RENTON — While top picks like defensive end Frank Clark and wide receiver Tyler Lockett were the center of attention at the Seattle Seahawks’ rookie minicamp last week, those three practices were even more important to the dozens of players chasing an NFL dream against long odds.
Of the 66 players on hand last week, 39 were unsigned tryout players, meaning that for many, this was the closest they’d ever come to being in the NFL.
“A lot of kids, this is their shot to show what they can do,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said.
But not every tryout player was there as simply another body to allow the Seahawks to facilitate a functional practice. Every year, a few tryout players do enough to earn a contract, and in rare instances, such as the case of current Raider and former Seahawk pass-rusher Benson Mayowa, they even make the 53-man roster and see the field on Sundays.
Already the Seahawks have signed four players this week who participated in the rookie minicamp: fullback Brandon Cottom, linebacker Tyrell Adams, defensive end Julius Warmsley and guard Kona Schwenke, and other players are still holding on to hope that they’ll get another, more extended chance to prove what they can do in training camp.
Which brings us to former University of Washington standout Kasen Williams. Not long ago, it would have been hard to believe that Williams would be in this position, a player trying out for a shot at even making a team’s 90-man roster. When Williams was the Parade All-American Player of the Year at Skyline High School, and when he was catching 77 passes for 878 yards for the Huskies as a sophomore, an NFL career seemed like a foregone conclusion for the receiver.
But a devastating injury Williams’ junior year — he fractured his fibula and suffered a Lisfranc attempting to make a leaping catch — hampered his production as a senior when it was clear Williams wasn’t the same player physically.
After catching just 20 passes as a senior, Williams went undrafted, then he thought he had a contract with Cincinnati following the draft, but that fell through, reportedly because of a failed physical. Instead, Williams was at Seahawks headquarters as just another tryout player hoping to earn a contract.
“I’ve gone through a lot, but I feel great. I feel ready,” Williams said. “I just want to compete every single day. I’ve worked so hard to get here, and to go through what I went through the last year, it puts a lot of anger in me, and I just want to use that to my advantage.”
Williams turned back the clock on Saturday with a spectacular leaping catch, the kind of play that made him one of the best young players on Washington’s roster three years ago. And even if his top-end speed isn’t the same, the former state-champion triple jumper, long jumper and high jumper still feels like he has what it takes, physically, to play in the NFL.
“I’d say the best is yet to come,” he said. “I feel 100 percent, I feel back to myself, but the best is yet to come.”
Williams wasn’t the only Husky receiver hoping to get noticed over the weekend, with Kevin Smith, who spent time with Seattle last offseason, also participating. Those two, along with other roster hopefuls, can get confidence knowing the Seahawks, more than most teams, are willing to let undrafted players earn roster spots — they even send agents a recruiting pamphlet detailing how undrafted free agents play more for them than other teams. That list includes Seattle’s two starting receivers last season, Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse, though neither of those two had to go the tryout route.
“He definitely paved the way, and I’m just learning from him as much as I can,” Williams said of his former college teammate, Kearse. “Just seeing how he goes about each day, how he’s gone about this process. I just want to do everything that he’s doing, if not better.”
And even if the Seahawks haven’t signed Williams up to this point, it is possible they still add him to the roster at some point if they want more receiver depth for camp.
“He looked very good,” Carroll said. “We’ve known him for a long time through the recruiting process, and our expectations are that he is a really accomplished receiver, great athlete getting off the ground and all — he showed all of that. He looked like he fit, so we’ll try to get him back.”
Had Williams stayed healthy at Washington, he likely would have been in somebody’s rookie minicamp as a drafted player, somebody likely to make a 53-man roster. Instead he was just another player chasing that dream the hard way, but Williams won’t let himself wonder “what if?”
“You can’t control that,” he said. “All you can control is what’s in the future, and I’m preparing every day for that moment in the future.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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