RENTON – The Seattle Seahawks took a flyer on veteran offensive tackle Alex Barron after he played well over the weekend at the team’s rookie minicamp.
The former first-round draft pick was one of four players the Seahawks said they agreed to terms with Tuesday. The others were Montana cornerback Danny Lisowski, Duke tight end Cooper Helfet and Oklahoma State offensive tackle Andrew Mitchell.
All four were invited as tryout players to last week’s minicamp.
In order to make room on the 90-man roster, Seattle released offensive lineman Brent Osborne, offensive tackle John Opperud, cornerback London Durham and linebacker Adrian Moten.
Selected No. 19 overall by the St. Louis Rams in the 2005 draft, Barron started 74 out of 76 games played for the Rams at both right and left tackle.
He spent the 2010 season in Dallas, playing in 11 games with one start. Barron then moved on to New Orleans in 2011 but landed on the season-ending injured reserve after suffering a torn meniscus during training camp. Barron was released by the Saints on Oct. 22.
Barron, 29, also had a tryout with San Francisco before coming to Seattle.
At 6-foot-8 and 318 points, Barron is long and athletic – he held his own against speedy rookie defensive end Bruce Irvin over the weekend – but has had issues with penalties over his seven-year career. Barron has been flagged 17 times – 14 of them accepted – in his past 17 games started.
Barron will compete with Frank Omiyale, Paul Fanaika, Allen Barbre and Mitchell for the backup offensive tackle job behind starters Russell Okung and Breno Giacomini. Last year’s first-round pick, James Carpenter, is still recovering from knee surgery.
Seattle now has 15 offensive linemen on the team’s 90-man roster.
eric.williams@thenewstribune.com 253-597-8437 blog.thenewstribune.com/seahawks @eric_d_williams
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