Seahawks re-sign DT Roderick Perry; the thought process behind Seattle's additions

Options at QB, RB, and Shelby Harris: Seaside Joe 1618

It was a heartbreaking week for Andrew Whitaker, as he spent just 10 days on the Seattle Seahawks roster before suffering a season-ending injury to his patellar tendon in Friday’s mock game. The college and nationally-recognized track star was likely only competing for the practice squad due to Seattle’s depth at cornerback but on a human level this news is no less unfortunate than if he was expected to be a starter.

At least for Whitaker he already knows what he wants to do when his football career is officially over: He’s going to go to medical school.

Because I know he hasn’t wanted to leave the game behind this soon, I hope for his sake that he’s able to return to full strength and try again in a year or two. On a business level, the Seahawks must make another transaction this week (they’ve made a lot already) to take his place on the 90-man roster.

This is an opportunity for us to examine what sort of options and decisions the Seahawks consider when they need to add another player to the 90-man roster (it would be a different set of options for a 53-man roster) and what direction Seattle could lean in right now.

Update:

The Seahawks brought back DT Roderick Perry, who they waived just five days ago. The news posted about a half-hour before this article because I scheduled the newsletter on Saturday night, so it wasn’t updated when it went out. The following article is still useful though! Names of players and positions who could still be added this week. Perry falls under the “previous players” category below.

But in other news, the Seahawks waived undrafted defensive end M.J. Anderson on Sunday. To find out what else happened at Sunday’s Seahawks training camp—it was an eventful day—read this:

Seahawks Sunday training camp report: Dre’Mont Jones hurt, Riq Returns

Previous Workouts

Using Andrew Whitaker as an example, he was invited to rookie minicamp as a tryout player and though he wasn’t immediately signed, got himself on the Seahawks radar and that led to being signed on July 25th. Some other players at that rookie minicamp include quarterbacks Jack Coan and Reese Udinski, tight end Caleb Warren, safety Hunter Nichols, and linebacker Robert Barnes.

A week ago, the Seahawks worked out another quarterback, Chase Garbers, but he was signed by the Las Vegas Raiders.

Two weeks ago, Seattle worked out reigning USFL Defensive Player of the Year Frank Ginda and he remains unsigned. That day, they also worked out DT Levi Bell (who the Seahawks signed and he actually had a strong performance in the mock game), QB Reid Sinnett, WR Lee Morris, and LB Kyahva Tezino.

I couldn’t track down every workout because there are so many and oftentimes the move happens too fast to track: Ben Burr-Kirven worked out and immediately signed because Pete Carroll already knows who he’s getting and his only question is physical condition, most likely.

Previous Seahawks — Shelby Harris?

Speaking of BBK, Seattle could be more likely in some cases to bring back somebody they already know. The most obvious “somebody that I used to know” this offseason has been Shelby Harris, could Pete’s recent comments on Mike Morris (though I am not reading too much into it, I do find the “we hope he figures it out” tone to be relevant) and the injury to Darrell Taylor signal a yearning for more pass rushing help off the edge?

That doesn’t have to be Harris and Yannick Ngakoue’s $10 million contract with the Bears last week could have other veterans holding out for better offers because…he got THAT much for one year?

Pop Quiz Hot Shot: Shelby Harris was a seventh round pick in 2014. Can you name Seattle’s seventh round pick in 2014? I’ll still give you credit if you can give me one of their two sixth round picks that year.

And not all “bring back” candidates are nearly that notable. The Seahawks signed DT Robert Cooper after the draft, released him, and then brought him back last week. Among other UDFAs who were let go by Seattle: RB Chris Smith, S Mo Osling, LB Michael Ayers, CB James Campbell, WR C.J. Johnson.

The Seahawks released LB Cam Bright but he was signed by the Browns last week.

I thought Smith was an interesting signing because he has special teams return abilities; would the suspension to Dee Eskridge and injuries at running back, now including Kenny McIntosh, make him a more viable candidate to return?

It doesn’t have to be a cornerback

Just because Whitaker is a cornerback, that isn’t necessarily a position of need in camp due to his injury. Hopefully Riq Woolen is able to return this week as well, which would make it even less likely to be a cornerback.

Seattle has 12 cornerbacks on the roster besides Whitaker right now, including six who appear to be locks (Devon Witherspoon, Woolen, Mike Jackson, Tre Brown, Coby Bryant, Artie Burns). Bryant’s move to safety is recent and may never workout (he reportedly didn’t look good on Friday) and then the Seahawks have five other corners on the roster, not including Jerrick Reed II.

Though Chris Smith could be a possibility, I don’t think it has to be a running back either. Despite those injuries and concerns, Seattle has DeeJay Dallas, Bryant Koback, SaRodorick Thompson, and Wayne Taulapapa for depth and the Seahawks may only need two or three healthy running backs for a preseason contest.

Could it be a quarterback?

With the preseason starting on Thursday against the Vikings, Seattle is getting closer to the moment in which they may need to sit both Geno Smith and Drew Lock for the majority of the Seahawks second and third exhibition games. Lock is expected to play “a lot” against Minnesota, but for how long will Carroll expose his key backup quarterback to opportunities to be injured?

UDFA rookie Holton Ahlers hasn’t done enough in training camp or the mock game to avoid being consistently mentioned by the media as a player who needs competition to win the job on the practice squad, scout team, and emergency situation. As you’ve seen, the Seahawks have worked out and kept an eye on a LOT of quarterbacks this offseason but they’ve yet to sign any of them.

I don’t think it would help to speculate the name of a quarterback other than to say that Sinnett signed with the Bengals already.

Seahawks Sunday training camp report: Dre’Mont Jones hurt, Riq Returns

My Guess

My guess is that decisions like these ones at this time of year are too unpredictable to be worth leading you in the wrong direction, plus the Seahawks might end up making four or five roster changes this week anyway, like usual. I will say that it’s not too soon to add a quarterback.

Halfway mark to the Halfway mark

Thank you to EVERYONE for being subscribed to Seaside Joe: We set a goal of reaching 2,500 members before the first preseason game and we hit it on Saturday. An incredible 2,511 subscribers. That growth has happened in less than 18 months on Substack and to put it in another perspective, we hit 1,000 subs on August 20th of last year, so in less than 12 months since then we’ve grown by 150%!

I credit you for helping spread the word of Seaside Joe to other Seahawks fans. And I credit the Seahawks because I think people are more excited about this team now than they’ve been in a very long time. I know that I am.

We’ve grown faster than I think anyone expected, to get to have a daily conversation about the Seahawks with 2,500 of you means I’ll never have to worry about having other fans to share each of these moments with, so thanks letting me into the most sacred place of all sacred places every single day…your inbox.

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Answer: The Seahawks drafted FB Kiero Small in the seventh round, OL Garrett Scott and DB/LB Eric Pinkins in the sixth.