TNT’s Seahawks 53-man roster projection: Tre Flowers, Rashaad Penny go opposite ways
Keep five running backs?
Keep Rashaad Penny?
Keep believing in Tre Flowers?
And who is Pete Carroll going to keep as this year’s undrafted rookie free agent(s) to make the team? Because the coach has them every year.
The Seahawks must cut their 80-man roster to 53 by 1 p.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, the NFL deadline to set the initial regular-season roster. We say “initial,” because it will change later Tuesday, and Wednesday, and up the opening game Sept. 12 at Indianapolis. That’s as Seattle’s coaches, scouts and personnel decision-makers sign other team’s released players and form their 16-man practice squad, after waivers on the final preseason cuts close Wednesday afternoon.
The Seahawks are likely to have 54 players, technically. They can use a roster exemption for linebacker Aaron Donkor from Germany. He’s allocated to Seattle as part of the NFL’s international player development program for 2021.
Here is The News Tribune’s annual projection of the Seahawks’ initial 53-man roster for the 2021 regular season:
Quarterback (2): Russell Wilson, Geno Smith
I got the sense the team might have been trying to showcase Smith to possibly trade him to a QB-needy team when they had the former starter for the Jets and Giants throw on the first 10 plays in the preseason opener at Las Vegas. That backfired. Rookie left tackle Stone Forysthe failed to pick up a simple edge blitz off his outside shoulder Aug. 14. A Raiders cornerback sprinted into Smith’s head and chest, concussing the veteran passer.
Smith returned two weeks later and looked good in the preseason finale.
“Geno is a terrific team player,” Carroll said last weekend. “He’s got such a personality and attitude about playing the supporting role that this position calls for when you’re playing behind a great player.”
I get the sense Wilson will make this team again.
Seattle will try to get former Rams backup Sean Mannion through waivers and onto the practice squad as a third quarterback who knows first-time coordinator Shane Waldron’s new system in from Los Angeles.
Running back (5): Chris Carson, Alex Collins, DeeJay Dallas, Travis Homer, Rashaad Penny
It’s unusual for Carroll to keep five running backs. But the team’s — and, really, the league’s — recent history of chronic injuries at this battered, endangered position led by Carson’s health issues strongly justify keeping all these guys.
The slimmer, humbled Collins was the best of the group in training-camp practices and the preseason games.
Dallas was next best. He’s a former wide receiver at the University of Miami who fits Waldron’s varied use of backs in the pass game.
Homer might begin the season on the physically-unable-to-perform list. He began training camp on the PUP list. Carroll loves his rugged pass blocking.
Carroll really wants to give Penny, who says he’s lighter than he’s been since high school, a final chance. They keep waiting for him to show what he can do if healthy for a full season, to show why the team drafted him in the first round in 2018. This is the final year of his contract. After being hurt again this month, his trade value seems low. But a team would likely claim a former number-one pick off waivers at his 2021 salary of $1.95 million.
If they’ve seen enough of Penny, the Seahawks could save $1.37 million against this year’s salary cap by cutting him. That would also come with $2 million in dead money on the team’s 2021 cap.
Again, this team has been habitually short on running backs in recent seasons.
Look for undrafted rookie Josh Johnson to get onto the practice squad if he clears waivers.
“He’s been very aggressive,” Carroll said.
Wide receiver (6): DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Freddie Swain, Dee Eskridge, Penny Hart, Cody Thompson
Thompson deserves a job. He was strong all over formations catching contested passes over the middle and on the sidelines from Wilson with the first-team offense for much of training camp while Eskridge was out with an injured big toe. He’s 6 feet 2, 205 pounds, good size for how quick and nimble he is inside.
“He just continues to improve, all of the time,” Waldron said of the 25-year-old Thompson, who has been on Seattle’s practice squad the last two seasons. “He’s done a great job in his one-on-ones and does a great job in the run game.”
Waldron already has pet plays for the rookie Eskridge, including fly sweeps that will become more of a Seahawks option this season.
“My specialty,” Eskridge said.
The rookie got up at 5:15 a.m. each day in training camp to work on the offense with Wilson on the field at dawn, even while recovering from his injury so he wouldn’t fall behind.
Swain has earned the team’s trust for strong hands and fearless runs after catches and as a kick returner. Wilson trusts the dogged Hart in particular.
Headlined by Metcalf and Lockett, who set team records for yards and for catches last season, this is as strong and deep a receiving group as Carroll’s had in Seattle. It’s worthy of keeping six.
Tight end (3): Gerald Everett, Will Dissly, Colby Parkinson
This position is very thin, because Everett is a tight end in position listing only. He will be an outside “X” wide receiver, a slot receiver, in the backfield at times, all over Waldron’s schemes. He’s a factor Wilson hasn’t had in Seattle, a factor the Seahawks thought Jimmy Graham would be but was not for them years ago.
The team doesn’t yet know if the intriguing, 6-foot-7 Parkinson having a second foot injury in as many years is serious enough for him to be out a while. If it is, he could be on the first 53-man roster then put on injured reserve. Only players on the initial 53 can be eligible to return from IR to play in the same season.
“Oh, man, he’s trying. He’s making a bid for it,” Carroll said of Parkinson returning. “We’re going to keep our fingers crossed that he has a chance to get back and compete to be on the team.”
Seattle will hope impressive Cam Sutton and Tyler Mabry clear waivers and make its practice squad, ready to back fill Parkinson, if needed.
Offensive line (10): Duane Brown, Brandon Shell, Damien Lewis, Gabe Jackson, Kyle Fuller, Ethan Pocic, Jordan Simmons, Jamarco Jones, Stone Forsythe, Jake Curhan
The first five listed are the starters for the opener.
Pocic stays only because he can play every position on the line, not because of his performance this summer or last season as the starting center. He was hurt most of this training camp, with a hamstring issue.
Curhan started all three preseason games. That’s a lot of film for other teams to evaluate and perhaps claim him if Seattle tries to get him through waivers onto their practice squad. The former Cal right tackle from Carroll’s Redwood High School in Larkspur, California, beats out Cedric Ogbuehi. The Bengals former first-round pick was injured much of August. Curhan stepped in and excelled.
The Seahawks would save $1.07 million by releasing Ogbuehi, who at 29 is six years older and $1 million more expensive for this year than Curhan.
“Cedric didn’t get as much of an opportunity, but still, I can’t tell you what’s going on with that right now,” Carroll said Saturday. “I don’t have to.”
Defensive line (9): Carlos Dunlap, Rasheem Green, Al Woods, Poona Ford, Kerry Hyder, Benson Mayowa, L.J. Collier, Alton Robinson, Bryan Mone
An abundance of ends, thin at tackle — the same issue they had entering camp.
Robert Nkemdiche seemed on track be a hybrid tackle. Arizona’s former number-one pick got injured late in the preseason. He could begin the season on an injured list but would have to first take up an initial roster spot to get on one. Green was a standout all training camp.
Woods, at 34, is refreshed for a larger role than he had for the Seahawks in 2019. He opted out of the 2020 season with Jacksonville over COVID-19 concerns with a newborn daughter at home.
The Seahawks need to add to their defensive tackles off the waiver wire in the coming days. Even if they do, they are going to be feeling the loss of Jarran Reed to Kansas City in a salary-cap fiasco this spring for more than a minute this season.
Linebackers (5): Bobby Wagner, Jordyn Brooks, Darrell Taylor, Cody Barton, Nick Bellore
Taylor has moved from rush end to strongside linebacker to replace still-unsigned K.J. Wright and injured, departed Bruce Irvin from last season. The 2020 second-round pick has yet to play an NFL regular-season game. Taylor missed his entire rookie season after leg surgery. He is fastest rushing off the edge and will be a rush end in passing situations.
Bellore fills a need at backup middle linebacker behind Wagner (with Ben Burr-Kirven out for the season), plus at fullback and as the special-teams captain. Bellore made the Pro Bowl in that last job in 2020.
After being injured most of the preseason, West Point graduate Jon Rhattigan showed in the preseason finale he should be on the team rather than heading into the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant in the infantry. Bellore means Seattle doesn’t need Rhattigan on the 53-man at backup middle linebacker. With only one year starting for Army and only one NFL preseason game on film, Rhattigan should be able to clear waivers and get onto Seattle’s practice squad, keeping his service deferment.
“I was fired up for Jon,” Carroll said Saturday night, after Rhattigan had five tackles and was all over the field in the second half of the final preseason game. “It was really important for Jon to show us something, and I was really happy for him.“
Cornerbacks (5): Ahkello Witherspoon, D.J. Reed, Damarious Randall, Tre Brown, Sidney Jones
Witherspoon is guaranteed $4 million for this season. Reed earned it late last season. They get the starting jobs to begin this season.
Carroll likes Randall’s experience as a starter in Green Bay.
It’s Flowers versus Jones for the final spot. Jones, the former Washington Huskies cornerback and second-round pick by the Eagles in 2017, is arriving in a reported trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars Monday.
Plus, John Reid was impressive in his first days since arriving in a trade from Houston last week.
This is the final year of Flowers’ contract. It’s at an increased cost because of NFL performance escalators for later-round picks and Flowers’ snap counts above 91% in each of his first two seasons, when he started. Because of that, cutting Flowers would save $2.18 million against this year’s cap. That’s money the team could use to bolster the defensive-tackle depth.
Jones’ salary the Seahawks will be inheriting from the Jaguars for 2021: $1.05 million. That’s 31 games of NFL experience, at half Flowers’ cost.
When stud punter Michael Dickson earned a top-level performance-escalator raise for 2021 this spring, the Seahawks gave him a contract extension that lowered his raised cap charge for this year.
As a backup, Flowers does not warrant an extension to lower his cap hit.
With a mere $812,353 cap charge this year, second-year man Reid wouldn’t even fit within the top 51 charges to officially count against Seattle salary cap space in 2021. That’s value, though Reid is unproven (and five inches shorter than Flowers). Reid played only 13% of Houston’s snaps on defense as a rookie draft pick last year.
It may not matter, if D.J. Reed performs like he did late in 2020.
Reed is the second guy in a year to whom Flowers has lost his starting right cornerback job (after the now-departed Quinton Dunbar last summer).
Carroll would personally feel cutting Flowers. The coach handpicked him. He drafted Flowers. He converted him from college safety to a long, 6-3, Richard Sherman-esque cornerback and then a rookie starter in 2018.
Brown, the team’s second pick in this year’s draft, has what Carroll said is a “mild” leg sprain. He’s been out the last two weeks. The coach said Brown will be ready for the opener.
Safety (5): Jamal Adams, Quandre Diggs, Marquise Blair, Ugo Amadi, Ryan Neal
Diggs, the Pro Bowl free safety, will play in the opener next to re-signed All-Pro Adams, just as fellow “hold in” Duane Brown will play at Indianapolis in two weeks. They will not choose to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars each week by taking their stand on wanting new contracts through missing regular-season games.
“We’ve had great conversations, and it’s important that we were able to really address where he is and where he’s coming from,” Carroll said of Diggs. “And I had a chance to hear him out and all that. I think the world of this guy. He’s an amazing competitor. Tough as hell, in every way.
“I can’t imagine not playing with him.”
Blair is the primary nickel back now that he’s healthy following season-ending knee surgery last September.
Amadi is the small match-up option on inside coverage.
Neal is the dime, sixth defensive back Carroll and coordinator Ken Norton Jr. used more with Neal last season.
Specialists (3): Jason Myers, Michael Dickson, Tyler Ott
Again.
This story was originally published August 30, 2021 at 4:12 PM.
