Saturday afternoon, the 32 teams that make up the NFL were compliant in cutting their rosters down to 53 players by the imposed deadline. The Seahawks had some difficult decision to make given their wealth of talent but there were some surprising moves made, nonetheless. Before we go into further detail on specific moves, lets take a look at all of the moves Seattle made to get their roster ready for the regular season.
Quarterbacks: QB Brady Quinn
Running Backs: FB Michael Robinson
Wide Receivers: WR Phil Bates, WR Bryan Walters, WR Arceto Clark and WR Chris Harper
Tight Ends: TE Darren Fells, TE Cooper Helfet and TE Sean McGrath
Offensive Linemen: G Ryan Seymour, G Jared Smith and G Rishaw Johnson
Defensive Linemen: DT Michael Brooks, DT Dewayne Cherrington, DT Jaye Howard, DT Sealver Siliga and DT Clinton McDonald
Linebackers: LB Ty Powell
Defensive Backs: DB DeShawn Shead, DB Winston Guy, DB Ron Parker and CB Antoine Winfield
It was no shock that Brady Quinn was released given the fact that Seattle generally only carries 2 quarterbacks on the roster in the regular season. I'm confident he will find a new job with another team
Probably the biggest shock on this list was the termination of Michael Robinson's contract. Granted, he was due $2.5 million, which is a lot for a fullback, but few teams value the fullback position quite like the Seahawks. Since the beginning of camp, the Seahawks were looking internally for Robinson's replacement, even giving wide out Phil Bates a shot before cutting him. Spencer Ware and Derrick Coleman are the two players vying for Robinson's duties but neither of them were very impressive this offseason.
Despite missing the past couple weeks with a virus of some sort, the only real knock on Robinson is his cap number. My hope is that Seattle is able to bring Mike Rob back into the fold under a veteran minimum contract while sneaking Spencer Ware onto the practice squad. If Seattle is unable to get him back this season, it will become the first area where Seattle has regressed from the season before.
It was a minor shock to see Seattle cut Antoine Winfield, seeing as how he was outplayed by Walter Thurmond, but it was fairly unexpected to see him elect to retire because of it. I can understand how a Pro Bowl veteran like Winfield wouldn't want to be a backup player but he looked like he could still be a starter on several other teams. Maybe he'll stay near the phone this season in case of injury.
We can only deduce from Seattle's decision to only keep two tight ends on the roster that Zach Miller is fully healthy and ready to go. Sure, offensive tackle Mike Person has had some reps this offseason at blocking tight end, but the only two pure tight ends on the roster are Miller and rookie Luke Willson. Both Helfet and McGrath played admirably this preseason and I would've been comfortable keeping either of them. With Willson's inexperience and Miller's injury history-- this move is more than unsettling to me.
The other surprise, to me anyway, was the Seahawks decision to cut Winston Guy. I thought Guy outplayed Jeron Johnson this preseason and I had heard that Carroll and Schneider were really high on him.
Seattle continued to try to shore up the defensive line by trading Jacksonville for defensive lineman, D'Anthony Smith. You can count on seeing a rotation of players on the defensive front for at least the first few games. Hopefully the cream rises to the top.
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