Predicting who will make the Seahawks 53-man roster in 2021

Five from Thirteen

On the initial 53 man roster in 2020 the Seahawks had six cornerbacks and four safeties. Assuming they repeat that in 2021, that leaves 13 players competing for just five spots. In my 40 players certain to make the roster I have already given five spots to Akhello Witherspoon, DJ Reed, Jamal Adams, Quandre Diggs and Marquise Blair.

This leaves 3 spots at corner and 1 at safety. I did not include Tre Flowers in my certainties but he must be pretty close to being assured one of the three corner spots. If not, he is certain to get traded I would think.

There are 8 guys looking to get one of the other two corner slots on the roster.

Pierre Desir and Damarious Randall are probably the from runners. Desir is a 7-year veteran whose career appears to be on a steady decline, but he could still serve a role as steady depth backup for the ‘Hawks in 2021.

Randall’s numbers have fallen off a cliff since he left Cleveland, the Seahawks are apparently going to convert him from safety to corner. If that works out in preseason, Randall would have a great chance of making the final cut. That would leave rookies Tre Brown and UDFA Bryan Mills without a spot though.

Brown was the fourth round pick in this year’s draft, so the Seahawks will be keen to find a spot for him and Mills is also one of the better UDFAs that was left behind in the draft. So this will be another great one to observe in the preseason, only two of these four are likely to make the 53 man roster.

That leaves Gavin Heslop, Jordan Miller and Saivion Smith as the outsiders in this contest. Miller was a 5th round draft pick by the Falcons in 2019 and the other two are UDFA’s that have never made much impact. So all three look destined for the practice squad at best.

At safety, we have five players going after potentially one spot. Ugo Amadi and Ryan Neal are the front runners, with UDFA Aashari Crosswell, Joshua Moon and LaDarius Wiley as the other contenders.

Judging by snap counts from last season, Amadi had 551 and 107 on special teams, Neal had 393 and 202 on special teams. Amadi would appear to have a slight edge here, although Neal is the more productive on special teams.

Unless the Seahawks find a way to fit both on the roster, this is going to be one of the toughest calls to make come decision day.

Aashari Crosswell was an opt-out from his final season at Arizona State and thus fell off the radar come draft time, but he has plenty of potential upside and should be seen as a developmental player in 2021.

Moon and Wiley look destined for the practice squad unless they have a tremendous preseason.

Special Teams

Josh Myers and Michael Dickson have the kicking duties nailed down, as does Tyler Ott at long snapper. Special teams contributor Nick Bellore is the final one that will make up the 53rd member of the roster.