Seahawks sweating cut day: One, an ex-top pick; the other was delivering beer 3 weeks ago
When the Seahawks began training camp, Jamie Sheriff was delivering beer.
The junior-college walk-on was back home in Mississippi. Nobody had drafted the pass-rushing linebacker from South Alabama this spring. No college football team wanted him out of Terry High School in Mississippi in 2018. The linebacker earned his own way onto the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Bulldogs.
No NFL team wanted him in May, June or July, not even as an undrafted free agent among hundreds signed across the league.
“I didn’t know where I was going to be,” Sheriff said.
The Seahawks saw the 6-foot-1, 254-pound Sheriff at South Alabama. They invited him to Renton for a rookie minicamp in May, as a tryout player.
They didn’t sign him from it.
“Honestly, I was surprised,” he said. “Because I do think I have the talent to play in this league.
“But, I just stay ready for the moment. I didn’t give up. I didn’t let anything discourage me.
“They said I was on their ‘short list,’ Sheriff said.
But by summer he needed a job. He took one delivering beer for Southern Beverage in Ridgeland, Mississippi.
After a while he decided he didn’t like that work, so he quit.
“And then two days after, I ended up getting a call,” he said. “So I was like, ‘Look at God!’”
The “call” was from the Seahawks. After injuries at linebacker early in training camp, coach Mike Macdonald and his defensive staff remembered the overlooked edge rusher who’d impressed them in that spring minicamp.
On Aug. 6, they signed Sheriff. Came had been going on for two weeks.
Three weeks and three eye-opening preseason games later, Sheriff is pushing to make the Seahawks as a most unlikely linebacker.
Final roster cuts coming out of the NFL preseason are Tuesday. Seattle must trim its roster from 90 players to 53. Sheriff is one of perhaps three rookie free agents with a relatively strong chance to make the team.
The others are running back George Holani and kick returner Dee Williams.
On fourth down in the fourth quarter of a one-score preseason game Saturday at Lumen Field, Sheriff lined up at what effectively was right defensive end. Hand on the ground, the outside linebacker bulled into and through Cleveland left tackle Lorenzo Thompson. Sheriff overpowered Thompson and slammed into quarterback Tyler Huntley for a sack and turnover on downs.
That set up Jason Myers’ field goal, the clinching points in Seattle’s 37-33 win to end the preseason.
It was the third sack in three games for Sheriff. He had seven pressures on opposing QBs entering Saturday, then added a couple more against the Browns.
“He’s a guy that really stood out during the rookie tryout,” Macdonald said. “Just kind of the message with all the guys: If there’s not a spot for you right now, we’re still invested in your growth and development. To his credit, he didn’t skip a beat since he’s been here.
“He should be proud of the way he played.”
The Seahawks traded edge-rushing outside linebacke Darrell Taylor, their co-leader in sacks two seasons ago, to Chicago Friday. Saturday night, top edge rusher and outside backer Uchenna Nwosu injured his knee on a Browns chop block in the first quarter.
That — and his production that has exceeded what he did in college — has Sheriff a candidate to make the 53-man roster.
Seahawks’ roster math
Macdonald and general manager John Schneider could calculate Sheriff would clear league waivers, if they decide to waive him by Tuesday. The Seahawks could then make Sheriff one of the 17 players on their practice squad. They will set that beginning Wednesday. Liberalized league rules on practice-squad players allow them to play in games each week relatively easily, compared to a half-dozen years ago.
Sheriff will find out by 1 p.m. Tuesday what they decide.
Whatever. The limbo he’s in at the moment sure beats slingin’ kegs back home.
“I stayed prepared for this moment,” he said late Saturday night. “I just deal with setbacks.”
He said Macdonald’s new defensive system in Seattle, one the NFL’s youngest head coach brought from coordinating the Baltimore Ravens’ top defense in the league last season, frees him to be his best.
“This scheme is a lot more fun,” Sheriff said. “It opens up for me to be able to pass rush, to be who I am: A pass rusher.”
Dee Eskridge’s last stand
After three seasons of injuries and ineffectiveness on the field, plus a league suspension for an incident with a woman off it last year, wide receiver and kick returner Dee Eskridge entered Saturday’s game thinking it could be his final one for the Seahawks.
“Just leaving it all on the field,” Eskridge, the team’s first of three picks in the 2021 draft, said.
“So I just came out here with the mentality that if it’s my last time ever coming out here to play on this field, then so be it. God has a bigger plan. But I’m going to go out here, have fun, keep joy, and then make plays like I did.”
The biggest play, maybe of his career given the stakes, came with 4 minutes left in the second quarter Saturday.
After weeks of undrafted rookie Dee Williams wowing on kick returns while Eskridge was hurt again, Eskridge fielded a Browns punt late in the second quarter on the left. He stopped and cut right. He out-ran would-be tacklers across the field, then cut inside. His sprint went 73 yards the end zone for a touchdown.
That gave Seattle a 24-10 lead.
When he got to the end zone, Eskridge put his index finger to his lips over his face mask.
What was that?
“Taking the talk out of it,” he said, referring to his many critics.
“He’s capable of making plays like that. That’s the type of player he is,” Macdonald said. “Proud of Dee. He’s worked his tail off to put himself in a good position here. He should be proud of himself.”
After Saturday’s game Eskridge was still considering whether he’s going to get cut by Tuesday. The team’s wide-receiver group has worthy candidates for the fifth and sixth spots who’ve had standout preseasons — and have been more available than Eskridge: Laviska Shenault, Cody White, Easop Winston Jr.
“It’s been a little adversity. Obviously, last week I didn’t play,” Eskridge said.
“I would love to be a Seahawk. But, obviously, we know this business. Wherever I land, wherever I stay, that’s a blessing, regardless.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
