Richard Sherman, who was suspended four games for reportedly taking Adderall, had his appeal heard on Friday. However, no decision is expected to be made in the next 24-to-48 hours, and the Seahawks are "anticipating" that Sherman will play Sunday night against the 49ers.

Despite purposely holding out his star cornerback from practice on Thursday and Friday, Pete Carroll said he hasn't been told anything about Sherman not playing Sunday.

"I'm anticipating we'll have him," Carroll said, per Lindsay Jones of USA Today. "We know nothing else at this point."

Carroll's on the right track: Albert Breer of NFL Network reported on Friday evening that Sherman won't hear from the league before Sunday's game, which means he's good to go for the 49ers contest.

And Sherman himself tweeted that he "will be out there" against San Francisco, with news from the appeal coming out "soon enough."

Sherman was listed as a "Not Injury Related" DNP for Thursday and Friday on the Seahawks' injury report, but Carroll said the team provided Sherman with "materials" to keep him prepped on how they expected to handle the 49ers' offense.

"You need practice time, but he is as smart a player as we have on our football team," Carroll said. "He's totally into everything we're doing. We can tell when he's not out there because he is so sharp and he communicates so well to the other guys."

Brandon Browner was also suspended four games but dropped his appeal and is currently serving his four-game suspension. Browner will be eligible to return if the Seahawks make the playoffs.

The Seahawks would be, effectively, dead in the water if they lost both Browner and Sherman against the 49ers. Marcus Trufant and Walter Thurmond would be the starters in that situation, and that's not good for anyone. (Except Colin Kaepernick, anyway.)

Sherman still faces the downside of having his appeal denied after Sunday's game: he'd be force to miss the Seahawks' next four games, which would mean he'd be out Week 17 and, assuming Seattle doesn't net a top-two seed, then would miss through the NFC Championship Game in the playoffs.

Seattle needs Sherman to win his appeal if they want to advance deep in the playoffs.

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