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The Seattle Seahawks drafted tight end Nick Vannett in the third round of the draft this year, plus were getting back Jimmy Graham from injury, so the prospects of Cooper Helfet making the team this season certainly took a hit if everyone were healthy. Unfortunately for him, it seems that Helfet is the first one to be injured.
Darrell Bevell said in his press conference on Sunday that Helfet was absent from practice because of a foot injury and his return date is still unknown. It was later reported that Helfet has a broken bone in his foot, which sounds even worse.
The team signed undrafted free agent rookie tight end Clayton Echard out of Missouri and waived/injured receiver Tyler Slavin.
Helfet signed with the team as an undrafted free agent out of Duke in 2012, but didn’t make his active game day debut really until 2014, when he caught 12 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns. He had 13 catches for 130 yards and zero scores last season.
It certainly seems like Graham, Vannett, and Luke Willson are all locks to make the team, so Helfet was fighting more of an uphill battle than he had been in the last couple of seasons. Tight end Brandon Williams has also been noted as having a good training camp thus far.