RENTON, Wash. (AP) - Mike Holmgren has never experienced anything like this sorry Seahawks season in his 17 years as an NFL head coach.

Expectations of a glorious farewell ride into his sabbatical next year have crashed, leaving a pileup of injuries and ineptitude. Now Holmgren is spending his final weeks as Seattle's coach imploring his players not to quit on him, while assuring the players he won't quit "until the last play of the last game this year."

On Monday, the 60-year-old Holmgren, who is 10th on the league's all-time coaching victories list with 172, told his Seahawks (2-6) of the job he had constructing an apartment complex in the Bay Area when he was a teenager.

He had his first work boots and coveralls, his first "real job getting real money," he said.

He also had the worst tasks the condescending veterans of the construction yard didn't want.

"I'll tell you, it was just awful. I mean, the hardest thing I've ever done. And I probably wanted to quit about 25 times, but I didn't," Holmgren said a day after a 26-7 loss at home to Philadelphia made a sixth consecutive playoff berth for Seattle seem impossible. "I was 15 years old and my hands were bleeding. And no one cared. I wasn't going to let my Dad down, so I didn't quit.

"They nearly broke me. But it was a good lesson for me later in life.

"The message (Monday) was: Everyone in the room has to make choices when it gets hard. ... What decisions you make says a lot about you and, really, a lot about their future."

It got harder with Monday's news. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck may return to practice this week for the first time in more than a month, but only in a limited role. He remains out indefinitely. Struggling backup Seneca Wallace is still in charge of the NFL's 31st-ranked offense heading into Sunday's game at rejuvenated Miami (4-4).

And star defensive end Patrick Kerney will miss at least two weeks, if not the rest of the season. He is having surgery to find out why his shoulder aches again.

Seattle is off to its worst start in six years, after five consecutive seasons in the playoffs. Fourteen players have started a game this season and missed at least one game because of injuries.

"I told the team today, 'I can't come in here every Monday and give you pep talks,"' Holmgren said. "That went out when I was talking to my freshmen at Oak Grove High School (in San Jose, Calif.): 'Did you get the box of muffins the other team sent you, because you are soft?' You know, that only works so much.

"It's been a heck of a deal. And I feel bad about it. I feel bad for them. I feel bad for our fans."

Holmgren said Hasselbeck, 33, may do some movement drills and light throwing this week but added that doesn't mean he will play yet. He has been off the field since hyperextending his right knee on Oct. 5 in a loss at the New York Giants.

Holmgren said the bulging disk in Hasselbeck's back is getting better and his right knee is getting stronger. That has calmed the coach's fears Hasselbeck might miss the rest of this season.

"Matt is making progress. ... The feeling is, he's going to play this season again. Exactly when, I'm not sure, but my hope is sooner rather than later," Holmgren said of his record-breaking quarterback in 2007.

"If we can get him on the practice field a little bit this week, to start doing some movement things and throwing just a little bit, that would be a step in the right direction. Now that won't mean he can play in the game on Sunday. But we're pretty close. I'm encouraged by that."

Kerney is having surgery this week in Alabama. It will be performed by Dr. James Andrews, who repaired Kerney's torn labrum in his left shoulder last winter.

"Two things can happen: It can be something minor that is inhibiting his movement and causing pain, in which case that would be a couple weeks," Holmgren said. "If he re-tore his labrum and they have to fix that again, then it's the season."


The coach added wide receiver Deion Branch will test his bruised heel again this week. The last time the former Super Bowl MVP did that, the team shut him down for a week. He's played just one game since January following reconstructive knee surgery.

Holmgren said star linebacker Lofa Tatupu, held out of the loss to the Eagles so he wouldn't make his groin injury worse, may practice on Wednesday. Same with fullback Leonard Weaver, who missed Sunday's game with a bruised foot.