While watching the last several movies I could hear in the one side surround, a rattling sound

so I pull the front off today (finally), and 1 of the 2 eight inch woofers has fallen victim to 'woofer rot'. I checked the other side, and 1 of those 2 has the foam starting to crack. So my question is can I just unhook 1 of the 2 woofers on each tower and just run one each until I decide what to do? ...and should I rerun Audessey? I would just tape the ends of the connectors if I were to do so. Thanks for your input. I have the Ultra, so that still covers all the heavy stuff.