Seahawks Far From Finished Tweaking 53-Man Roster
Waiting several hours after the 1 PM ET deadline to publicly reveal cuts, the Seattle Seahawks finally announced their initial 53-man roster shortly before hitting the practice field on Tuesday afternoon with few surprises.
But if there's one lesson any NFL player or fan should know about this time of year, the word initial should be in bold and italics sandwiched between quotations. The word may be viewed as little more than window dressing, and yet, it couldn't be more accurate classifying the state of rosters around the league on cut down day.
For Seattle and the rest of the 31 teams, the process of assembling a team for Week 1 has only just begun. And, while stars such as Geno Smith, DK Metcalf, Bobby Wagner, and company don't have to sweat out their place on the roster, the same can't be said for bubble players such as veteran Artie Burns, who would be advised to keep his head on a swivel over the next 24 to 48 hours.
How are Burns and several other players still on tenuous ground despite making the initial roster for their respective teams? Look at the NFL calendar and it's easy to see why they should wait a few days before celebrating.
Around the league, more than 1,000 players receive a pink slip before the cut down deadline, creating a massive pool of unclaimed and unsigned free agents in a matter of hours. The vast majority of those players haven't reached vested veteran status and are subject to waivers where other teams can put in claims for them in the 24-hour window after cuts are submitted to the league office.
Before the 2022 season, only 34 players were claimed off waivers, or what amounts to a little more than one player per team. On the surface, that may not seem like much, but when teams are awarded players, they have to make a subsequent roster move to create a spot for them and most of the time, that means a player who thought he had made the team one day earlier now hits the waiver wire himself.
Last August, undrafted rookie edge rusher Joshua Onujiogu survived initial roster cuts for the Seahawks. But when the team was awarded cornerback Isaiah Dunn and defensive end Daryl Johnson off waivers, they quickly waived the former Division III star and he eventually returned as a member of the practice squad. To open up a second roster spot, cornerback John Reid landed on injured reserve.
Around the league, dozens of similar scenarios will play out this week with claimed players leading to a second wave of cuts and other additional moves. It's another cold, harsh reality of the business as teams such as Seattle continue to churn the roster before Week 1.
After undergoing a shoulder procedure and missing the final two preseason games, rookie Mike Morris may be a candidate for short-term injured reserve for the Seahawks.
On the flip side, while waiver claims can cost players jobs, there is a silver lining for those who were released before the cut deadline. Most teams across the NFL have at least one or two players dealing with injury who they intend to place on injured reserve with a designation to return. In the case of the Seahawks, receiver Dareke Young and defensive tackle Mike Morris have been out with hip and shoulder injuries and may need a few weeks at minimum before they can return to action.
But per NFL rules, if Seattle would have placed Young or Morris on injured reserve prior to the cut down deadline, they would have been lost for the season. Instead, they stashed them on the 53-man roster and starting at 4 PM ET on Thursday, the team will be able to place them on injured reserve with the ability to activate them after missing four games.
Once that happens, depending on how many players the Seahawks choose to place on injured reserve, they will be able to instantly create roster openings to re-sign players who they released earlier in the week and cleared waivers. This presents the best mechanism for teams to keep as many of their own players as possible, opening the door to bring back preseason standouts such as edge defender Levi Bell or receiver Easop Winston.
For those who don't get claimed by another team and aren't re-signed to the active roster, expanded practice squads create additional opportunities. As coach Pete Carroll indicated after Saturday's 19-15 loss to the Packers in the preseason finale, he wants to fill as many of those 16 slots with players who were with the Seahawks during training camp and the preseason for continuity and development purposes.
"69 of these players are going to be with us and that is a bunch of guys in this locker room right here that are going to stay with us," Carroll said. "There will be some changes. There are always some, but a bulk of these guys are going to be with us, and I love that because these guys are connected and they know how we play, what we expect, how we prepare, how we talk about our challenges and all of that. That is only going to make us better as we go through the start of the season coming up."
As waiver claims start to trickle in on Wednesday morning and teams start jockeying for position to sign vested veterans, time will tell whether or not Seattle lands any new players and has to execute corresponding moves to create roster spots for them. Sitting 20th on the waiver wire after making the playoffs last season, it may be far more difficult to acquire talent with 19 teams in front of them on the pecking order.
Regardless of what transpires over the next several days, amid the chaos and madness that comes after cut down day annually, the only certainty is that the Seahawks roster on September 10 when they face off against the Rams will look significantly different than the one turned in on Tuesday.
