Nervous days await Benson Mayowa.
The Seattle Seahawks have through this weekend to trim their roster from the current 75 players to the league-mandated 53 roster cap limit for the regular season. Former Idaho defensive end and current Seahawks Benson Mayowa could be among those cuts.
But there are many who think Mayowa is going to make the 53. After all, he’s had more sacks in the last four pre-season games (3.5) than he did in all of 2012 as a senior at the University of Idaho (3). Mayowa may have put the exclamation point on his case to make the regular-season roster in the fourth quarter when he displayed strength rushing the left side of the line Oakland offensive line, delivering a high hit to Oakland quarterback Matt McGloin, making him cough up the football for a Seattle recovery.
The undrafted free agent was all smiles about the situation when speaking with Vandal Nation about it following Seattle’s 26-6 pre-season victory over Oakland on Thursday night in which he had a sack and a forced fumble.
“Like you said, I’m just going to wait it out, wait it out and see. See what’s going to be the final verdict. We both gonna see, and I’m pretty confident,” Mayowa said.
The Seahawks feature one of the deepest defensive front sevens in the NFL, though Seattle has question marks at the defensive end position because of injuries and a four-game suspension to Bruce Irvin (who technically plays OLB but is still a pass rusher).
“It’s a difficult time because these kids deserve to be a part of this team and there’s just not enough spots, we have a really good roster, they’ve been very competitive and have worked their tails off to be a part of it,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “There’s a few guys who aren’t going to be here and are going to be heartbroken, I get it, because they’ve really given us everything they’ve got.”
Mayowa was sporadically on the field on Thursday, a lot of it because Oakland only possessed the ball on offense for 24:23, and part it may have been that defensive coaches have seen all they needed to see.
“I’ll take that as a good thing,” Mayowa said.
Other notes and quotes
– Even if Mayowa doesn’t make it with Seattle, that doesn’t mean he won’t end up on a 53-man roster. Carroll said this is the deepest team he’s ever had, and considering the talent level that means other teams will be ready to pick up who Seattle cuts. “It’s going to very difficult and all our guys are going to get picked up,” Carroll said. “(Teams) will come after the guys we’ve released.”
– Mayowa spoke highly of former Idaho teammates and former Idaho coach Robb Akey, who Mayowa said continually text him encouragement that he belongs.
“They just tell me, ‘you belong there’ that’s the one thing they keep sending me, I belong here.”
– Former Idaho secondary coach Torey Hunter was in the building, working with the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL as a scout. He had worked with Mayowa over the summer prior to pro-day.
By Monday we should know what Mayowa’s fate with the Seahawks is.