Seahawks continue to tinker with their roster
Published 1:30 am Sunday, September 4, 2016
The Seahawks added a new defensive tackle Sunday and positioned themselves to potentially get back an old one.
Seattle claimed defensive tackle Garrison Smith off waivers from San Francisco. To make room on their 53-man roster the Seahawks waived defensive tackle Justin Hamilton. He was a surprise inclusion Saturday on the initial active roster.
Seattle also put four players it waived injured Saturday onto the injured-reserve list: former starting defensive tackle Jordan Hill, outside linebacker Eric Pinkins, offensive tackle Terry Poole and tight end Joe Sommers.
It used to be IR meant the end of those players’ seasons. But a new league rule enacted this year states a team can name any one player on IR as designated to return. Each team gets one such designation per season and that player does not have to be designated at the time he’s put on IR.
So Hill is a candidate for the Seahawks to designate for return, which by NFL rules means a return to practice six weeks into the regular season and to games in Week 8. Hill was a starter entering training camp then suffered a groin injury that limited him throughout much of August. His last known injury came Thursday in the preseason finale at Oakland, after which coach Pete Carroll said Hill apparently “tweaked” his hamstring. That doesn’t sound like an injury that would keep Hill out for an entire season, but perhaps about half of it.
Of course, the Seahawks may save that IR-designated-to-return chip to use on a later injury for a more important player.
Hill is in the final season of the four-year contract he signed in 2013 as Seattle’s third-round draft choice from Penn State.
To get back some depth to the depleted defensive-tackle spot, the Seahawks added Smith. At 6-foot-3, 299 pounds, he had two sacks this preseason for the 49ers and many saw him as a standout for San Francisco this summer as a nose tackle. That’s the position Brandon Mebane held down for nine seasons with Seattle before signing with San Diego in March as a free agent.
Smith was an undrafted rookie free agent in 2014 with Miami, out of the University of Georgia. He spent 2015 on the 49ers’ practice squad and has yet to play in an NFL regular-season game.
Meanwhile, teams began to assemble their 10-man practice squads Sunday. The National Football Post’s Aaron Wilson reported wide receiver Kasen Williams was heading to Seattle’s practice squad.
The former Washington Husky started there last season, then played the final seven regular-season games and both playoff games for the Seahawks. His roster chance ended when he suffered a hamstring injury that kept him out most of August.
Williams was one of 19 players the Seahawks waived Saturday who cleared league waivers on Sunday and thus either become free agents or, if eligible with low service time, candidates for Seattle’s practice squad.
The others: defensive tackle Brandin Bryant, tight end Clayton Echard, running back George Farmer, wide receiver Antwan Goodley, defensive end Tylor Harris, quarterback Jake Heaps, safety Keenan Lambert, wide receiver and rookie seventh-round pick Kenny Lawler, linebacker Steve Longa, wide receiver Douglas McNeill, wide receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu, linebacker Kache Palacio, guard-center Will Pericak, defensive back Trovon Reed, defensive end Ryan Robinson, wide receiver Kevin Smith, cornerback Tye Smith, and former Archbishop Murphy High School standout Taniela Tupou, a defensive lineman.
Extra points
The New York Jets claimed running back Troymaine Pope off waivers, so any dice roll Seattle may have been trying to do to get the impressive, undrafted rookie from Jacksonville State through waivers and onto its practice squad failed. Pope is on the Jets’ 53-man active roster. … The Cleveland Browns claimed defensive back Marcus Burley.
