Revisiting Obscure Seahawks Bi-Weekly

Jun 12, 2013; Renton, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Derrick Coleman (40) rushes during minicamp practice at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Earlier in the offseason I did a ten part series entitled “Obscure Seahawks Bi-Weekly” that looked at some of the lesser known players that were on this roster. At the time I figured that I was mainly doing an in depth examination of camp bodies that was more of a fun thing than something relating to meaningful players on this team. In the first edition of the series I said in a not entirely serious manner, “If looking into fringe roster players in depth just isn’t your thing, I understand, but you are missing out. I can almost guarantee one of the guys I highlight in this series will make the team and you will feel foolish for not being ahead of the curve.”

As it turned out I was both right and wrong. “At least one” of the players I looked at did make the team. However, that turned out to be a big understatement. Out of the ten players I looked at four of them made the 53 man roster and one made the practice squad. That rate exceeded my expectations by a fair margin so I thought I would revisit the list again today with links to the previous write ups if you want to get in depth on some of the new players on the Seahawks. Keep in mind that hindsight is 20-20 when you see that I gave many of the players currently on the roster almost no chance to make the team at the time. I am no Nate Silver. Here’s the full list:

Matt Austin WR: Austin never really threatened to make this team or this practice squad in the end. There were too many other receivers making noise at camp.

Miles Wade DT: Wade was another guy who didn’t do much to separate himself and was an easy cut for the coaches to make.

Chandler Fenner DB: Fenner went on the IR fairly early on so it’s not exactly clearly what he might have done. That being said, it would have been hard for him to make it in the Seahawks stacked secondary.

Ray Polk S: Ray Polk was released by Seattle and then was signed by Jacksonville (obviously) but he has since been released by the Jaguars. He has some potential and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some one else take a crack at him.

Derrick Coleman: Apparently the question of “who between Michael Robinson and Spencer Ware will be the Seahawks fullback?” is actually answered by “Derrick Coleman”. I wouldn’t be surprised if Coleman is just around for long enough for the Seahawks to feel like Ware’s conversion to fullback is complete. However, Ware is only a 6th round pick and if Coleman continues to look better they’ll keep him. If you go back and read my piece on Coleman you’ll see that analysis is so very wrong. Hey, you win some you lose some.

Benson Mayowa: Benson had himself quite a preseason and as a result made the roster as a backup LEO. I look forward to seeing what he can do against top notch competition.

Luke Willson: I did my piece on Willson before McCoy was injured and he was a mortal lock to make the squad. He is one of the Seahawks I’m most eager to see in this coming season due to his immense potential. The fact he is from my neck of the woods also doesn’t hurt.

Allen Bradford: Bradford is the current backup to Bobby Wagner at MLB and has shown a lot of potential this offseason. If he can show some special teams prowess he can make Heath Farwell pretty expendable.

Brett Swain: In this post I described Chris Harper as a lock to make this team. Yikes. Swain was never likely to make this squad and when in doubt Carroll is going to go for younger, higher upside players.

Cooper Helfet: Helfet ended up making the practice squad, though there are probably moves to come regarding the TE situation with Seattle only carrying two right now.

This list will end up making a much bigger impact on the 2013 Seahawks than I ever imagined at the time so feel free to take a browse and chuckle at the ineptitude of my May predictions. While you are at it you might learn a little more about some of your newer Seahawks.