To clear space for rookie free agents, Seahawks waive inspirational Nazair Jones, 3 others
A feel-good story of the Seahawks’ draft a few years ago does not have a happy ending.
Seattle waived defensive tackle Nazair Jones with a failed-physical designation Monday. He was part of moves to clear room on the 90-man roster for the Seahawks to sign 12 more undrafted rookie free agents.
The 6-foot-5 Jones was the team’s third-round draft choice in 2017 out of North Carolina. A rare disease left him in a hospital for months having to re-learn to walk when he was 16. His was an inspirational story, reaching the NFL as a towering defensive tackle who chased quarterbacks and knocked down passes after what he’d bulled through to get there.
But his Seahawks career has ended after just 20 games, none since 2018.
Seattle also waived running back Adam Choice, defensive tackle Shakir Soto and linebacker Pita Taumoepenu. None of those three played in a regular-season game for the team.
Those moves cleared roster room to sign the dozen rookie free agents: defensive tackle Josh Avery from Southeast Missouri, running back Patrick Carr of Houston, wide receiver Seth Dawkins from Louisville, cornerbck Gavin Heslop from Stonybrook, running back Anthony Jones from Florida International defensive tackle Cedrick Lattimore of Iowa, tight end Tyler Mabry from Maryland, free safety Chris Miller of Baylor, free safety Josh Norwood from West Virginia, cornerback Kemah Siverand from Oklahoma State, defensive end Marcus Webb of Troy and tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson from Tennessee.
Jones appreciated every day he had with the Seahawks.
“It definitely crosses my mind when my alarm goes off and I’m going to work. It’s like, ‘Hey, I’ve got to go play football today for the NFL!’ ” Jones said in his rookie summer with Seattle three years ago.
“You know, it hits me then.”
“It” is having lived in a Ronald McDonald House for long-term physical recovery as a teen, weeping and fearing he’d never be able to run again. “It” includes having to learn how to walk again.
A rare disease left Jones frightened he may be permanently paralyzed. A previously strong, energetic teen athlete playing three sports is not supposed to be inexplicably paralyzed for weeks.
Two months down that long, dark path, doctors diagnosed him with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. The Mayo Clinic defines CRPS as “an uncommon form of chronic pain that usually affects an arm or a leg.” The few that this nervous-system disorder afflicts are usually far older than Jones was.
“Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is so different, and it is so uncommon, that some of my doctors had never heard of it,” he said. “Had never diagnosed anyone with it.”
As his mom, Tammy Jones, said in May 2017 when she visited Seahawks rookie minicamp: “It’s a wonderful feeling… The sickness came. The sickness went.
“Now, he’s here.”
Jones played in 11 games that year as a rookie, with two sacks. Then he got a high-ankle sprain that ended his first season five games early. Entering 2018, Jones was the team’s fourth defensive tackle, then fifth, often inactive as a healthy scratch while playing in just nine contests that season.
After 2017 top draft choice and defensive end Malik McDowell suffered serious head injuries in an ATV accident that ended his Seahawks and NFL career before it started, Seattle’s coaches moved Jones from tackle to a five-technique defensive end. That was for 2019.
But weeks into last summer’s training camp Jones sustained a knee injury. He went on injured reserve. He missed the entire season and his second chance at a new position with Seattle.
Two weeks ago, his team drafted two more defensive ends. The Seahawks traded up to get Darrell Taylor from Tennessee in the second round then selected Syracuse’s Alton Robinson in the fifth. Both are expected to be front-line players for Seattle’s needy pass rush in 2020.
L.J. Collier, last year’s first-round pick, needs to prove himself this year. Rasheem Green, Seattle’s third-round pick the year after Jones entered the NFL, is returning to the defensive line for a third season after leading the team with four sacks.
All that meant Jones was out, another NFL case of what have you done for us lately?
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 2:22 PM.
