No “Snacks.” Seahawks call up Stephen Sullivan, others to roster for Sunday’s game instead
The Seahawks are so desperate for a pass rush, they are choosing a guy who has never played a game at edge rusher over “Snacks.”
On Halloween, no less.
Seattle called up two players from its practice squad by the deadline Saturday to have them be on the active roster for its game Sunday against San Francisco at CenturyLink Field.
Damon “Snacks” Harrison was not one of them.
A day after coach Pete Carroll said Harrison was “ready to come back and play,” the Seahawks left the former All-Pro defensive tackle on its practice squad and ineligible to play against the 49ers. The team instead called up from the practice squad rookie converted tight end Stephen Sullivan, who is ready to debut—at defensive end.
Sullivan hasn’t played the position since a couple games there when he was in high school.
Seattle has just seven sacks by defensive linemen in six games. It is on pace for 24 sacks as a team this season, which would be four fewer than last season when it finished next to last in the NFL in sacks.
A few weeks ago, the Seahawks moved Sullivan from tight end to defensive end in practices. Defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. said the 6-foot-5 Sullivan’s length and speed were perfect to be an NFL pass rusher.
Now Sullivan has impressed his coaches enough to be more fitting the defensive game plan against the run-heavy 49ers Sunday than Harrison, the veteran run-stopper who’s been working into football shape since signing almost four weeks ago.
“He’s getting really close to being able to be out there,” Carroll said of Sullivan.
“He’s done some really good stuff.”
Sullivan making his NFL debut Sunday would be a dream come true. And that dream is more unlikely than most players had before getting to the league.
Sullivan watched his mother and father get arrested and taken away to jail on drug charges when he was a boy. He lived under a freeway overpass, then with little league coaches, relatives and others and bounced between Louisiana and Texas before excelling at Donaldsville High School in Louisiana and earning his way to LSU.
He was a national champion there. Tigers coach Ed Orgeron, a former assistant of Carroll’s at USC, tipped off his old bos to Sullivan this spring. Then the Seahawks drafted Sullivan in the seventh round.
“I kind of became a man on my own just from learning and watching,” Sullivan said in April, the day the Seahawks drafted him. “Watching coaches. Watching families, and things like that.”
So a position switch midseason to defensive end? That won’t exactly daunt Sullivan with all he’s gone through to get here.
The Seahawks signed the 351-pound Harrison, 31, for a reason. No one has seen that reason yet.
The run-first 49ers base their entire offense on runs outside the tackles, including Jimmy Garoppolo’s play-action passes off them.
Seattle also called up cornerback Jayson Stanley from the practice squad for Sunday’s game. New NFL roster rules for this COVID-19 season allow teams to bring one or two players from the practice squad to be the 54th or 55th players on the active roster for each game. Those call-ups then go back to the practice squad after the game without having to go through waivers.
The Seahawks filled their two vacancies on their active roster by taking rookie tight end Colby Parkinson and defensive back D.J. Reed off the non-football-injury list.
Parkinson was the team’s fourth-round draft choice in April. The 6-foot-7 tight end from Stanford broke a bone on the outside of his foot in June and had surgery. He recently returned to practice.
Reed played in 31 of 32 games for San Francisco in the 2018 and ‘19 season. He’s played nickel defensive back and safety.
Seattle nickel back Ugo Amadi is doubtful to play Sunday because of a hamstring injury.
Reed could be the Seahawks’ third nickel back in seven games, and against his former team. Marquise Blair started the season as the new fifth defensive back. Blair tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the second game, Seattle’s win over New England.
Reed is also an option at cornerback. Pro Bowl cornerback Shaquill Griffin is out for Sunday’s game because of a concussion and a hamstring injury.
Reed tore his pectoral muscle this offseason. The 49ers waived him off their non-football-injury list this summer. The Seahawks signed Reed in early September on something over a layaway plan that may come due on Sunday.
“Really excited...if he gets that opportunity, he is ready to roll,” Carroll said.
”He’s got extraordinary quickness.”
“He’s had an excellent week,” Carroll said. “He really is right in the middle of the plan. He’s really jacked to carry the load, if that would be what happens in this thing.
“Later, as the week wore on, I was trying to take care of him, didn’t want to overwork him. He wanted to take every snap.”
But the Seahawks announced Saturday after signing Reed to the active roster he is questionable. He has a hamstring injury, from those practices.
