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Seattle Waived Both Running Backs Who Touched the Ball Saturday
Two days after the preseason opener, the Seahawks cleaned out the back of the running back room. T.J. Harden and Justin Jones were waived, cornerback Shemar Jean-Charles went on injured reserve, and in came linebacker Power Echols, receiver Julian Hicks, and running back Anthony Hankerson. Six moves, one afternoon.
Hankerson is an undrafted rookie out of Oregon State who signed with Miami in May and got cut last week. He also put up back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons for a Beavers team that was, to be generous, not good. Producing that on a bad roster is a real thing. Getting waived in August by the Dolphins is also a real thing. Both can be true.
The reason Seattle could afford to churn two bodies out of that room: Jadarian Price practiced. Full participant Monday for the first time since August 7, after five straight missed sessions and a preseason opener spent in a ball cap. No pads, no contact, helmets and shorts only. Still. He was out there, and the front office spent the same afternoon rearranging the depth behind him.
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Consecutive practices Price missed before returning as a full participant Monday.
He is not all the way back. Pads and hitting are the next hurdles, and the joint practice in Nashville on Friday is the obvious target. But a first-round pick who has been a rumor since the first week of August finally showed up as a participant instead of a status update.
The two guys who got let go both played against Dallas. That is the part worth sitting with. Seattle watched them carry the ball in a live game on Saturday and by Monday had decided the answer was somebody else’s spare parts.
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You do not clear two roster spots at running back on a Monday unless somebody looked good on Monday.
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Locker Room
DeMarcus Lawrence Says This One Is the Last One
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“It was a tough process,” Lawrence told Yahoo Sports. He nearly walked away in February with a ring on his hand, which is the cleanest exit any football player is ever offered, and he came back anyway. Eleven years in Dallas, five Pro Bowls, one Super Bowl in Seattle, and he decided a victory lap was worth more than a perfect ending.
The football consequences are not small. Seattle already lost Boye Mafe to Cincinnati, already drafted zero edge rushers, already patched the room with Dante Fowler on a one-year deal. Now the veteran anchor of that group has a clock on him that everybody can read.
The nice version is that he gets sixteen more Sundays to soak it in. The Seattle version is that Schneider now knows exactly how many edge rushers he needs to find, and exactly when.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Devon Witherspoon put pen to paper on Monday and immediately volunteered that nobody should expect a personality change. “I’m cheap with it now, don’t ever get that confused,” he said after practice. Highest-paid cornerback in the league, and the man is still splitting the check. FOX Sports
Shemar Jean-Charles went on injured reserve Monday after a Saturday that included a long touchdown allowed and a pass interference flag. Barring an injury settlement, the next football he plays is in 2027. August is not a forgiving month for a fifth cornerback. Field Gulls
Episode three of Hard Knocks airs tonight, which means an Emmy-winning production team now has to build 45 minutes of television out of a 17-7 loss in which the defending champions gained 156 yards. Liev Schreiber has earned whatever he is getting paid. Yahoo Sports
The World Cup grass is coming out of Lumen Field and the artificial turf is going back in, with the stadium’s brutal event calendar and the local weather both working against keeping it. The players graded that surface an F in February. They got real grass for one glorious soccer summer and now they get it taken away, which is the most Seattle sports outcome available. Seattle Times
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Los Angeles is going to spend this week of practice without Puka Nacua or Myles Garrett, both parked to rest what Sean McVay is calling minor stuff: soreness in Nacua’s psoas, swelling in Garrett’s knee. Two other players are expected to miss weeks with hamstrings from the preseason opener. The betting favorite to win everything has now spent most of August explaining which of its stars is resting and why we shouldn’t read anything into it.
NINERS
There are 17 days until San Francisco boards a plane to Australia for its season opener, and George Kittle, who tore his right Achilles in January, is still just hoping to be on it. Most teams worry about whether their tight end can practice. The 49ers are worried about whether he can travel 7,800 miles and then practice. Book him the aisle seat.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
In January 1999, Paul Allen hired one man as Seahawks head coach, general manager and executive vice president of football operations all at once, then removed two of those three titles after the 2002 season. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Mike Holmgren. He kept the coaching job, and the version of him with less paperwork went on to win five division titles and take Seattle to Super Bowl XL.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
2008
August 18, 2008
The Team Practices at the VMAC for the First Time
On this date the Seahawks held their first practice at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, the 200,000-square-foot headquarters on the shore of Lake Washington in Renton that opened in the summer of 2008. Eighteen years later it is where Jadarian Price got cleared to participate on Monday, where HBO has been parked all month, and where an 80,000-square-foot expansion is supposedly coming. Every piece of news in this newsletter happened on that grass.
Got a Question? Fire Away.
The mailbag runs on whatever you send. Roster math, cap panic, petty grievances about the turf. Send it in and I will answer honestly, which is not always the same as helpfully.
Episode three tonight. Somebody at HBO has to make 156 yards look like television. — The Rooster