While Jadeveon Clowney was no doubt the most notable player the Seattle Seahawks brought into the fold over the weekend, the team also added former Florida defensive end Jachai Polite to their practice squad.
This move would have turned a lot of heads back in February, when Polite was frequently being mocked to the Seahawks during the draft — as a potential first-round pick.
A poor performance at the combine — both in the drills and during the interviews — caused Polite’s draft stock to plummet, and the Jets ended up gambling on him at No. 68 overall.
What followed was a series of fines, reportedly totaling more than $100,000, for being late to practice, not working hard enough and other various attitude issues. His on-the-field performance was nothing special either, so the Jets decided to cut their losses early and let Polite go on roster cutdown day.
The Seahawks couldn’t resist adding a player who was compared to Bruce Irvin coming out of college for just $8,000 per week, so they quickly signed him to their practice squad.
“We studied him very carefully and were surprised that he was available,” coach Pete Carroll said on Monday. “So we jumped at the opportunity.”
Polite recorded 11 sacks in his final season at the Florida. It was reported that he would need to put on some muscle if he wants to line up as a defensive end in a 4-3 scheme, but he will have time to hone his craft on the practice squad — and hopefully get some of his off-the-field issues straightened out.
“He’ll get fined here too,” Carroll continued, talking about Polite’s reported discipline issues. “We had next to no fines on this team this whole time. Next to nothing. If someone jumps out like that, it would be really obvious.”
With such a limited commitment, the Seahawks are taking very little risk for what could be a very nice reward.
