Seahawks officially sign Damon Harrison. Here’s why ‘Snacks’ is on practice squad--for now
“Snacks” is officially a Seahawk.
The team announced Wednesday the signing of 2016 All-Pro defensive tackle Damon “Snacks” Harrison to the practice squad, as became known earlier in the day.
“Damon has been a real force in the league. He’s got a real special style,” coach Pete Carroll said, mentioning just how huge he is.
He’s 6 feet 3 and at least 350 pounds.
Seattle also put special-teams mainstay Neiko Thorpe on injured reserve. The team signed free-agent defensive end Jonathan Bullard, who played three years with the Chicago Bears and last season had six starts for the Arizona Cardinals. The Seahawks signed him off Arizona’s practice squad.
Bullard, who turns 27 this month, takes Thorpe’s place on the 53-man active roster.
The coach said Harrison on the practice squad, for now, will “get him a chance to work and get ready, see where he can fit in as soon as possible.”
Thorpe could return in as few as three weeks per the NFL’s new injured-reserve rules for this unprecedented COVID-19 season.
Those new roster rules also partly explain why Harrison, the huge, veteran run stuffer Carroll has signed to short-term contracts in Seattle, is only on the practice squad. For now.
Harrison has completed the NFL protocol for entry to a team facility for the first time: three COVID-19 tests over a four-day period. He began that testing last week.
New league rules for 2020 allow teams to put players of any experience on the newly expanded, 16-man practice squad. Previously, only players with less than three seasons of service time could be on practice squads.
The Seahawks are using the practice squad as a stowaway place right now for Harrison. Should he prove fit to play Sunday night, he will be promoted to the active roster for the game against Minnesota. Seattle could sure use his run-stuffing ability against the Vikings’ Dalvin Cook, the NFL’s leading rusher who is coming off consecutive 100-yard games.
“It’s an expanded roster in this new format,” Carroll said. “We are trying to take full advantage of that.”
The league this season is allowing teams to promote up to two players off practice squads for games, to in effect have up to 54 or 55 players on the active roster for each game. The Seahawks will either do that with Harrison then sign him at an already-agreed veteran contract for the active roster after that, or just sign him directly to the active roster before Saturday’s deadline to do so in order to be eligible to play Sunday. That is, again, if the team deems he’s ready to play by then.
He hasn’t played since his 15 games last season for the Detroit Lions.
For those wondering whether the Seahawks run the risk of another team doing what they did to Arizona to get Bullard, sign him off the practice squad to the 53-man roster: Harrison would have to go through the COVID-19 testing protocol with another team were he to sign elsewhere. That would cost him at least one potential game check, this weekend’s.
After he made his official free-agent visit Tuesday, Harrison decided to maximize his possible game checks for this season by signing with a 4-0 Seahawks team rather than take his scheduled visit Wednesday to the 4-0 Green Bay Packers. Green Bay is on it bye this week, and he couldn’t sign with the Packers until next week after he would have passed their coronavirus testing.
Clear as mud? What is clear is Harrison will immediately help a defense that has lacked depth on its line and hasn’t really been tested inside in run defense yet this season. No running back has rushed more than 14 times against Seattle in a game in 2020. Cook had 15 carries in the first half last weekend in Minnesota’s win at Houston.
Harrison could also help a needy Seahawks pass rush. He has 9 1/2 of his 11 career sacks since the start of his All-Pro season of 2016 with the New York Giants.
Seattle also signed to the practice squad cornerback DeMarkus Acy and linebacker Michael Divinity. Receiver Lance Lenoir was released to make room on the practice squad. Divinity takes the practice-squad spot of Demarcus Christmas, the defensive lineman Seattle released Tuesday.
This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 1:38 PM.
