Seahawks’ WR Kasen Williams making case for roster spot

LOS ANGELES – Kasen Williams was so spectacular, superstar Richard Sherman was reduced to an awed bodyguard.

Williams, the former undrafted free agent from the University of Washington, and Sherman, the three-time All-Pro, were the last two players off Los Angeles Chargers’ field. It was moments after the Seahawks’ 48-17 rout of Sunday night in the preseason opener. Sherman was along the railing of the tunnel to the locker room signing autographs on hats, shirts and footballs. Williams was chatting with folks and signing, too, for Chargers and Seahawks fans alike.

A few minutes later, Seattle’s star for years and its star Sunday walked down a long hallway. They were late getting into the locker room. Sherman offered a boisterous apology to staffers, and to a reporter waiting to interview Williams for the team’s radio network.

Williams had just made four ridiculous, soaring catches for 119 yards. Sherman joked he had been providing postgame celebrity security for the wide receiver.

“I thought he was going to get mugged!” Sherman yelled through the hall. “After what he did to 43, I thought they were going to fight him!”

Yes, Williams did dominate number 43 for the Chargers, cornerback Michael Davis. Four times. All along the same sideline, directly in front of Sherman and the Seahawks’ bench.

In doing so, Williams thrust himself back into Seattle’s crowded competition for roster spots at wide receiver.

Former second-round pick Paul Richardson started Sunday, but is out indefinitely. He sprained his right shoulder on the first drive at Los Angeles. Tyler Lockett just came off the physically-unable-to-perform list last week following two broken bones in his leg and surgery in December. Lockett didn’t play Sunday, and may not play Friday when the Seahawks host the Minnesota Vikings in exhibition number two.

Sunday’s heroics put Williams ahead of rookie draft picks David Moore and also-injured Amara Darboh plus former LSU track champion and undrafted rookie Cyril Grayson for the final couple of perhaps six roster spots at wide receiver.

“Who knows?” Williams said. “I’ve got to continue just staying in my lane and making sure that I take care of myself – and the rest will take care of itself.”

Where did Sunday’s burst come from?

Williams credits a change in offseason training.

Oh, and… asparagus juice?

“I had to change how I work out. I had to change what I needed to do to make sure my body was ready,” he said of this past offseason, after two injury-filled years. “I did some prime time. And I do feel like I am in the prime of my career.

“Even though I’ve had some injuries or whatever, I feel like those are in the past. I feel like I have a great handle on what I need to do to get my body 100 percent ready. And I feel like the sky’s the limit.”

About that juicery…

“Yeah!” Williams said, with a big grin “Cold Pressed Juicery. I’m in there all the time. In Bellevue, right on Bellevue Way.

“Vegetables. Fruit. All that. Asparagus. All that.”

Williams said the juices helped him get fitter and leaner.

On Sunday that appeared to be more valuable to the Seahawks. They want to, really want to, count on him to stay healthy in 2017.

“It was just the biggest improvement that I made. I lost five, six, seven pounds just off eating right. Making sure I put the right things in my body,” Williams said.

“You hear a lot of people talk about it. And you hear a lot of people say the best ability is availability. I’ve definitely dedicated the offseason toward that.”

Sunday, backup quarterback Trevone Boykin kept chucking the ball up to let Williams use his powerful body to seize it. Williams stretched, leaped and twisted his 6-foot-1, 219-pound frame for one wowing catch after another.

It was more evidence he was the 2011 Washington high school champion in the high jump, long jump and triple jump. Oh, yeah, he was also the Parade magazine national high school football players of the year that senior year at Skyline High School.

“Just the ability to go up and get the ball,” Williams said with a shrug outside the visiting locker room Sunday night.

“I just wanted an opportunity to show that I’ve been doing it a lot in practice. The people that have been around at practice, all the guys in the locker room, they already know. But now it’s just a matter of putting it out for the world to see.

“That’s what I was waiting for.”

The best of Williams’ fantastic four in L.A. early in the third quarter. Davis leaped and had Boykin’s slightly underthrown pass in his hands for what should have been an interception. But Williams ripped the ball from the Charger as both fell to the turf. The Seahawks gained 34 yards to move them from their own 13 to the 47.

Four plays later Williams did it again, soaring and twisting to catch Boykin’s sideline heave while deftly keeping both feet inbounds. That 29-yard gain to the 1 set up Chris Carson’s second touchdown run on the next play.