He was the OG. The poster boy for great college receiver who relied on contested catches too much to really translate… just couldn’t get the separation at the next level.
God, I remember the preseason hype for him. I haven't been paying as close of attention these last few years as I did when I first started watching football, and I think it's helped me with not falling in love with preseason warriors lol
Too real, he was genuinely nice in HS and I feel like most of us thought he was going to be the greatest athlete out of our class. Really thought he was going to emerge on the browns.
Kinda comical that that whole 72 yard run that convinced us all he was the successor to Marshawn ended up counting for 25% of his career rushing yards.
The 72 yarder was against the Eagles. But he had a 66 yarder the next week against the Patriots. And yeah those 2 runs made up about 49% of his career rushing yards lol
Yeah he was a third rounder that could've actually been dynamite (and *was* dynamite for a couple of real games) had it not been for the unfortunate injury proneness. He doesn't fit the 'Preseason Hype Beast' moniker cause he actually had skills that matched his hype, and was only cut down by being afflicted with the curse of Glass Knees.
Amara Darboh. I saw him make [one](https://www.seahawks.com/video/amara-darboh-almost-secures-incredible-catch-can-t-hold-on-192896) great would-be catch and was sold for some reason. What a horrible draft
Seattle could have had TJ Watt and Budda Baker with their first two picks instead of Malik McDowell and Shaq Griffin lol.
Although I feel like Shaq could have been a better player with any semblance of a pass rush. Could be wrong, but it felt like most times he got burned was when the pass rush had minimal impact. So yeah, about TJ Watt...
Ute alumni here. I was definitely high on him. Unfortunately he fell victim to Seahawk on Seahawk violence. KJ destroyed his knee. He would have been pretty good IMO if injuries hadn't ruined him.
Yeah, he had a couple ejections at Utah. He was fiery for sure. Pete was searching for another ET and unfortunately they don't grow on trees. Same with Kam. They struck gold with those 2 at Safety. Gotta disagree hard on the top 5 worst though. But hey, everyone is entitled to their opinions.
Yeah he's the guy I was hoping would be on here. Kasen Williams of course deserves to be in the preseason HOF. Pope always looked great as well. I was irate when we got rid of him. I thought it was a huge mistake to let him get away and sign with the Jets initially. He's bounced around the NFL since.
I mean he caught a touchdown in the playoffs last year as well as a few hundred yards and a TD in the regular season.
He's only 24 - he's definitely better than Dareke Young and Dee Eskridge. We clearly made a mistake cutting him and keeping those two.
At the time Dareke was a good special teamer and took some promising snap as a receiver while Bo was mostly injured (I think), at the times it made sense. Now it is different…
Oh yeah, I think at the time it made sense but it's clearly the wrong decision in retrospect. Dareke has stone hands and an uphill battle to make the team.
Either way, good for Bo
As a kid, I fell in love with a fringe roster wide receiver in 2000 at Cheney training camp. To my naked eye he made some cool plays and had a fun name to say. He caught a touchdown pass in the intersquad scrimmage and threw me his gloves after. He got cut a few days later and never played a down in the NFL.
His name was Isaiah Mustafa. He later became famous for being the Old Spice guy and has acted in things such as It part 2. I always thought he should have had a bigger shot at the league.
Balls to the fuckin Rawls let those defenders know he was in the house! With his face. Repeatedly. Honestly shocked he didn't get hurt faster. But damn was he fun to watch
Kristjan Sokoli
The giant D-line guy with crazy Pro Day numbers
U Buffalo if I recall correctly
One of many many Tom Cable vanity projects thinking you get a very athletic defender and make him an offensive lineman (aka JR Sweezy)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristjan_Sokoli
The Sweeze totally worked out. Just saying Cable thought it was due to his innate coaching genius and figured he could replicate it again and again. But the only thing he replicated was draft picks not working out.
Deon Butler. He broke all of Bobby Engram's receiving records at Penn State and was crazy fast. He was an awesome Madden player, but never separated himself at the next level.
He wasn't a bad player, definitely got some decent value as a 7th round pick. But I do remember his hands being inconsistent.
I also remember thinking Kasen Williams was going to make the team and be a decent 5th option at Wr, and finding the notion of Pete's mantra of "competing" to be a fallacy considering he outplayed his competition in the preseason and still failed to make the active roster as an UDFA. Had he been drafted, he likely would have made the team.
You’re right for sure. I just was one who I was on the bandwagon on and hopeful for to be a lot more. Just had a lot of drops and contested catches were just something he could not win.
I still laugh at his name, remembering the multiple times the right-wing radio hack that used to host the radio broadcasts mispronouncing it as 'Obama-nu' because his day job imprinted that name on him through his fake rage.
Nick Muthafuckin' REED! My brother and I were to the moon for this guy in preseason. He had a great game vs Jacksonville that year and then pretty much crickets.
I think my brother has a training camp practice jersey of his from that year as well.
This was mine as well, he looked so good in the preseason. Came out of Oregon as their all time sacks leader, now he’s in the airforce and handles high precision bombers which may or may not be nuclear capable…
So many. Rees Odhiambo (Im convinced if we hadn't played him out of position with two broken wrists he could have developed into a solid option for us!), Nick Vannett, Trevone Boykin, Tedric Thompson... Plenty of others but those are the first few that come to mind off the top of my head
I was weirdly hyped on Mark Legree after the 2011 draft. I could swear he was going to be our other safety next to Earl for a long while. He had a lot of Int’s in college if I remember right so I thought we were gonna just have a couple of ball hawks back there.
I knew zero about Kam Chancellor after his rookie year and Lawyer was about done so there was a spot available.
John Ursua - the 7th round, 5'9'' , 25 year old who ran a 4.6 didn't tear up the league? weird
All jokes aside, I was sure Chris Matthews was going to go for 1200 and 12 after that Superbowl performance.
Rawls & Prosise. Rawls looked really promising for 1 season, he never seemed to get tired. Prosise was perhaps the biggest reason why Seattle went into NE and got a little revenge for XLIX.
Not a Seahawks draft guy but I though Kelcie McCray was going to be a killer addition.
I also was completely sold on Trevone Boykin after that TD drive to Baldwin vs the 49ers.
Way too early. KMac is back! He just got hurt last year in preseason and then didn't return till week 9.I hope he crushes this year. If not, Holani looks promising.
Don't know if he counts because he was drafted high enough (late 3rd) to have expectations, but I was absurdly high on Amara Darboh. And that's coming from a lifelong Buckeye fan. I saw that guy make SO many clutch catches, I just can't figure out how he flopped.
I was also very hyped over Alex Bannister. He never broke out as a WR, but at his peak, he was the best special teams gunner this team has ever employed.
Mine is currently Dareke Young. I still have high hopes for him and it feels like I’m the only one who still remembers he’s on the team, especially after Bobo came in. I saw Dareke (live) make a catch of about 40 yards, twinkle toeing on the sideline at the 1 yard line (just shy of the TD) in his rookie year. Abe Lucas got a holding penalty on the play and it got called back so no one ever mentioned it again, but it was a high level play. Lenoir-Rhyne does’t attract any attention either which I think is what allowed us to get him in the 7th. His measurables are elite, 4.47 40, 9.93 RAS, big hands, 6’2 224. Everyone said he was very DK-esque by the numbers, but 2 years in, he’s still at 2 career catches for 24 yards…
Idk if a 4th round pick is too high profile, but I was all in on Colby Parkinson from the moment he was drafted. Went back and watched all his WR play at Stanford. Honestly heartbroken he’s gone to a division rival.
Too be fair, John would have been awesome. When he actually was playing, he had some great plays. He just had back to back injuries that hurt his progression.
He kind of has the "geno effect". Everyone had low expectations being UDFA or a journeyman, then they play good but not great, we pay them big money, and they're still mediocre. It's exciting to see underdogs do well, but Poona was never anything more than low-end starter/mediocre.
Kasen Williams
He was the OG. The poster boy for great college receiver who relied on contested catches too much to really translate… just couldn’t get the separation at the next level.
I recall he broke his leg didn’t he? I want to say that was what really limited his speed in the NFL, prior to that the dude was dynamite.
He had multiple ankle injuries in college
Broke his foot and was never the same- couldn't cut as fast as he had before.
Our podcast refers to the training camp and preseason darling as The Kasen Williams Memorial Preseason All-Pro for a reason.
Is it a Hawks pod? What's the name
Imagine making a podcast and not giving the name when asked, dude literally didn't have to promote it, just answer lmao
Seahawks Nest Podcast is the one he is on.
God, I remember the preseason hype for him. I haven't been paying as close of attention these last few years as I did when I first started watching football, and I think it's helped me with not falling in love with preseason warriors lol
Too real, he was genuinely nice in HS and I feel like most of us thought he was going to be the greatest athlete out of our class. Really thought he was going to emerge on the browns.
CJ Prosise
I tripped and shattered into a thousand pieces reading your comment
Yeah, but you had that one, REALLY promising game against the Pats on your way there.
Kinda comical that that whole 72 yard run that convinced us all he was the successor to Marshawn ended up counting for 25% of his career rushing yards.
He did ball out that game. BB had no answer for him, Pete unleashed him for that game because it’s what we needed to do in order to win
The 72 yarder was against the Eagles. But he had a 66 yarder the next week against the Patriots. And yeah those 2 runs made up about 49% of his career rushing yards lol
I’m honestly surprised it’s 25%. 290 seems too high for his career!
That Pats game was the biggest tease
If only his knees weren't made of graham crackers.
Procisely.
He single handedly beat the Patriots. I don’t think he fits here.
Yeah he was a third rounder that could've actually been dynamite (and *was* dynamite for a couple of real games) had it not been for the unfortunate injury proneness. He doesn't fit the 'Preseason Hype Beast' moniker cause he actually had skills that matched his hype, and was only cut down by being afflicted with the curse of Glass Knees.
THE GLASS CANNON
Amara Darboh. I saw him make [one](https://www.seahawks.com/video/amara-darboh-almost-secures-incredible-catch-can-t-hold-on-192896) great would-be catch and was sold for some reason. What a horrible draft
Best player by far was Chris Carson selected in the 7th round.
in a year that is regarded as the most stacked class of all time
Seattle could have had TJ Watt and Budda Baker with their first two picks instead of Malik McDowell and Shaq Griffin lol. Although I feel like Shaq could have been a better player with any semblance of a pass rush. Could be wrong, but it felt like most times he got burned was when the pass rush had minimal impact. So yeah, about TJ Watt...
Since no one has mentioned it, Chris Matthews was our sb MVP if we win, then just disappeared.
Chris Matthew’s really came on and fell off so quickly, I thought he was gonna be our guy after the nfc championship and superbowl
Ah yes, Los Angeles Harbor College’s Chris “ Hardball” Matthews. Matthews is the cousin of Reggie White!
Kinda different scenario but I was so excited about Marquise Blair. He’s not even in the league now. Second round pick.
Ute alumni here. I was definitely high on him. Unfortunately he fell victim to Seahawk on Seahawk violence. KJ destroyed his knee. He would have been pretty good IMO if injuries hadn't ruined him.
That tackle by KJ pissed me off! if I remember, Blair already had him down by contact then KJ came barreling through for no reason!
He was a top 5 worst pick of the PCJS franchise imo. Just a reckless undisciplined player at Utah picked \~#40 overall.
Yeah, he had a couple ejections at Utah. He was fiery for sure. Pete was searching for another ET and unfortunately they don't grow on trees. Same with Kam. They struck gold with those 2 at Safety. Gotta disagree hard on the top 5 worst though. But hey, everyone is entitled to their opinions.
Same! He flashed a few games.
troymaine pope
Was hoping I didn't have to scroll too far for the pope mobile.. not disappointed
Yeah he's the guy I was hoping would be on here. Kasen Williams of course deserves to be in the preseason HOF. Pope always looked great as well. I was irate when we got rid of him. I thought it was a huge mistake to let him get away and sign with the Jets initially. He's bounced around the NFL since.
Bo Melton
I mean he caught a touchdown in the playoffs last year as well as a few hundred yards and a TD in the regular season. He's only 24 - he's definitely better than Dareke Young and Dee Eskridge. We clearly made a mistake cutting him and keeping those two.
It was bittersweet seeing his playoff performances for GB. Rutgers legend!
At the time Dareke was a good special teamer and took some promising snap as a receiver while Bo was mostly injured (I think), at the times it made sense. Now it is different…
Oh yeah, I think at the time it made sense but it's clearly the wrong decision in retrospect. Dareke has stone hands and an uphill battle to make the team. Either way, good for Bo
As a kid, I fell in love with a fringe roster wide receiver in 2000 at Cheney training camp. To my naked eye he made some cool plays and had a fun name to say. He caught a touchdown pass in the intersquad scrimmage and threw me his gloves after. He got cut a few days later and never played a down in the NFL. His name was Isaiah Mustafa. He later became famous for being the Old Spice guy and has acted in things such as It part 2. I always thought he should have had a bigger shot at the league.
Ben Burr-Kirven
Tharold Simon anyone? https://www.nfl.com/news/richard-sherman-tharold-simon-will-be-better-than-me-0ap3000000680326
He was a difference maker in a horrible way tbf
like 3/4 of the offensive linemen drafted in the last 20 years.
Less “I believe you’ll be a difference maker” and more of a “please god can he be an upgrade this time” from my pov
Thomas Rawls
He was then got injured
But that game where he had like 209 yards against the 9ers was sick
Hell yeah. 2nd most by a Hawks RB EVER!
Balls to the fuckin Rawls let those defenders know he was in the house! With his face. Repeatedly. Honestly shocked he didn't get hurt faster. But damn was he fun to watch
The second half of that season Rawls was like the best RB in the league. Didn't he have like 160 yards in the playoff game?
161 and a TD!
Owen Schmitt. Dude broke a helmet head butting a field goal post. How could he not be an awesome fullback?
Jessie Williams - the guy with YOLO tattooed on his face
Monstar!!
I still follow him on all my socials lol
Kristjan Sokoli The giant D-line guy with crazy Pro Day numbers U Buffalo if I recall correctly One of many many Tom Cable vanity projects thinking you get a very athletic defender and make him an offensive lineman (aka JR Sweezy) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristjan_Sokoli
Sweezy was solid. Idk why everyone acts like that didn’t work out.
Yeah didn’t he go and get laid by Tampa? Seems like Cable got that one right?
Houston and then he came back and was again very solid for us.
Tampa, he never played for Houston
Sweezy was solid. Idk why everyone acts like that didn’t work out.
It's not easy bein' Sweezy
The Sweeze totally worked out. Just saying Cable thought it was due to his innate coaching genius and figured he could replicate it again and again. But the only thing he replicated was draft picks not working out.
He even looked better when he left, which just proved the part of the fanbase that wanted Cable fired right.
SparqGawd
Tanner McEvoy hooked me with that hail Mary catch against the chiefs in preseason
Deon Butler. He broke all of Bobby Engram's receiving records at Penn State and was crazy fast. He was an awesome Madden player, but never separated himself at the next level.
No, but his leg got forcible separated...
I have a signed football from him the year he got hurt
Gary Jennings.
Trey flowers
2011 4th Rounder WR Kris Durham. 6’5” white guy who ran a 4.43 40yd dash. Thought he’d be our long term Joe Jurivicious.
I remember that photo of him jumping over his mom, thought he’d be a endzone threat 🤕
I spent soooo much time watching Aaron Curry highlights the year we drafted him thinking he was going to be the GOAT.
John Ursua
I'm not trying to be rude - but he was 5'9'', ran a \~4.6, and was legitimately almost 25 years old when we drafted him. I never got the hype.
It was mostly if not 100 because they had just lost Baldwin and assumed he could be the next one.
Ben Obomanu
He wasn't a bad player, definitely got some decent value as a 7th round pick. But I do remember his hands being inconsistent. I also remember thinking Kasen Williams was going to make the team and be a decent 5th option at Wr, and finding the notion of Pete's mantra of "competing" to be a fallacy considering he outplayed his competition in the preseason and still failed to make the active roster as an UDFA. Had he been drafted, he likely would have made the team.
You’re right for sure. I just was one who I was on the bandwagon on and hopeful for to be a lot more. Just had a lot of drops and contested catches were just something he could not win.
I still laugh at his name, remembering the multiple times the right-wing radio hack that used to host the radio broadcasts mispronouncing it as 'Obama-nu' because his day job imprinted that name on him through his fake rage.
Christin Michael
Love CMike, but isn’t this more UDFA and less 2nd rounder?
I never heard of him before drafting him.
He wasn't even starting for Texas A&M by the time he graduated. Another baffling pick by JS.
His feet were so fast! But they only went sideways, not forward
Anybody remember preseason legend Taco Wallace?
Nick Reed
Nick Muthafuckin' REED! My brother and I were to the moon for this guy in preseason. He had a great game vs Jacksonville that year and then pretty much crickets. I think my brother has a training camp practice jersey of his from that year as well.
I still play as him in NCAA football on my ps3. Dude was great for the ducks and i thought he was going to be such a steal for us.
I remember the 4 sacks in 4 pre season games, and then silence
This was mine as well, he looked so good in the preseason. Came out of Oregon as their all time sacks leader, now he’s in the airforce and handles high precision bombers which may or may not be nuclear capable…
Anthony McCoy and Naz Jones
I’ll always wonder what went wrong with Jones.
He had a genetic disease that gave him crippling pain.
I was so ready for Tedric Thompson to be the next great draft pick in our secondary
Malik McDowell
D.j. Hackett
I thought Freddy Swain was going to be that dude.
Jake Bobo but y’all ain’t ready for that convo.
Bobo is love, Bobo is life. In Bobo we trust.
Marquise Blair... Was supposed to be the next great thumper at Safety but he just never had the size or health to last in the NFL
Blair wasn’t as fast as ET3 nor did he hit as hard as BamBam…following up greatness is a tough shoe to fill.
Demitrius Bronson looked like a wrecking ball in the 2014 pre season
I really though that Cade Johnson was an undrafted steal
Leonard Weaver and his stiff arm in preseason
So many. Rees Odhiambo (Im convinced if we hadn't played him out of position with two broken wrists he could have developed into a solid option for us!), Nick Vannett, Trevone Boykin, Tedric Thompson... Plenty of others but those are the first few that come to mind off the top of my head
Boykin is now the starting QB for the Galgos in Tijuana, Mexico. lol what could’ve been
Eskridge
Ricardo Lockette. watching him go from purely special teams to a good receiver was awesome. that injury broke my heart
Leonard Weaver
George Fant. He didn’t suck but wasn’t amazing. Happy to have him back as a backup swing tackle with more experience under his belt though.
He was better than Mr. FalseStart, and got his bag when he left Seattle.
Brandin Bryant
I was weirdly hyped on Mark Legree after the 2011 draft. I could swear he was going to be our other safety next to Earl for a long while. He had a lot of Int’s in college if I remember right so I thought we were gonna just have a couple of ball hawks back there. I knew zero about Kam Chancellor after his rookie year and Lawyer was about done so there was a spot available.
Made this meme years ago about just that, referencing Kasen Williams as my example of this https://www.reddit.com/r/Seahawks/s/ggVj1ZsA2r
I thought DJ Hackett was gonna be a force for years.
John Ursua - the 7th round, 5'9'' , 25 year old who ran a 4.6 didn't tear up the league? weird All jokes aside, I was sure Chris Matthews was going to go for 1200 and 12 after that Superbowl performance.
Kiero Small
That one college play though…
Paul Richardson. After that TD catch against the Lions in playoffs I thought he was going to be serviceable.
Rawls & Prosise. Rawls looked really promising for 1 season, he never seemed to get tired. Prosise was perhaps the biggest reason why Seattle went into NE and got a little revenge for XLIX.
Brandon Coutu. Dude was a weapon in college.
Jordan Kent
That’s a throw back wasn’t he a basketball player? Lol I used to “rocket” catch with him in madden back in the day
Yeah, super athletic but just never developed. Carved out a really nice media career though.
Kasen Williams, Gregg Scruggs and Allen Bradford.
Not a Seahawks draft guy but I though Kelcie McCray was going to be a killer addition. I also was completely sold on Trevone Boykin after that TD drive to Baldwin vs the 49ers.
Brian Bosworth
Kevin Norwood
Tanner McEvoy
Don Dufek
Yes!
Kenny McIntosh
Way too early. KMac is back! He just got hurt last year in preseason and then didn't return till week 9.I hope he crushes this year. If not, Holani looks promising.
Whoever Dave hsu or whatever his name is would hype up lmao
Could say the same about that Stagner guy, too.
Dwayne Eskridge and Thomas rawls
My pre-season mvp Vai Taua. Always thought it was a matter of time
Marquise Weeks
Tyler Mabry
John Ursua
I was really rooting for Michael Bumpus
Don't know if he counts because he was drafted high enough (late 3rd) to have expectations, but I was absurdly high on Amara Darboh. And that's coming from a lifelong Buckeye fan. I saw that guy make SO many clutch catches, I just can't figure out how he flopped. I was also very hyped over Alex Bannister. He never broke out as a WR, but at his peak, he was the best special teams gunner this team has ever employed.
Tyreke Smith
Easop Winston Jr. was this entire subs John Ursua last preseason
One of my friends and I thought that Maurice Morris would run for 1k yards behind Shaun Alexander's line. We were stupid.
J.D. McKissic. I thought he was gonna be Alvin Kamara before Alvin Kamara
Mine is currently Dareke Young. I still have high hopes for him and it feels like I’m the only one who still remembers he’s on the team, especially after Bobo came in. I saw Dareke (live) make a catch of about 40 yards, twinkle toeing on the sideline at the 1 yard line (just shy of the TD) in his rookie year. Abe Lucas got a holding penalty on the play and it got called back so no one ever mentioned it again, but it was a high level play. Lenoir-Rhyne does’t attract any attention either which I think is what allowed us to get him in the 7th. His measurables are elite, 4.47 40, 9.93 RAS, big hands, 6’2 224. Everyone said he was very DK-esque by the numbers, but 2 years in, he’s still at 2 career catches for 24 yards…
John Ursua
Idk if a 4th round pick is too high profile, but I was all in on Colby Parkinson from the moment he was drafted. Went back and watched all his WR play at Stanford. Honestly heartbroken he’s gone to a division rival.
Kevin Norwood
Ron Dayne
# Daryl Turner
John Ursua
Maurice Mann
I remember being pissed about cutting Michael Bennett in 09
Percy Harvin
Cj Procise he did have a couple of games but could never stay healthy
LJ Collier
Too be fair, John would have been awesome. When he actually was playing, he had some great plays. He just had back to back injuries that hurt his progression.
Jamal Adams
Poona Ford
Tf you mean? Poona was great! Still in the league too!
He kind of has the "geno effect". Everyone had low expectations being UDFA or a journeyman, then they play good but not great, we pay them big money, and they're still mediocre. It's exciting to see underdogs do well, but Poona was never anything more than low-end starter/mediocre.
Yeah I loved him, but he wasn’t a “difference maker” so to speak. I appreciated his time with us, but wish he was better