Even though Damon Harrison signed with the practice squad of the Seattle Seahawks, expect him to be playing in games with his new team relatively quickly.
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said on Wednesday that they are using the practice squad as a place for Harrison to get up to speed after officially signing with the team earlier in the day. Once Harrison is able to catch up physically and mentally with learning the defense, he’ll be a part of the mix on Seattle’s defense.
“Damon’s been a real force in the league and he’s got a real special style and he’s so big and so strong and stout in the middle,” Carroll said. “This opportunity to get him now and to get him on the practice squad is to give him some chance to work and get ready and learn what we’re doing and see where he can fit in as soon as possible. ... He’s a player that’s got big character in the locker room. His attitude and personality that you add to the team is really special. Whenever we can do that we’re trying to get better and so hopefully he’ll be able to add in. Right now we just want him to just get to work and get going.”
Harrison is mainly a run stopping defensive tackle and will be joining a team that already ranks third in the league in run defense through the first four weeks of the season. The Seahawks are allowing an average of 75.8 yards per game on the ground through four weeks.
“Snacks has been a notorious run defender. I mean he’s big time in the middle and stopping things up,” Carroll said. “He’s not been a guy that’s gonna be a third down pass (rush) specialist but that doesn’t mean that on the earlier downs by him creating the penetration he can’t free up space and all that. He’s been a factor like that in the past and so we’ll hope for that as we get going. We got to get him back in there first.”
Harrison went through his first practice with the team on Wednesday. Carroll wouldn’t say that Harrison will be up with the team for Sunday night’s game against Dalvin Cook and the Minnesota Vikings just yet, but he did note that they’ve used the practice squad elevation mechanism several times this year to bring up players for game day action.
“Let me see him on a practice field first. I don’t know. I gotta see what he looks like running around,” Carroll said. “Learning the defense, he’ll be fine there. He’s a really smart football player. That’s not going to be a problem. It’s just how fit he is and all that. He’s a big man, you know, so we got to see what he looks like.
“You’ve noticed we’ve been able to use players off our practice squad that have been playing in our games and they’ve been part of it. It’s an expanded roster in this new format and we’re trying to take full advantage of that and make the most of it.”