Hasselbeck starting Monday night not a sure thing -- yet

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Matt Hasselbeck is a Pro Bowl and Super Bowl quarterback. Yet he still has some things to prove. Such as being able to run. Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said Wednesday it is not certain Hasselbeck will start Monday night's game against the Green Bay Packers. Hasselbeck, listed as probable, must show Holmgren that he can avoid pass rushers and escape further injury to his sprained right knee, which has caused him to miss the last four games. Wednesday afternoon, Hasselbeck, wearing a black, lightweight brace over heavily applied tape on the knee, ran the first-team offense smoothly and quickly. So quickly, some newer starters complained Hasselbeck was rushing them too much. "It's necessary," Hasselbeck said, adding the tempo will increase through the week. "They are just going to have to get used to that (again)." Throughout the hourlong practice, he looked far more mobile and comfortable than he did while hobbling through last week as the scout team quarterback. "I was encouraged by today's practice, and I know it's not going to feel any worse tomorrow," Hasselbeck said. "I think it will be good to go Monday." Quarterbacks coach, Jim Zorn, who missed four weeks with the same sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his knee in 1977 as Seattle's quarterback, said Hasselbeck already has shown him he's ready to start. "He couldn't even make the lateral moves (last week). Today, he could make the lateral moves," Zorn said, adding Hasselbeck looked "80 percent better than he was last week." The former scrambler said when he came back from his knee sprain, he became a strictly drop back passer for the first couple of weeks. Hasselbeck does not run as wildly or as often as Zorn did back then, but he was mobile before he injured the knee Oct. 22. Hasselbeck often took off on runs and did not slide. This week, however, the Seahawks are having Hasselbeck work on sliding. Holmgren said he will have backup Seneca Wallace share first-team snaps with Hasselbeck this week. But Wallace will miss at least one day of work to be with his mother, who's seriously ill. Unlike the Packers, the Seahawks are practicing on Thanksgiving Day. But Robbie Tobeck may not. Just as the Pro Bowl center came back this week from missing Sunday's loss at San Francisco with a severe flu, he developed a hip injury. Seattle is listing Tobeck as questionable, and Holmgren said his availability for the Packers will be a gametime decision. Chris Spencer, the 2005 first-round draft choice, would again start for Tobeck. Starting right tackle Sean Locklear, who has a high left ankle sprain, and defensive tackle Rocky Bernard, who has a sore right foot, will also be gametime decisions. "It's one of those seasons where things happen and there's no real great explanation for it," Holmgren said of season-long aches that have crippled his offense, specifically. The Seahawks thought Bobby Engram would return Monday night from a seven-week bout with a thyroid condition and accelerated heart rate, so they listed him as probable. But Holmgren said doctors are still trying to get the heart rate and other "measurables" back to normal before they clear the team's leading receiver of 2005 to play. "It's a little bit of a Catch-22," Holmgren said. "It's my understanding, after talking to the doctors, he needs the medication to get his numbers in line. But the medication makes him sluggish. "He can't play without the medication