Seahawks make roster moves on eve of training camp, Lano Hill latest safety onto PUP list
Two of the candidates to start at strong safety this season will not be practicing when the Seahawks begin training camp on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Seattle put Lano Hill on the physically-unable-to-perform list for the start of camp. Hill was the strong safety and Bradley McDougald the free safety late last season, until Hill cracked his hip and went on injured reserve. That moved McDougald to strong safety and Tedric Thompson back to free safety.
Marquise Blair, the rookie the Seahawks drafted in the second round this spring because of his hard hitting as a college strong safety for Utah, went on the PUP list last week when first-year players reported to camp.
PUP lists at the start of camp are procedural moves that provide the potential for roster flexibility should a team need it at the start of the regular season, when the 90-man preseason roster must be cut to 53. Only players on PUP to begin camp are eligible to begin the season on PUP, which exempts them from a roster spot for six weeks. Once a player practices he comes off the PUP list for camp. A player who practices at all during training camp cannot then go on the PUP list.
The Seahawks have been expecting Blair to return soon from a hamstring injury he got last month during minicamp and organized team activities. General manager John Schneider called Blair “a silent assassin” the night he drafted him in late April, and he figures to get a chance to start once he begins practicing in camp.
The only healthy players listed as strong safeties on Seattle’s roster available for the start of camp are Shalom Luani, a former Washington State Cougar acquired last September in a trade from Oakland, 2018 free agent Marwin Evans and undrafted rookie Jalen Havey, a former wide receiver at Arizona State. Luani was a special-teams player for Seattle last season.
The league made official the Seahawks signing of free-agent defensive tackle Earl Mitchell, which became known earlier Wednesday. Mitchell, who turns 32 in September, signed two days after the NFL suspended defensive tackle Jarran Reed for the first six games of 2019 following an alleged domestic assault at his home in Bellevue in 2017.
Mitchell played the last two seasons for San Francisco. He is 6 feet 3, 310 pounds. He figures to help inside Seattle’s run defense that allowed an alarming 4.9 yards per rush in 2018, the worst mark of Pete Carroll’s decade as Seahawks coach.
Seattle signed wide receiver Daniel Williams, an undrafted rookie in 2017 from Jackson State. He initially signed with the New York Jets as a rookie free agent. He has also been with Washington and Cleveland. Williams had 184 catches for 2,497 yards and 19 touchdowns for Jackson State.
To clear room on the 90-man preseason roster the Seahawks waived undrafted rookie running back Marcelias Sutton from Oklahoma and undrafted rookie cornerback Derrek Thomas from Baylor.
Wide receiver Caleb Scott went on the non-football-injury list. Scott, 23, had surgery for a foot injury he got while training this offseason.
Players on the NFI list during camp, list those on camp PUP, can return at any time to practice during training camp.
This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 10:53 PM.
