Seattle Seahawks Claim LB O’Brian Schofield

The Seattle Seahawks claimed linebacker O’brian Schofield off waivers today. He was released by the Arizona Cardinals yesterday. Schofield is a very talented player, but he has struggled to stay healthy over his 3 year NFL career.

Schofield, who played college ball at Wisconsin, is a classic 3-4 pass rushing outside linebacker. He’s long, lean and quick. At this point, he looks like a potential backup to Bruce Irvin at the SAM LB position.

Jun. 11, 2013; Glendale, AZ, USA: Arizona Cardinals linebacker O

He was highly regarded coming out of college, but tore his ACL in a Senior Bowl practice. He was a DE in college, and had to adjust to both a position change as well as rehab his knee his rookie year. He finished the year with 2 sacks and 5 tackles in very limited action.

2011 and 2012 were a mixed bag in terms of results. Very up and down performance wise.  He started all 16 games in 2011, but didn’t see the number of snaps you’d expect for a starter. The same is true for the first 9 weeks of 2012 before he ended up on IR with another injury.

The Cardinals appear to have primarily only used him in passing situations. He’s a decent pass rusher according to PFF, but struggles against the run.

Schofield is due to make $1.323 million this season. If he’s going to stick on this roster at that price, he’ll have to show that he’s a big upgrade over the younger (cheaper) guys already in camp.

There is still no word on who was cut to make room for Schofield on the roster. If I had to guess, it would be that a WR is most likely. Vertung or Herd would be possibilities. We probably wont hear who it is until until tomorrow.

Update: Not 5 minutes after I published this saying we may not here until tomorrow, the Seahawks announced that OT Jake Bscherer was released to make room for Schofield.