Seahawks’ rookie free agents: a West Point grad, a Canadian center, German linebacker
The Seahawks only had three picks in the draft.
Yet they adding players. From almost everywhere.
Seattle’s rookie free-agent signings include a West Point graduate (it’s about time!), a Canadian center and athletic, German linebacker and former basketball player who is in the NFL’s international player-exchange program.
The Seahawks haven’t announced their undrafted free agents they’ve signed since Saturday. Yet multiple confirmations continue of the rookie deals a week before all first-year players are due to the team facility in Renton for rookie minicamp May 14-16.
Army linebacker Jon Rhattigan signed with Seattle. That’s per the Army football program and a report by the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, New York, which covers the U.S. Military Academy.
The 6-foot-1, 245-pound Rhattigan has gone from a one-year starter, a backup with zero starts his first three years at West Point, to a Seahawk. He is scheduled to graduate May 22.
To practice with the Seahawks this offseason and preseason, Rhattigan needs a waiver from the Department of the Army to delay his reporting to officer basic training then his first duty station as a second lieutenant on active duty, as every West Point cadet becomes the day he and she graduates.
In 2019, Department of Defense Secretary Mark Esper changed military policy to allow athletes to seek approval from the defense secretary to play sports professionally. The new policy requires the athletes to eventually fulfill their military obligation, or repay the government the costs of their education.
Costs of education and military training at the U.S. Military Academy are estimated at $400,000-500,000.
Esper’s policy at least for now ended years of back and forth between the previous Obama administration allowing some military-academy graduates service waivers to play pro sports—including former Seahawks wide receiver Keenan Reynolds, the ex-Navy quarterback—and DoD policies prohibiting that.
Rhattigan was one of 18 semifinalists last season for the Bednarik Award, presented annually to the nation’s top college defensive player. He was a standout on Army’s team that went 9-3, won the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy by beating Navy and Air Force on consecutive weekends then played in the Liberty Bowl.
If the Seahawks find Rhattigan worthy of a roster spot for the 2021 season, the linebacker will need to petition the Department of the Army for a more lasting waiver beyond deferring his service this spring into summer.
He will be trying out at a position that is particularly thin for Seattle.
The team’s linebackers under contract for 2021 are Bobby Wagner, Jordyn Brooks, Cody Barton and Ben Burr-Kirven. K.J. Wright remains unsigned. The Seahawks didn’t draft a linebacker last weekend; they selected Western Michigan wide receiver D’Wayne Eskridge, Oklahoma cornerback Tre Brown and Florida offensive tackle Stone Forsythe.
Seattle for the last decade has played undrafted rookies in the regular season as much or more than any other NFL team. Examples include: Doug Baldwin, Michael Bennett, Jermaine Kearse, Thomas Rawls and Poona Ford.
This year’s undrafted free agents may have an unusually strong chance to make the Seahawks’ roster. That’s because Seattle had just three draft choices last weekend, the fewest in team history and fewest in the league since the 2009 New York Jets.
“I think we’re going to be very attractive (to undrafted rookies), with just three picks,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider said.
“In the last several years that we’ve had seven, eight, 10 picks, so it’s been hard for us to recruit guys and try to convince them—whether it’s the area scouts, the coaches—when we’re working on these guys to convince them that they’re going to have a clean opportunity.
“I think just naturally when you have three draft choices, I think we’re going to be a very, very attractive landing spot.”
A German linebacker
The team added two more linebackers this week, from Jacksonville—and from... Germany?
The Seahawks claimed Nate Evans off waivers from the Jaguars, per the NFL’s official transaction wire Wednesday. Jacksonville signed him an undrafted rookie last year but he did not appear in a game. The 6-1, 241-pound Evans was the leading tackler for the University of Central Florida two years ago as a middle linebacker.
Aaron Donkor was allotted to Seattle in the NFL’s International Player Pathway program from Germany. He’s 26 and a former basketball player in Europe.
He has two years of college football experience, one at New Mexico Military Institute and the 2019 season at Arkansas State. He stood out at the NFL’s international combine this offseason. The 6-2, 240-pound Donkor ran a 4.46-second 40-yard dash, jumped 39 inches vertically and did 22 bench-press repetitions at 225 pounds.
Carroll told him he’ll be tried as a linebacker and on Seattle’s special-teams units, during a very Seahawks-like welcome Zoom call this week.
Other rookie free agents signing
Wide receiver Connor Wedington, the Tacoma native and former Sumner High School star, says he has signed with the Seahawks to come home as an undrafted free agent. The News Tribune’s All-Area player of the year in 2016 decommitted from Washington and went to Stanford.
Representatives for Mississippi State left guard Greg Eiland told The News Tribune this week me he’s signing with the Seahawks as a rookie free agent. He’s 6-6 and 280 pounds. He played right tackle and left guard for Mississippi State.
The Seahawks have also signed undrafted rookie offensive tackle Jake Curhan from the University of California, according to Curhan on his Twitter account online. He was a four-year starter at Cal, starting 40 of 42 possible games at right tackle. Curhan was honorable mention All-Pac-12 his junior and senior seasons.
Some scouts thought he might get drafted Saturday in the seventh round, to be a guard in the NFL. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network cited a league source who said pre-draft medical tests of Curhan “revealed a heart issue.” He had inconsistent electrocardiogram results that led to more tests. Curham has played with the “issue” for years with no symptoms.
Bryan Mills said on Twitter he’s signing with the Seahawks. The undrafted rookie cornerback from North Carolina Central is 6-1, 174 pounds—with, yes, 32-inch arms.
Others reportedly signing with the Seahawks as rookie free agents: Tamorrion Terry, 6-3, 207 pounds, a wide receiver from Florida State, and Pier-Olivier Lestage a center from the University of Montreal. He’s 6-3, 312 pounds. That’s 141 1/2 kilograms.
For now Lestage joins a position the Seahawks have not upgraded since last season. Carroll said twice last week that Ethan Pocic, the starter last season, and Kyle Fuller will battle for the starting center job.
This story was originally published May 6, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
