After waiving him Saturday, the Seahawks brought back WR/KR Bryan Walters Tuesday — his 27th birthday — to the 53-man roster as the club continues to shuffle players to fill holes on the roster created by injuries. Walters was cut to make room for backups in the decimated secondary for Sunday’s game against Oakland. Walters missed the previous game in Carolina with a concussion.
One of those fill-ins, S Terrance Parks, was waived via an injury settlement. Also released was LB L. J. Fort, TE Brett Brackett and WR Chris Matthews, and kept rookie sixth-round draft choice DB Eric Pinkins on the injured reserve / non-football injury list, ending his season.
Coach Pete Carroll said Monday the Seahawks anticipated the return Sunday for a home game against the New York Giants of at least six injured players: C Max Unger, CB Jeremy Lane, LT Russell Okung, safeties Kam Chancellor and Jeron Johnson and DT Jordan Hill. Because Unger was dressed but sat out to rest a sore foot, the Seahawks had only 45 players, which Carroll said was a first in his pro coaching tenure.
The short-handedness contributed to substitution problems and mistakes of inexperience, especially on special teams, he said.
“There were mistakes made in this game that were characteristic of preseason games,’’ Carroll said. “They would get out of their lanes and they don’t feel the guys next to him. They don’t have the sense for spacing.’’
Besides Walters, who is likely to replace WR Doug Baldwin on punt returns — Walters had 12 returns in five games for 109 yards before getting hurt — the Seahawks added TE Tony Moeaki, 6-foot-3 and 252 pounds, to the 53-man roster.
Moeaki, 27, was a 2010 third-round draft choice (93rd overall) of the Kansas City Chiefs from Iowa. He spent three seasons in Kansas City (2010-12), missing 2011 due to injury, and played in 30 games with 29 starts, recording 80 receptions for 1,009 yards with four touchdowns.
He signed with the Buffalo Bills in December 2013 but did not record any statistics in two games played.
The Seahawks also signed S Dion Bailey and WR Jalen Saunders to the practice squad.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2192718 https://sportspressnw.wpengine.com/?p=2192718">1 Comment
I’m somewhat surprised the 49ers didn’t pick up Walters. That’s been their MO when the Hawks release a player to make room and it was pretty obvious they were gambling no one would and would pick him up again if he was out there.