It all worked out: Seahawks get John Ursua back. They keep him and promote Penny Hart
No, Penny Hart did not think he was getting promoted to the Seahawks’ active roster this week.
“Actually, I had no clue,” the undrafted, second-year free agent said before his first practice as a member of Seattle’s main squad Wednesday, four days before the opening game at Atlanta.
“(Monday, the first practice of the regular season) they told me right after practice.
“Honestly, they told me to come up and get a pay raise. I thought I was going to be on practice squad.”
The former Georgia State star whom the Indianapolis Colts waived off injured reserve 12 months ago wasn’t the only one surprised at the Seahawks’ move Tuesday.
The corresponding one to create the room on the 53-man roster for Hart was even more of an eye-opener: John Ursua waived.
It was just three days and one practice after Ursua and not Hart made the initial 53-man roster coming out of training camp.
The civic despair over the Seahawks dropping the fan favorite can cease. Ursua, the team’s popular seventh-round draft choice last year whose only career catch was a crucial one on fourth down a foot from the goal line late in December’s NFC West title game against San Francisco, cleared NFL waivers Wednesday. That was as Seattle’s staff had hoped and assumed.
Ursua was right back on the practice field Wednesday, back in his number-15 jersey as a new member of the expanded practice squad. He didn’t miss a workout.
So the Seahawks—and their fans—won. They get to keep both Hart and Ursua. Their wide-receiver swap that had many wondering why worked out.
Hart, 5 feet 8, is more the outside receiver, a new option as a fifth wide out behind Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf, Phillip Dorsett and David Moore.
The 5-9 Ursua was major college football’s leader in receiving touchdowns two years ago for the University of Hawaii in his home state.
“We are really excited about Penny getting the chance to be on the roster,” coach Pete Carroll said. “We love Johnny, too.
“It just was...there’s concerns going through the final releases (of players from NFL teams Saturday) and stuff that we went through and it just turned out this way.
“That’s, like, a no answer right there. Sorry.”
That apparently means the Seahawks feared another team would claim Ursua Saturday if they had tried to move him through onto the practice squad then. Last year part of the reason they drafted Ursua in the seventh round instead of signing him as an unrestricted free agent as they had planned was Seattle’s personnel men got some indications another team might draft Ursua late.
But by Tuesday, teams around the league had mostly set their depth charts and active rosters. The Seahawks estimated that the risk of another club snagging Ursua for its active roster with a waiver claim had diminished.
They were correct.
The Seahawks on Wednesday also made official the signing of former Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Anthony Rush to the practice squad. He is the only import on Seattle’s practice squad.
This season the NFL expanded practice squad from 10 players to a maximum of 16. That’s because of COVID-19 and the possibility of needing more players to back-fill any on the 53-man active roster who may test positive for the virus during game weeks.
Six of the 16 practice-squad players now can be veterans of any experience. Previously, only players with fewer than two accrued seasons of service time were eligible to sign onto any team’s practice squad. Under the old, pre-pandemic roster rules, Shaquem Griffin as a three-year veteran would not have been eligible for the practice squad and would as of Sunday have been shopping to all teams as an unrestricted free agent without much more than special-team experience to get another job. Same with the four-year veteran offensive lineman Chad Wheeler.
Both are on Seattle’s practice squad.
Also new this season: each team can add two players from its practice squad onto the active roster to expand it to a maximum of 55 players for any game. The Seahawks could sign any member of the practice squad to the active roster by Saturday afternoon of a Sunday game.
So if needed Ursua and Hart could be active for the opener in Atlanta.
Dorsett’s foot that sidelined him late in training camp has healed to the point he’s practicing. Though the team listed Dorsett as a limited participant in practice Wednesday, Carroll termed the speedy New England Patriot full go to make his Seattle debut Sunday.
