RENTON — The Seahawks may have found an intriguing option for a physical wide receiver they always are seeking.
They found him off the University of Washington’s, the Miami Dolphins’ and the New York Jets’ discard piles.
Damore’ea Stringfellow, the former Washington Husky and Mississippi transfer, signed with the Seahawks on Monday. That was after he was perhaps the most impressive of the 46 tryout players the team had in this past weekend for their three-day rookie minicamp.
“(Stringfellow) had a good camp. He did a nice job,” Carroll said Sunday. “He looked like he fit and made a real good statement to give himself a chance here.”
Monday, Stringfellow and four other tryout players from the minicamp signed with Seattle: free safety Tevon Mutcherson, center Marcus Henry, tackle Nick Callender and guard Avery Young.
The Seahawks waived four of the 15 undrafted rookie free agents they had signed before the weekend minicamp: wide receivers Ka’Raun White and Taj Williams, linebacker Jason Hall and center Brad Lundblade. The Seahawks also waived linebacker Paul Dawson, who played in three games for the team last season.
Stringfellow, the former UW wide receiver who was dismissed from the Huskies’ program in 2014, looked and practiced bigger in his blue Seahawks practice jersey than his listed 6-foot-2 and 218 pounds. That got Carroll’s attention. He is constantly looking for bigger, physically dominant wide receivers to complement Seattle’s smaller playmakers such as Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett.
The Seahawks’ need for a physically superior matchup at receiver increased in March when 6-foot-7 tight end Jimmy Graham signed as a free agent with Green Bay.
Early in Sunday’s scrimmaging Stringfellow zipped past his defender and caught a 40-yard pass in stride down the right sideline from former UW and Utah quarterback Troy Williams.
Stringfellow was a promising Huskies receiver at Washington until February 2014. On the night the Seahawks won Super Bowl 48 by smashing Denver, Stringfellow and former Huskies quarterback Cyler Miles allegedly assaulted Seahawks fans on and around the UW campus.
New Huskies coach Chris Petersen suspended Stringfellow and Miles. Police charged Stringfellow with two counts of fourth-degree assault and one count of third-degree malicious mischief. He was sentenced in a plea deal to five days on a work crew, fined $693 and was ordered to attend anger-management counseling. He transferred to Mississippi later in 2014.
He played two seasons at Ole Miss, then declared for the NFL draft in 2017 with one year of college eligibility remaining. The Miami Dolphins signed him as an undrafted free agent last year, but was released in September, at the end of the preseason. The New York Jets had him on their practice squad last regular season. The Jets released Stringfellow on April 27.
This past weekend he was trying to stick back in Seattle.
Carroll made it sound like Stringfellow earned a longer look than a tryout. He’ll be in Seahawks’ organized team activities later this month to continue his quest to be a bigger receiver Seattle needs.
Seahawks receivers Baldwin (5-foot-10, 192 pounds) and Lockett (5-foot-10, 182) aren’t big bodies. Last year’s draft picks Amara Darboh (6-foot-2) and David Moore (6-foot) are each 219 pounds, but remain unproven.
“We would always like to have (big wide receivers),” Carroll said. “Our guys that do a lot of our playing are the quicker guys, smaller guys … so we are always looking.”
The Seahawks had 67 signed players on their 90-man roster after the draft that ended April 28. They drafted nine players, then signed 15 undrafted free agents last week for the rookie minicamp. They released Pro Bowl defensive end Cliff Avril with a failed-physical designation on Friday to get back down to the roster limit of 90. Monday’s five-for-five swap of players keeps them at 90 on the roster.
There’s another big, physical free-agent wide receiver from UW available.
Kasen Williams became a free agent last week when he cleared league waivers from Cleveland. Williams played for the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent at the end of the 2016 season then starred in the summer of 2017, yet Seattle waived him in its final preseason cuts.
The Browns claimed Williams in the first week of September, and he played for Cleveland last year before the team waived him and then put him on their practice squad in November.
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