With Josh Gordon still waiting Seahawks waive John Ursua, sign Penny Hart to active roster
The Seahawks continue shuffling the bottom of their roster while hoping to take advantage of the new practice-squad rules in the NFL this COVID-19 season.
With the reinstatement of recently signed wide receiver Josh Gordon still on hold, Seattle signed wide receiver Penny Hart to its 53-man active roster on Tuesday.
They waived 2019 seventh-round draft choice John Ursua.
Hart joined the franchise midway through last season and joined its practice squad. He signed a futures contract with the Seahawks in January. He had an impressive training camp, but the Seahawks chose to keep Ursua, more of an inside slot receiver, on its initial 53-man roster for this regular season. They waived Hart on Saturday among the final cuts to get the roster from 80 players to 53.
The Seahawks can hope the league trend continues of few waiver claims from a truncated preseason with zero preseason games to scout. If Ursua clears waivers he could sign with Seattle’s practice squad, as Hart and Shaquem Griffin did that past weekend.
Through last weekend’s final preseason roster cuts only 17 players league-wide got claimed. The vast majority cleared waivers and signed with the practice squads of the teams they were with for training camp.
Seattle had 19 players clear waivers Sunday. It signed 14 of them back to the practice squad.
This season the practice squad has expanded from 10 to 16 players. Six of those 16 can have any amount of experience; previously only players with fewer than two seasons of service time in the league were eligible for the practice squad.
Another new provision for this season amid a pandemic: teams can add one or two players from the practice squad to the active roster temporarily for each game, to push the roster up to a new maximum of 55 for games.
Another reason teams make what seem like curious moves signing players from their practice squad: they fear another team is about to sign that man onto another active roster. There are no signings from direct from one practice squad to another practice squad, but other teams can sign practice-squad players directly onto their 53-man rosters.
Hart was an undrafted rookie last year from Georgia State. He came to Seattle after spending time with Indianapolis.
Ursua was the nation’s leader in touchdown receptions as Hawaii’s slot receiver in 2018. He played in three games for the Seahawks as a rookie. His lone career catch was on fourth down late in the NFC division title game against San Francisco, a foot or so from the goal line.
If the league trend holds so far for this unprecedented season, Ursua will be back with the team Wednesday for practice.
And Gordon will not.
The Seahawks signed back the former All-Pro wide receiver on Thursday. It was a move they wouldn’t have done without them having the belief the NFL is going to reinstate Gordon from his seventh league suspension for drugs. He was with Seattle for six weeks before his latest suspension, in December.
Gordon wasn’t on the field Monday for the first practice of the regular season (Tuesday was a players off day). Officially, he remains suspended by commissioner Roger Goodell. That reserve status leaves him unable to practice or be with the team that just re-signed him now that the regular season has begun.
Thursday, Carroll said: “We don’t know exactly how this is going to roll out. But we thought that this was the best time to (sign him). We’ll see what happens. We are all kind of keeping our finger crossed that he gets the chance to play here soon. ... We have no word from the league yet.”
That same day, an NFL spokesman was asked by The News Tribune if the commissioner had decided on whether to grant the reinstatement for which Gordon applied in June.
We are going to decline comment,” the league spokesman told the TNT last week.
Had the Seahawks gotten any further word or signal from the league since Thursday?
“We really can’t even talk about that right now, sorry,” Carroll said. “We can’t comment on that.”
Sounds like the league got to the Seahawks and told them to remain hushed, for now.
