Seahawks happy to keep roster almost fully intact with cutdown day past

RENTON — When the Seahawks reconvened for practice Wednesday afternoon after two dizzying days of cutting down their roster and starting to build it back up, the team on the field looked almost as it had all of training camp.
Of the 66 players at practice, all had been with the team at some point during camp.
“Yeah, we really liked our group,” coach Pete Carroll said. “We were hoping to keep as many as possible. Keep things moving in the same direction.”
The Seahawks made a few moves Wednesday, claiming two players off waivers — cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly from the Ravens and linebacker Drake Thomas from the Raiders — who were added to the 53-man roster that was created the day before when teams had to pare their rosters from the training-camp maximum of 90.
To make room, they released veteran cornerback Artie Burns and waived linebacker Jon Rhattigan. Burns was re-signed to the team’s 16-player practice squad.
The Seahawks announced only 15 practice-squad players — all of whom had been with the team during camp — meaning there is a spot for Rhattigan if he clears waivers.
While the Seahawks will surely keep looking to strengthen their team, the roster assembled so far felt about as status quo as any in the team’s recent memory. There was no big roster-cutdown weekend move such as the trades for Jadeveon Clowney (2019) or Sheldon Richardson (2017) of years past, or even minor shuffling such as dealing cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, who had entered the 2021 camp as a starter
The two waiver claims were made to add young players the Seahawks felt were too promising to overlook, while potentially being able to bring back the vets released to make room.
That Burns made the initial 53-man was something of a surprise. As a vested veteran, his entire salary of $1.08 million would have been guaranteed if he were on the roster for the first game of the season.
He won’t get that for now, but the practice-squad spot keeps him on the team. Since he was a vested vet he did not have to go through waivers and could re-sign immediately. Burns played substantial at nickel corner at the end of camp, a spot where the Seahawks have hoped to use rookie Devon Witherspoon, who remains sidelined with a hamstring, meaning Burns could serve as the backup nickel behind Coby Bryant.
“We were thrilled to get Artie back,” Carroll said. “We expect him to play.”
Rhattigan spent much of the preseason working with the second defense as a backup to Bobby Wagner at middle linebacker. Entering his third year out of Army, Rhattigan led the Seahawks with 25 tackles in the preseason.
The 6-foot, 192-pound Kelly was a fifth-round pick out of Stanford who played 103 snaps at outside corner during the preseason, according to Pro Football Focus. The swap of Burns for Kelly means the Seahawks still have six cornerbacks. They view Kelly as a player they can develop, with Carroll making an allusion to another former Stanford corner, Richard Sherman.
“Saw him all through the (draft) process,” Carroll said. “Liked him as a cover guy. And hit well and reminded me of another Stanford corner I’d seen back in the day. Kinda long, and looked really in control, body control-wise and all that kinda stuff.”
The 6-foot, 223-pound Thomas, an undrafted free agent from North Carolina State, played 87 snaps as an inside linebacker during the preseason with Las Vegas. Carroll indicated he could get immediate time on special teams.
“For Thomas, he’s a ballplayer, you know?” Carroll said. “Really instinctive, really natural. Finds the football really well. Hits with everything he’s got. Not the biggest guy, but he brings everything.
“And a very effective special-teams guy as well. So he looked like an exciting guy to add to the mix in the hopes that he can find his way, in special teams right off the bat and work his way from there.”
The swap of Rhattigan for Thomas means the Seahawks have four inside linebackers on its 53-man roster — Wagner, Jordyn Brooks, Devin Bush and Thomas.
While Rhattigan spent a lot of time in camp playing middle linebacker, Brooks’ return means they have two experienced middle linebackers.
The addition of Kelly and Thomas means the Seahawks have 14 rookies on their 53-man roster. They kept all 10 draft picks and two undrafted free agents — receiver Jake Bobo and snapper Chris Stoll.
While teams take pride in having players claimed off waivers as a sign of the strength of their roster, the Seahawks probably weren’t complaining that they didn’t have anyone claimed.
That meant that once the deadline passed Wednesday at 9 a.m., they could re-sign as many of those players as it could to the practice squad.
The full practice squad roster as of Wednesday consisted of: Burns, quarterback Holton Ahlers, nose tackle Matt Gotel, receivers Matt Landers, Cade Johnson and Easop Winston Jr., running backs Bryant Koback and SaRodorick Thompson Jr., center Joey Hunt, offensive tackle Greg Eiland, tight end Tyler Mabry, linebacker Patrick O’Connell, rush end Levi Bell, cornerback Lance Boykin and safety Ty Okada.
Teams can activate two practice-squad players a week to the gameday roster, and players can be activated three times without having to go through waivers to go back to the practice squad.
Practice squad players can make from $12,000 a week (or $216,000 for the season) to $20,600 per week (or $370,800) depending on their years of service.