Field Gulls
Preseason has come and gone for the Seattle Seahawks, and now the clock starts on roster cuts. More than three dozen players will get the dreaded call from now until Tuesday afternoon, and we know that Tuesday is just the deadline to get to 53. There will be more shuffling and tweaking and arranging to come before Seattle’s Week 1 roster is set, so an initial 53 shouldn’t be taken as the same group you’ll see by the time the Seahawks play the San Francisco 49ers.
Here’s my penultimate Seahawks 53-man roster projection. There will be another one live streamed at 7:30 pm PT on The Hawk’s Eye podcast with Bryce Coutts, so you can tune in for that.
Quarterback (3): Sam Darnold, Drew Lock, Jalen Milroe (R)
Cut: N/A
Notes: Same story as it’s been all offseason.
Running Back (3): Kenneth Walker III, Zach Charbonnet, George Holani
Cut: Anthony Tyus, Jacardia Wright, Damien Martinez
Notes: “They need to keep a fourth running back because of injuries” is a common refrain. I get it, but this is a position filled with replacement-level guys that you can find on the waiver wire or on the practice squad. Holani sitting out the final game tells me the RB3 competition is over, and RB4 either doesn’t exist or it’s down to Martinez and Wright. I lean towards Seattle keeping three backs and elevating a fourth when needed.
Fullback (1): Robbie Ouzts (R)
Cut: Wesley Steiner
Notes: N/A
Wide Receiver (6): Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, Tory Horton (R), Jake Bobo, Dareke Young, Cody White
Cut: Ricky White III, Steven Sims, Tyrone Broden, John Rhys Plumlee
Cut or traded: Marquez Valdes-Scantling
Notes: Cody White sneaks in at the buzzer but I’d say any sixth receiver on this team is in a tenuous spot. MVS may have been thrown a lifeline via Jake Bobo’s concussion, otherwise the fact that he played the first half of a third preseason game with third-stringers looks ominous as can be. If he makes the team I think he ends up being more Braylon Edwards or Brandon Marshall than Marquise Goodwin. As for Cody White: he is a special teams returner option and ideally he’s higher on the depth chart for that job than Bobo moving forward. Steven Sims can just be stashed on the practice squad.
Tight End (4): Elijah Arroyo (R), A.J. Barner, Eric Saubert, Brady Russell
Cut: Marshall Lang, Nick Kallerup
Notes: There might be a chance Saubert is cut and then re-signed since he’s a vested veteran and isn’t subject to waivers. Otherwise I don’t think there’s much debate there.
Offensive Line (9): Charles Cross, Abe Lucas, Josh Jones, Anthony Bradford, Olu Oluwatimi, Jalen Sundell, Grey Zabel (R), Michael Jerrell, a TBD player (perhaps Dalton Risner)
Cut: Federico Maranges, Amari Kight, Luke Felix-Fualalo, Bryce Cabeldue, Sataoa Laumea, Mason Richman
Placed on IR: Christian Haynes
Notes: Maybe my confidence was a little bit over-shaken in the Packers game, but that was a bad showing...
