When it comes to handling receiver Percy Harvin’s status on the roster, the Seahawks have two options, which is one more than they would have had before last year.
They can leave Harvin on the physically unable to perform list, or they can shift him to injured reserve, with the designation to return.
Albert Breer of NFL Network reports that the Seahawks plan to keep Harvin on the PUP list, which opens a window between Week Six and Week 11 to allow Harvin to return to practice. Once he returns to practice, the Seahawks will have three weeks to put Harvin on the activer roster or shut him down for the year.
The IR option would require him to miss eight weeks and allow a return at any point after that. But if the Seahawks use the once-per-year short-term IR designation on Harvin, they won’t have it to use on someone else who may get injured later in the year. The PUP approach has no such limitation.
If, of course, the Seahawks struggle this season, at a certain point it will make sense to shut Harvin down. For now, though, the dark cloud has a thick silver lining -- Harvin could make a return late in the season, make a major impact, and provide the difference between losing in the postseason and winning.