9 players who joined the Seahawks late in the game

The Seahawks have added six players to the practice squad since training camp, all of whom play defense: Seaside Joe 2009

When the Seahawks announced their initial practice squad this week, there were 15 names on it, with an expectation that Seattle was also going to bring back Tyreke Smith. That left one opening on the practice squad (because of Max Pircher’s exception), which was also filled immediately. However, consider that of the 17 players currently on the practice squad, six were not with the team until very recently.

Beginning with the Marquise Blair signing on July 26th, which marked the start of training camp, six members of the current practice squad—and three members of Seattle’s 53-man roster—are fairly new additions. And all six of the new practice squad players play on one side of the ball:

Here are all the mostly-new players on the Seattle Seahawks 53-man roster and practice squad.

53-man roster

C Connor Williams (8/11)

C Jalen Sundell (7/24)

The same week that the Seahawks started to show interest in Connor Williams, Seattle also signed undrafted free agent Jalen Sundell. The Seahawks eventually signed Williams to a one-year contract and Sundell was one of the most surprising names on the final 53-man roster, although one could speculate that the team will release him when they’re comfortable that Williams is ready to go with the intention to get Sundell onto the practice squad.

I’m not totally against breakdowns like this one from The Football Scout that highlight the reasons why a player like Sundell would make an NFL roster:

But I wouldn’t be Seaside Joe if I didn’t mention again that The Football Scout made a few videos about Olu Oluwatimi last year and believed he was going to be Seattle’s long-term solution at center. Nobody here is against Olu becoming that guy eventually, but the Seahawks just signed TWO centers to their roster in the last five weeks, including one who by all accounts could be of Pro Bowl quality in 2024, if healthy.

Initial reports had Sundell signing with the Browns after the draft, but then he didn’t show up on Cleveland’s initial list of UDFA signings. I don’t know how many rookies in NFL history can say that they made a final roster not just after going undrafted, but also after having a team say, “Him? Nah, we didn’t sign HIM, are you kidding me?”

Sundell played left tackle and center at North Dakota State, so perhaps offensive line coach sees him as a utility backup, not just as a center.

The Seahawks haven’t shown much respect to centers in their history. However, I could see John Schneider re-signing Connor Williams next year if he has a good season because that would be a huge free agency win for him in his first 15 months as the lone GM.

OLB Trevis Gipson (8/26)

Were it not for Uchenna Nwosu’s injury in the final preseason game, perhaps Seattle would have never considered a trade for Gipson at this point of the year. However, the injury did happen and based on Schneider’s comments of having failed several attempts to acquire Gipson in the past, this move also feels inevitable.

There’s a universe in which Schneider would have signed Connor Williams and Trevis Gipson in March and called it good, but building an NFL roster in real life has a lot more complications and roadblocks than doing it in fantasy football or Madden dynasty mode.

Going back to 2023’s final 53-man roster, the edge positions don’t look that much different: Nwosu, Boye Mafe, and Derick Hall have made the roster both years, while Tyreke Smith has gone from 53 to practice squad (with a detour to another club). The differences will be Dre’Mont Jones moving from the defensive line to a more regular standing position, while Gipson is the only player who wasn’t on the team last year.

Of course, changing defensive coordinator and head coach is the “BIG” change we’re looking forward to seeing in Week 1.

Practice Squad

OLB Tyus Bowser

OLB Tyreke Smith

LB Michael Barrett

CB Faion Hicks

CB Josh Jobe

S Marquise Blair

Including Blair, the Seahawks have added six defensive players since the start of training camp who are still with Seattle on the practice squad: Two edge rushers, two corners, one safety, and one linebacker.

The one signing I haven’t addressed yet is the most recent, as the Seahawks signed former second round pick Tyus Bowser to the practice squad. New players are always exciting because they’re “new”—as in, whatever you think about Darrell Taylor after his underwhelming career with Seattle, the fans in Chicago are only going to focus on the “what could be!” of Taylor as a Bear, not the fact that the Seahawks gave him away for a sixth round pick—but I don’t even think Bowser was that exceptional even before the injuries.

Spending five seasons with the Baltimore Ravens (one with Mike Macdonald as the defensive coordinator), Bowser comes off to me as a situational pass rusher who seems to have a lot of missed tackles and not a ton of production as a pass rusher. He’s 29 and has only played in nine games since tearing his Achilles in 2021.

But it makes all the sense in the world to sign Bowser because he’s cheap, he’s on the practice squad (so not taking a roster spot), and he has experience with Macdonald. If you could replace Taylor with Bowser, it’s ideal because of those reasons: Cheaper, not on the 53, has the Ravens defense deeply ingrained in his body of work as an NFL player.

Conversely, Tyreke Smith returns to the Seahawks after a short stint with the Cardinals and he might be a better investment than Bowser because he’s only 24 and he doesn’t have the same injury history.

When the Seahawks traded Michael Jackson to the Panthers for Barrett, I noted the same day that I expected Barrett to be a practice squad player. Schneider says that Seattle doesn’t look at it like, “We have four linebackers” (the four on the 53-man roster), but instead, “We have six linebackers” (those four plus Barrett and Patrick O’Connell).

Jobe is a former undrafted free agent out of Alabama who appeared in all 17 games with the Eagles in 2023, including 240 snaps on defense. He could end up with a role on special teams:

Hicks was a seventh round fpick out of Wisconsin in 2022, spending time with the Broncos, Saints, and Browns, all offseason/practice squad only. The Ravens went through a ton of secondary players under Macdonald and didn’t seem to care that much about draft pedigree or pro success, finding value with players like Arthur Maulet, Ronald Darby, and Rock-Ya Sin, so who knows which corners and safeties could help the Seahawks win games this year. (Besides the obvious ones like Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen.)