Seahawks let go of Marcus Smith, sign running back Justin Stockton

In a somewhat unexpected move, the Seattle Seahawks are moving on from Marcus Smith II.

It was confirmed on Friday that the team has terminated Smith’s contract, which was a one-year, $1.425 million deal. Smith had been absent from recent practices while dealing with an unspecified personal issue.

Smith had 2.5 sacks, two fumbles forced, and a pass defensed in what amounted to spot duty on the Seahawks’ defensive line rotation last season. When he was re-signed this offseason, it was expected that he’d be part of the Seahawks’ group of pass rushers, but that evidently is no longer the case for the former first-round draft pick.

Not coincidentally, Seattle made its signing of linebacker Erik Walden official, so that’s most likely the swap in terms of pass rushers.

In other roster moves, the Seahawks waived former West Virginia cornerback Elijah Battle, who’d just been signed over the weekend, and added running back Justin Stockton, an undrafted free agent out of Texas Tech who’d received a rookie camp invite from Seattle back in April. Stockton measures out at 5’10” and around 200 lbs, and in his senior season he rushed for 797 yards on just 132 carries in the Red Raiders’ pass-heavy offense.

With the Seahawks set to be without Rashaad Penny for presumably the rest of preseason, and Mike Davis seemingly also not at full strength with a sore toe, Stockton will obviously serve as extra RB depth for however long he’s on the team.