Three spots up for grabs in Seahawks receivers room during camp

A little over three weeks remain until the Seattle Seahawks report for training camp for the 2021 season, meaning that just over six weeks remain until the first of three rounds of roster cuts. For those who have forgotten or who might have missed it this offseason, teams will make three rounds of cuts this year, on the following schedule:

• First Round: Tuesday August 17 - five cuts to trim roster to 85 players
• Second Round: Tuesday August 24 - five cuts to trim roster to 80 players
• Third Round: Tuesday August 31 - final 27 cuts to trim roster to 53 players

With the shortened preseason, that’s a round of cuts after each of the three preseason games teams will play, and will create extra intrigue as waiver wire activity could create additional roster shuffling in camp that hasn’t been seen in the past few seasons.

That all said, one of the key position battles that will be interesting to watch for the Hawks is at wide receiver, where the team will likely have nine players battling for the final three spots. Since 2010 Seattle has averaged 5.7 wide receivers on the 53 man roster, and with Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf the only proven members of the group, it seems likely that the team will once again carry six at the position to start the season.

With the first two spots, barring injury, held by Lockett and Metcalf, and 2021 second round pick D’Wayne Eskridge all but guaranteed a spot as well, that effectively leaves the other nine players fighting for the last three. Those nine who will be in on what should be an extremely intriguing battle are:

• Aaron Fuller
• Penny Hart
• Cade Johnson
• Darvin Kidsy
• Freddie Swain
• Cody Thompson
• Travis Toivonen
• John Ursua
• Connor Wedington

There are, of course, a handful of those who have become fan favorites thanks in large part to YouTube highlight videos or flashing during preseason. However, the simple fact of the matter is that in spite of gaudy college production, these receivers have not combined for a whole lot of production in meaningful NFL games. To that point, here is a quick look at what these players have done at the NFL level:

• Fuller: 0 snaps
• Hart: 62 offensive snaps, 114 special teams snaps, 1 catch for 3 yards, 1 rush for 19 yards
• Johnson: 2021 undrafted free agent
• Kidsy: 37 offensive snaps, 8 special teams snaps, 1 catch for 8 yards
• Swain: 351 offensive snaps, 148 special teams snaps, 13 receptions for 159 yards & 2 TD
• Thompson: 0 snaps
• Toivonen: 2021 undrafted free agent
• Ursua: 11 offensive snaps, 1 reception for 11 yards
• Wedington: 2021 undrafted free agent

For those too lazy to do the math themselves, that is a cumulative total of

• 461 offensive snaps
• 270 special teams snaps
• 16 receptions for 181 yards and 2 touchdowns

Which is not a whole lot of production, especially when considering what these players did in college, which is as follows with Eskridge included for comparative purposes.

So, they produced in college, and now it’s time to see which of them the coaching staff feels may be best able to produce in the NFL.