‘Gifted soul’ Luke Willson is back for Seahawks round 4, plus a trade for a corner
Like he never left.
Again.
Long-haired, joking, Techo Thursday creator Luke Willson is back with the Seahawks for a fourth go-round. An NFL source told The News Tribune Tuesday the 31-year-old tight end plus team and fan favorite coach Pete Carroll calls “a gifted, spirited soul” was back in the locker room preparing to practice after signing with Seattle for the third time since the team selected Willson in the fifth round of the 2013 draft.
The Seahawks made the move official later Tuesday. He’s wearing his familiar jersey number 82 — and his stunningly short shorts to practice. His long hair was even longer, and unlike his darker days, blonde.
Tight end became a position of need for the Seahawks last week when Colby Parkinson re-injured the foot he broke last summer. That required surgery in 2020 and the 6-foot-7 draft pick from Stanford last year missed the majority of his rookie season. Carroll said Friday Parkinson does not appear to need surgery this time.
The signing of Willson shows the team believes Parkinson will be out a while.
Willson foreshadowed his return earlier Tuesday, in his unique way online with a posting of a Star Wars meme of Luke Skywalker dramatically taking off a hood.
Willson won a Super Bowl and played in another with the Seahawks in his first stint with them, 2013-17. He signed with the Detroit Lions as a free agent to return near his home outside Windsor, Ontario, before the 2018. He re-signed with Seattle in 2019, then played with Baltimore early in 2020 before re-signing with the Seahawks late last season.
And a trade
A league source confirmed to The News Tribune Tuesday the Seahawks are trading a conditional, late-round draft choice to the Houston Texans to acquire speedy, second-year cornerback John Reid. The move is pending Reid completing a physical with his new team.
The 5-10, 187-pound Reid was Houston’s fourth-round pick out of Penn State, then-Texans coach Bill O’Brien’s former team. This offseason Houston underwent a regime change with O’Brien out. Reid is now part of that Texans turnover.
Reid played in 13 games last season for Houston. He played only 13% of the Texans’ snaps on defense, and 22% of their special-teams plays.
He ran 4.49 seconds in the 40-yard dash in a combine workout before the 2020 draft.
Seattle has Ahkello Witherspoon and Tre Flowers starting at cornerback entering the final preseason game Saturday against the Los Angeles Chargers. Both are in the Carroll mold of Seahawks cornerbacks: 6-3 with long arms.
D.J. Reed, 5-9, has missed the majority of this month with a groin injury. That has created the opportunity for Flowers to regain the starting job he had as a rookie in 2018 and in ‘19. Reed earned the starting right-cornerback job late last season with aggressive play on passes in the air and sure tackling, and was the starter at the beginning of camp late last month until his injury.
Carroll indicated last weekend Reed may return to practice this week.
Seattle also has cornerback Tre Brown, the second of the team’s three picks in this spring’s draft. Brown got increasing time with the first-team defense last week and in last weekend’s preseason game against Denver.
Two other moves
The Seahawks created two roster openings before the trade for Reid and bringing back Willson.
They released cornerback Pierre Desir, a league source confirmed Tuesday to the TNT. The eight-year veteran had been getting decreasing repetitions in training camp as Brown and impressive 2020 free agent Gavin Heslop from Stony Brook got longer looks up the depth chart.
The Seahawks also waived defensive end Alex Tchangam, a 25-year-old native of Cameroon they signed this month.
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 1:35 PM.
