The Seattle Seahawks have a deep defensive line, so for a rookie to make the roster, they would likely need to be a high-round draft pick or have a unique talent. Uso Seumalo appears to be neither of those types of players. He certainly wasn't the former, and as for the latter, he was exposed in preseason Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys.
Seumalo was given every opportunity to show what he was capable of against the backups of Dallas. He was involved in 25 snaps, 17 against the run, which should be his strength, and eight against the pass. Astonishingly, the nose guard didn't accomplish nearly anything but taking up space on the field.
The game was fairly brutal for the Seahawks as a whole. Head coach Mike Macdonald said he was disappointed after the game with how his team finished plays and how it approached the game overall. The starters weren't involved for Seattle, but neither were Dallas's.
Uso Seumalo might have played himself off the Seattle Seahawks roster
This meant what fans saw was a lot of one-on-one opportunities for presumed backups trying to prove they belong on the roster. Seattle could use a backup nose guard, if nothing else, but to play in a rotation on obvious run downs. Seumalo made it obvious that if he were to make the team and get in on short-yardage situations, he would only be there to help the other team.
He had no quarterback pressures, one run stuff, which was the only tackle he had. He had more opportunities to make stops, but when he got close one other time, he whiffed on the attempt. This is inexcusable for a player who will be tasked with stopping a team from picking up crucial first downs by running the ball.
Uso Seumalo simply showed that he cannot be trusted and can be pushed around, even by backups, and a lack of trust means a player won't get on the field; and if that happens, they shouldn't be on the roster at all. Maybe the Seattle Seahawks keep Seumalo around on the practice squad, but he could be pushed off that too by another rookie, Deven Eastern.
To be fair, Eastern wasn't good against the Cowboys either. He was involved in just 11 plays and didn't record any statistics. Even a missed tackle would have shown he was on the field.
Thankfully, the defensive line shouldn't be an issue for the Seahawks. The starters will be Jarran Reed, Byron Murphy II, and Leonard Williams, a formidable trio that is among the best in the NFL. Backing them up will probably be Rylie Mills and Brandon Pili. Pili fills the role that Seumalo would hope to do, making the Kansas State product even more unnecessary.
The positive for Uso Seumalo is that he does still have two preseason games and the rest of training camp to atone for his play against Dallas. One might wonder if he is capable of actually doing so.
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