Seahawks 53-Man Roster Prediction: Take 1
By Justin Floor
With NFL Draftees signed and subsequent undrafted free agent acquisitions and tryout players sorted out, the Seattle Seahawks have 90 players vying for jobs.
Let’s look (far) ahead to see who will make it through final cuts and begin the 2016-17 season as members of the Seahawks 53-man roster.
QUARTERBACK
Contenders: Russell Wilson, Trevone Boykin, Jake Heaps, Tarvaris Jackson (currently at home in pajamas and not a roster member)
Winners: Wilson, Jackson
Practice Squad: Boykin
The Skinny: There is a pretty large hype train for rookie Trevone Boykin rolling down the tracks right now, fueled by recent comments from both GM John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll that trumpeted the TCU quarterback’s skills.
That, friends, was no accident. Let me explain.
Those Boykin-boosting comments may or may not have been true, but they are more gamesmanship than anything. Those words were meant to make their way to Tarvaris Jackson’s ears, who is currently swaddled in a Snuggie on his couch, waiting for a better offer from a team than he has from the Seattle Seahawks. Jackson knows Darrell Bevell’s offense better than anyone and doesn’t need to be in camp until later this summer. His only leverage is to wait for some other team to offer more money to be a backup QB. Frankly, I don’t blame him. The league is short on quarterbacks, obviously. Unfortunately for Jackson, the other 31 teams seem to think there are better #2 options elsewhere.
The Seahawks have a championship-caliber roster. If something catastrophic were to happen to Wilson, there is absolutely no way they would turn the team’s fortunes over to an undrafted rookie quarterback. No way, no how. It would be season-suicide and team brass is too smart to let that happen.
If this team was not as good as it is, you could make an argument to go young at QB2 and allow Boykin to be one snap away from playing regular season games. But because it has the talent to still compete at a high level with just league average play at the quarterback position, Seattle would have confidence in Jackson at least giving the team a chance to win into and through January. Seattle, as they are currently constituted, actually needs T-Jack, and Jackson has no better option.
Expect the two sides to come to an agreement this summer that ensures the quarterback position will not be the reason the team fails to reach its lofty goals. At the same time, Boykin is an ideal developmental project that would be a perfect fit for the practice squad this season with an eye toward securing QB2 duties in 2017 and beyond once he has better command of the team’s playbook.
Heaps is a camp arm. Carroll will say nice things about him, and then he will be released soon after Jackson signs a contract.
Next: Which Running Backs will Make the Team?