Damon ‘Snacks’ Harrison finally to the big-boy team, Greg Olsen to IR among Seahawks moves
After stashing him on the practice squad for almost two months, the Seahawks moved a former All-Pro defensive tackle to where a 350-plus-pound man belongs.
Onto the big-boy team.
Seattle signed Harrison to the 53-man active roster Monday when it put tight end Greg Olsen on injured reserve.
Harrison played in two games as practice-squad call-up and roster exemption.
New NFL roster rules for this season state a player can only be called up like that for games twice without being added to the roster. That is the players’ union’s way of ensuring teams don’t continually pay guys who are playing in games at lower, practice-squad wages all season.
This was the Seahawks’ plan all along when signing Harrison Oct. 7: to work him back into football shape after not playing in 10 months, then add him full-time to the roster when he was fit.
Olsen ruptured the plantar fascia in his foot Thursday during Seattle’s win over Arizona. Coach Pete Carroll said the team’s medical staff believes the complete rupture, rather than a lingering tear and irritation, could get the lead tight end back in perhaps six weeks. That would be in time for the playoffs, if the Seahawks (7-3 and the NFC’s second playoff seed as of Monday) qualify.
This season for the first time any player who goes on injured reserve can return after a minimum of three games.
Olsen, 35, signed a one-year, $7 million contract with Seattle in January. He has a job as a football analyst waiting for him at Fox Sports.
Yet he vows this is not his end.
Will Dissly and Jacob Hollister are going to become more prominent at tight end while Olsen is out. Rookie draft choice Colby Parkinson, who’s been a healthy inactive the last two games, figures to play now.
The Seahawks made three moves on their practice squad Monday.
Running back Bo Scarbrough went on practice-squad injured reserve. He injured his hamstring while rushing effectively six times for 31 yards as a roster exemption last week for Seattle’s win over Arizona. He signed onto the practice squad last week.
The Seahawks put Stephen Sullivan on practice-squad injured reserve. The rookie seventh-round draft choice and tight end made his NFL debut Nov. 1 against San Francisco—at defensive end. That was while two-time Pro Bowl end Carlos Dunlap had yet to make his Seattle debut because he was going through a six-day protocol for entry COVID-19 testing following his trade from Cincinnati late last month.
Seattle signed center Brad Lundblade to the practice squad. Lundblade was an undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma State in 2018. He has spent time with the Seahawks, Cincinnati, Carolina and the New York Jets.
