Receiving Positions Up For Grabs Oregon Grad Makes A Determined Bid For A Place On Final Seahawks Roster

The immutable laws of physics tell us that two bodies cannot occupy the same spot.

The immutable laws of football tell us that nine players cannot occupy six roster spots allocated for wide receivers.

And that’s helping to make the preseason interesting for Seattle Seahawks watchers.

Saturday night, in a 20-17 loss to Indianapolis, it was Ronnie Harris who most dramatically tossed his helmet into the ring for roster candidacy.

Harris, an Oregon grad who has played in only seven games in his three-year NFL career, pulled in six catches for 84 yards, including a 32-yard touchdown pass from John Friesz.

Harris had been nursing a strained knee ligament, but understands that he can’t make the team from sick-bay.

“I’m wearing a brace and I ended up feeling it on certain routes,” Harris said.

“But I can’t afford to miss any time sitting on the sidelines.”

Harris dropped a perfect slant-in pass from quarterback John Friesz, but came back and ran a precise route on the touchdown grab.

On that series, Friesz had thrown three straight short passes to Harris.

”(The Colts) were sitting on some of the shorter routes, hitches and slants and stuff,” Harris said. “The coaches saw that, the quarterback saw that, so it was a great call - the pump-hitch - and it was a great throw by John.”

The play caught the eye of head coach Dennis Erickson, but so did Harris’ dropped pass.

“He made a great play there and it made up for the one he dropped,” Erickson said.

“He made some other big plays, too. That makes that decision (on who to keep) even tougher.”

Whether that will be enough for Harris to be around come the regular-season opener remains to be seen.

It’s possible the staff will decide to keep seven receivers. That will still leave a couple seeking work.

Three receivers have a lock on their jobs: Veteran Brian Blades, who set a team record with 81 catches last year; top draft pick Joey Galloway, who pulled in a spectacular leaping reception Saturday; and Ricky Proehl, a consistent veteran picked up from the Cardinals in the off-season.

That leaves Harris fighting Robb Thomas, Michael Bates, Terrence Warren and James McKnight for the remaining three spots.

Thomas is a six-year veteran who has caught every ball thrown in his vicinity during training camp. Bates and Warren are unproven deep threats, with Bates’ real value coming on special teams. And McKnight has been a training camp all-star.

So, if Harris is on the roster for the Sept. 3 opener against Kansas City, he might be able to look back to that fourth-quarter touchdown catch against the Colts as the deciding factor.

Bruising once again

As a first-round draft choice of Atlanta in 1990, Steve Broussard ultimately found himself residing in the doghouse of coach Jerry Glanville.

Broussard’s transgression, in Glanville’s eyes, was that he ran out of bounds too frequently to avoid getting hit - perhaps ironic for a player known as Bruiser at Washington State.

Glanville should have been in the Kingdome Saturday night.

Broussard, getting the start at tailback as Chris Warren was resting an injured heel, played well.

On a fourth-and-one play in the fourth quarter, Broussard showed his speed getting around left end, and his toughness when he was wedged against the sidelines by Colt Wilbert Biggens.

Biggens, simply, was flattened.

“I really couldn’t do anything but put my head down and go through him,” Bruiser said.

The 12-yard gain helped offset a 4-yard loss Broussard suffered on a fourth-and-goal call from the Colts 1 early in the game. That loss was clearly not the fault of Broussard, who took a pitch left and was greeted by a herd of unblocked Colts.

“We played a good game once we finally settled down,” Broussard said. “In the first half, we were tense and didn’t execute the offense very well. Once we settled down, we executed a lot better.”

Broussard also threw a key block on a scramble by quarterback Rick Mirer. He finished with 25 yards on 10 rushes with two catches for 16 more yards.

Go for it

Gambling on NFL games is outlawed for coaches.

Gambling IN games is fine, however, and Erickson appears to be more willing to take chances than is customary among veteran (read: conservative) NFL coaches.

Certainly, Saturday’s game was just a preseason venture, but Erickson gave his offense the green light to go for it on three fourth- down situations.

Carries by Broussard got the first once and failed once, while Lamar Smith picked up 8 yards on a fourth-quarter fourth-and-1.

Will this be a hint of what to expect from Erickson?

“When I make those decisions, a lot of the time it’s just a feeling, not that we’ll go for it on fourth-and-one all the time,” Erickson said. “I really felt that with about a half yard to go on the goal line that we could get it in there and we didn’t. Obviously, it didn’t turn out to be a very good decision, but the other ones, I guess, were pretty good decisions.”

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