RENTON — Let the quarterback competition begin.
No, not that one.
There was some thought that the Seahawks’ trade for Charlie Whitehurst could spell trouble for Matt Hasselbeck, but offseason minicamp and organized training activities have shown that Hasselbeck is firmly entrenched as the starter barring injury.
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a QB battle going on during the preseason. Not if Mike Reilly has anything to say about it. Reilly, who was claimed by the Seahawks off waivers earlier this month, has a chance to unseat last year’s No. 3 quarterback Mike Teel, and winning the third-string job is usually the difference between a spot on the 53-man roster and relegation to the practice squad.
Reilly, who enjoyed a record-breaking career at Central Washington University, knows how tough the life of an unestablished quarterback can be — since entering the league as an undrafted free agent last year, he has already bounced from Pittsburgh to Green Bay to St. Louis — but getting a chance to chase that dream with the team he grew up rooting for is the perfect scenario for Reilly, who grew up in Kennewick.
“Just to be in the NFL is for anybody a dream, but to be able to play for the team that you’ve always wanted to play for is that much sweeter,” Reilly said after practice Monday. “It’s definitely a positive.”
Reilly said he has been a Seahawks fan since he was a kid, and that his friends and family are glad he is no longer with Pittsburgh, a team Seahawks fans have grown to hate ever since Super Bowl XL.
When Reilly signed with Pittsburgh, friends told him, “I can’t root for the Steelers, but I’ll root for you.”
“So it’s nice to be back on a team where my fiends can root for me and the team that I’m on,” he said.
Reilly will also feel comfortable if he gets on the field at Qwest Field, something that could very well happen during the preseason. While at Central, Reilly started in four games there against Western, and his team won all four games.
Of course Reilly’s long-term goals involve bigger things than backing up the backup quarterback, and he knows that his humble NFL beginnings won’t necessarily keep him from succeeding. He need look no farther than Hasselbeck, a sixth-round pick, for a reminder that draft-day afterthoughts can turn into NFL stars.
“There are plenty of guys that have shown that example,” Reilly said, naming fellow CWU alum Jon Kitna, Dallas’ Tony Romo, New England’s Tom Brady, as well as Hasselbeck. “Guys that were unknowns when they came out. It’s not a long shot any more. As long as you can play, they’re going to give you the opportunity. If you can play, it doesn’t matter if you were undrafted or a first-round pick.”
Still no Hill
Linebacker Leroy Hill continues to be absent from Seahawks offseason workouts following his arrest last month for domestic violence. That arrest came just 10 days after Hill pleaded guilty for a marijuana charge from a year earlier. Hill has been arraigned and entered a not-guilty plea. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll continues to be asked about Hill, but so far there is no new news.
“I don’t have anything to update you on,” Carroll said. “We’re waiting for word from the league office, where they stand about all of this, and we’ll just have to wait it out. They were not able to tell us when that’s going to come, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”
Asked if Hill still part of the team’s future plans, Carroll said: “I’m hoping. He’s part of our team, I’m hoping he will be and we need to see what that all means, but we’ll figure it out when the time comes.”
White, Herring absent
Running back LenDale White missed Monday’s practice, as did linebacker Will Herring, but both were excused absences.
“Will has a family situation he’s taking care of, and LenDale is coming back from Tennessee, he had some issues there with the flood situation that he had to take care of,” Carroll said.
One big end
In Pete Carroll’s defensive scheme, the end known as the five-technique is a run-stopper first and foremost, and any QB pressure is a bonus. Even so, the sight of defensive tackle Red Bryant playing end is unconventional, to say the least, but that’s one option the Seahawks are considering this spring.
Bryant, who is listed at 323 pounds — and he may well be bigger than that — has been rotating at end with Lawrence Jackson, the presumed starter.
“We never though of him as a defensive end when we came here,” Carroll said of Bryant. “… If we were able to man the defensive end position with a guy that weighs 330 pounds, that’s a good thing. And that’s if we can get Red down to 330.”
Seahawks release tight end
Jason Pociask, who was signed to the Seahawks’ practice squad last December, was released by the team Monday. Pociask entered the league as a fifth-round pick in 2006.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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