and he wasn’t going to be able to practice today,” Carroll said. “So that’s the message, that we weren’t going to get him back in time. We’ve been trying and he’s been working hard at it.

“He’s been a diligent worker to get it right, and it just hasn’t been enough time for him yet. So as soon as it does we’ll try to get him back out here.”

With Pitts having to be released, it makes you wonder why the team did not keep him on the PUP list for the first six weeks of the regular season.

The Seahawks obviouly were put into a situation where they felt that they had to get Pitts going a little earlier than they wanted to after Russell Okung suffered a high ankle sprain in August, but if they had kept someone like Mansfield Wrotto around who knew the system, maybe they wouldn’t be in this situation.

Of course, they also have a roster spot being taken by linebacker Leroy Hill, who will be out for an indefinite period of time with a calf/Achilles issue, so Seattle needed some flexibility to bring in a guy who was familiar with the team’s offensive scheme.