Why Seahawks kept one rookie draft pick, waived the other, and activated Phil Haynes
A long-awaited rookie draft choice is finally re-joining the Seahawks.
And another rookie pick they’ve been waiting on for months is finally doing something: exiting.
Seattle activated rookie guard Phil Haynes from the physically-unable-to-perform list Tuesday. Haynes, a physical offensive lineman from Wake Forest, had been on the PUP list since the beginning of training camp in late July. He had offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia after the Seahawks drafted him this past spring.
Haynes’ addition gives the team nine offensive linemen. That’s the number it prefers to have during the regular season. Eight usually are active for games.
With Ethan Pocic on injured reserve because of a neck injury, Haynes will get a long look as the primary backup at guard. That could prove to be an important spot.
Starting right guard D.J. Fluker missed games with a pulled hamstring last month and has missed games in each of the last few seasons. Starting left guard Mike Iupati has been limping at times in recent games because of a banged-up knee. He had to come out for a series during Seattle’s win at Atlanta two weeks ago.
To make room on the active roster for Haynes, the Seahawks waived rookie wide receiver Gary Jennings. Seattle selected Jennings in the fourth round four places before it took Haynes in April’s NFL draft.
The Seahawks had an excess of wide receivers after claiming veteran Josh Gordon off waivers Friday.
Gordon is cleared to practice this week and is poised to make his Seattle debut Monday night at San Francisco.
The Miami Dolphins claimed Jennings off waivers Wednesday.
Jennings had a hamstring injury during organized team activities in June. That set him back through the start of training camp. The injury pushed Jennings further behind fellow rookie wide receiver DK Metcalf. Rookie seventh-round pick John Ursua as a slot receiver also moved ahead of Jennings throughout camp.
In mid-August, the 6-foot-1, 216-pound Jennings, whom West Virginia often used as a big slot receiver inside, finally made a couple of nice catches in practice. After Jennings’ one good workout, quarterback Russell Wilson said: “He really needed it.”
Jennings hasn’t been heard from since. More to the point: the only time he was heard from since was two bad penalties he had in consecutive preseason games in August. He was somewhat of a surprise to make the 53-man roster for the start of the regular season. He has been inactive for all nine of Seattle’s games this season.
The Seahawks appeared to waive Jennings in late September. He missed a practice before the game against Arizona. But because the team did not put the move into the league until the next day, it changed its mind and kept Jennings.
Since he hasn’t done anything to catch another team’s attention, the Seahawks may have expected Jennings to clear waivers so they could sign him back onto their practice squad.
They likely chose to keep Ursua on the active roster over Jennings because Ursua got many other NFL teams’ attention last season as major college football’s leader in touchdown catches for Hawaii. Plus, Ursua also did more than Jennings did in preseason games to impress other teams’ scouts who attend those exhibitions. Those reasons seemingly make Ursua a trickier proposition to get through waivers and onto Seattle’s practice squad than Jennings, even though he was drafted three rounds later.
Ursua has been active for one of the season’s first nine games. He appeared in the win at Pittsburgh in week two.
This story was originally published November 6, 2019 at 7:17 AM.
