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The Seahawks have signed rookie undrafted free agent Jake Waters, a quarterback out of Kansas State. The move gives Seattle some depth at the position while Tarvaris Jackson rehabs from a high ankle sprain, suffered in Friday's loss to the Broncos.
Waters passed for 3,501 yards and produced 3,985 yards of total offense with 31 touchdowns as a senior at K-State, and was the man throwing passes to rookie Tyler Lockett.
"Jake was a great quarterback," Lockett told reporters recently. "It was easy to get on the page with him when he came in, he was good at throwing the ball before we got out of the breaks so defenders couldn't get there, he was a great leader, good at being able to maintain control of the offense, when we needed him to run, he ran, when we needed him to make a play he was always there."
"I think the biggest thing is he understood the offense, he understood the game so he knew what he could get away with, what he couldn't get away with, he was the guy who watched film. I was his roommate, so we just watched film, talked about certain techniques that cornerbacks play, and certain routes that I like against the coverages that they play and we went out there and executed it. He was always the quarterback, whatever we needed, he was the person to get the job done."
Waters missed pro day testing because of shoulder surgery in January, but was likely to go undrafted regardless because he lacks ideal size, at 6'1, 217, and doesn't have a big arm. Still, he's a playmaking zone-read quarterback that could make some sense for Seattle as a camp-arm, so it will be interesting to see how he performs.
Here's some tape on Waters:
To clear space on the roster, Seattle released longsnapper Nate Boyer, the former Green Beret that is attempting to catch on with an NFL team.
As Jay Glazer reported:
NFL is a tough business. Seahawks released Nate Boyer, needing roster spot to replace an injured player. Backup long snapper, regardless of back story, is always most expendable.
Just talked to Seahawks GM John Schneider, said conversation was hard one to have & Nate ended up consoling them not other way around, haha. I asked if in fact Nate could play in this league and was given emphatic yes but they just needed spot for skill player.
Best of luck to Nate as he continues to work toward earning a roster spot on an NFL team. He's been an inspiring story to follow, and I hope to see him get picked up elsewhere.