Overlooked, unheralded Joey Blount fits Pete Carroll’s chip-on-shoulder Seahawks profile
Joey Blount had been waiting for this day since kindergarten.
He’s 23 now.
Last Tuesday the undrafted rookie free agent safety and more than 30 other stress cases were doing what sitting around their rooms in suburban Seattle doing what almost no 23-year-olds do.
He was ignoring his phone, hoping it didn’t buzz, beep, ring or update.
It was NFL cut day, the day the team Blount spent all spring and summer with was deciding the 27 moves they needed to get the roster down to 53 players for the start of the regular season.
The way it works is don’t call us, we’ll call you — and only if it’s bad. If a player doesn’t get a call on cut day, that means he’s made the team.
“It was stressful,” Blount said. “You’re kind of just waiting around in limbo. I was telling my parents that it is kind of like a limbo or gray area where you are trying to figure out where your place is. You are waiting to hear the grim reaper call your phone and say, ‘Come see the coaches.’
“As time went on and I didn’t get a call, I was seeing guys next to me getting a call and I wasn’t getting a call. I didn’t want to get too excited, but at the same time, I was getting more confident in myself.”
For all but the most assured starters and veterans in this nothing-is-guaranteed league, no news on cut day is absolutely life-changing, make-dreams-come true news. It’s often the difference between a minimum salary as a young 20-something of at least $705,000, the NFL minimum for 2022, and a reassessment of what he should do with his career and life.
It was for Blount. His phone never rang on cut-down day.
He was one of nine rookies, two of them undrafted free agents, to make the Seahawks’ initial 53-man roster for this season.
Blount is part of coach Pete Carroll’s re-emphasis of overlooked guys with boulders on their shoulders to remake the Russell Wilson-less, Bobby Wagner-less Seahawks.
“It was definitely overwhelming,” he said, before one of his first regular-season practices for next Monday’s opening game against Wilson’s Denver Broncos at Lumen Field.
“I have been working for this since I was five or six years old, taking the route I took to get here. I took a moment for reflection and just being proud of putting in the work, being undrafted, no combine, and no Senior Bowl.
“I was really just betting on myself and understanding the messages that the coaches put out here. It doesn’t matter where you came from or how you got here, but if you can help the team in any way, we want you here. I bought into that message and let my work speak for itself.”
Joey Blount’s route to Seattle
Blount was a 175-pound multi-position athlete who scored seven touchdowns passing, nine rushing and two on defense with five interceptions as a senior in 2016 at Landmark Christian School. That’s a Class-A private school in metro Atlanta. He had scholarship offers from lower-division Mercer and Elon plus hometown Georgia State of the Sun Belt Conference — and the University of Virginia of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
He took that one.
He didn’t make any first- or second-team All-ACC lists his senior season at UVA. He didn’t get invited to the Senior Bowl, the January showcase for NFL scouts and coaches in late January. The league invited 324 players to its annual scouting combine in March in Indianapolis. Blount didn’t get to go to that, either.
None of the 32 NFL teams spent any of the 262 selections in this spring’s draft on him.
As soon as the draft ended, Carroll and general manager John Schneider called Blount. He knew the Seahawks’ history of signing and playing undrafted rookies.
Now he’s a 205-pound Seahawks safety, backing up Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs because of his tackling ability — and determination.
“I’m always looking for those guys. Sometimes, the makeup is more important than the rest of it,” Carroll said. “So that’s what these guys stand for.
“I was really excited, we talked to the guys (on cut day). Everybody has a story behind their background of where they came from, how it worked out for them, and how this turned out.”
Blount carries his string of pass-overs as much as that cell phone he’s thankful never rang on cut dang.
“I will definitely not put it out of my mind: I feel like for me in my whole football career, I have been an underdog,” Blount said. “In high school, I was under-recruited. My only ACC offer was Virginia. I had a great career that went unnoticed, a lot, and came out here undrafted.
“I use the underdog mentality to fuel me in my confidence. So I’m not going to forget how I got here. I’m going to use that going forward.”
Taking Doug Baldwin’s path
How’d he get here?
The way Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse, Ricardo Lockette and DeShawn Shead got here a decade ago as undrafted rookies who became Super Bowl champions for Seattle.
Willingness and tenacity on the punt and kickoff teams.
Asked last week what part of the team improved the most since the end of last season, Seattle general manager John Schneider said special teams. Adding Blount was one of the factors.
Blount recovered an onside kick late in the Seahawks’ second preseason game, against Chicago.
“Something coming in that I told myself was that I wanted to have elite effort, just running to the ball and do anything that I can to separate myself from the man next to me. I think that is something that caught the coaches’ eyes,” Blount said.
“Also, coming in as an undrafted rookie, special teams were a big thing. We have two great safeties, obviously, that are ahead of me. And I took the opportunity to learn from them and build my career skills up, but also seeking spots on special teams that I could find my way on.
“I think that was one of the messages that I was told before coming here, like it was, ‘Special teams, special teams, special teams.’ I played special teams in college. I know they are a big part of the game that is often overlooked. I thought that I could be an addition to the teams here.”
But Blount knows this is only a beginning. He hasn’t accomplished anything yet.
Making it onto Lumen Field in his full Seahawks blue uniform, number 35, for that Monday night showcase opener will be his next accomplishment.
Ask Joshua Onujiogu. He was the second of the two undrafted rookies to make the Seahawks’ initial 53-man roster with Blount last week. The next day, Seattle waived him.
The linebacker from Division-III Framingham State in Massachusetts cleared league waivers. Friday, the Seahawks signed him back, onto their 16-man practice squad.
So, no, Blount is not content with just making this team.
“The thing about the NFL is that as easy as it is given, it can get taken away,” he said. “Being content? I’ve never been content, honestly. I’m always hungry and will keep pushing every day, because there is another guy out there trying to take your spot.”
