Which Seahawks Player Will Take Robbie Ouzts' 53-man Roster Spot?
Losing Robbie Ouzts is First Blow to Seahawks Plans
The Seattle Seahawks placed fullback Robbie Ouzts on season-ending IR with a neck injury on Tuesday, their first major long-term loss of 2026. Ouzts’ situation escalated quickly, from no known issues to missing practice last week and Mike Macdonald’s ominous update on Monday to being placed on IR less than 24 hours later.
Ouzts placed 33rd on Seaside Joe’s Seahawks player rankings and was on 95.7% of our collective Seahawks 53-man roster projection. The other 4.3% of roster makers either didn’t know what they were doing or they’re exceptionally good at diagnosing a neck injury through recent pictures.
Ouzts did have a known neck injury dating back to last season’s playoffs, but the team never indicated any lingering problems so the news comes as a surprise. They also didn’t make any corresponding moves at fullback in the offseason, another indication that Seattle expected to have Ouzts in 2026, and now they don’t.
That’s Football.
No team is going to fly through an entire season undetected by the injury Gods, and what people never talk about is: an injury before your last game can be just as damaging as an injury before your first game.
We only need to ask the 2025 Denver Broncos about that.
Ironically, Ouzts could be one of the most complicated players on Seattle’s roster to replace because he’s a fullback and many teams still don’t have one of those. Let alone two. Using a fifth-round pick on Ouzts last year was a bold statement, highlighting how hard it is to find a 275-lb lead blocker these days who has experience at the position.
I already addressed some potential in-house replacement options for Ouzts as a lead blocker out of the backfield, which you can read here.
At least the Seahawks get to start planning for the Ouzts replacement plan a month before the season starts, which should be easier than doing it ahead of the NFC Championship and Super Bowl. And if that replacement is already on the roster, you know what that means?
Somebody who wasn’t going to make the Seahawks 53-man roster just got the chance to make the roster.
It could be someone at the same or similar position, or someone at a completely different position. We saw Terrion Arnold’s workout with the Seahawks on Hard Knocks on Tuesday, although he may not take a 53-man roster spot even if Seattle does sign him.
You don’t want to say that anyone “benefits” from Ouzts’s injury because nobody wanted that to happen, but it’s also true. Someone will benefit.
Who is most likely to get that open 53-man roster spot now?
Here are some of the candidates who intrigue me the most:
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