Jermaine Kearse believes Doug Baldwin belongs in the Ring of Honor

Ask Baldwin’s former teammate Jermaine Kearse and he’ll tell you that No. 89 belongs in the team’s Ring of Honor.

The finest tradition for these Seahawks is at wide receiver. The franchise’s greatest skill player of all time was Steve Largent, who put in 200 incredible games for Seattle in the 70s and 80s on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

A lot of other good receivers have come along since. In our mind, the next-best is Doug Baldwin, who came into the league in 2011 undrafted out of Stanford. Baldwin steadily worked his way up the depth chart and become a full-time starter in 2014. He led the league in touchdown catches the next season (14) and continued balling out at a high level the rest of his career while competing with an intensity reminiscent of Steve Smith.

Ask Baldwin’s former teammate Jermaine Kearse and he’ll tell you that No. 89 belongs in the team’s Ring of Honor.

No @DougBaldwinJr ?? 🤔 https://t.co/PgsGMRHwPd

— Jermaine Kearse (@JKearse_15) April 3, 2022

To be fair there are a lot of individuals from that era who deserve the honor, but Baldwin has to be included in the count. In the end, he finished with 493 catches, 6,563 yards and 49 touchdowns. Baldwin made two Pro Bowls and won one championship.

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Why Washington’s Aaron Fuller could make Seahawks roster

The Seattle Seahawks love their undersized, UDFA receivers, and Aaron Fuller has a little Jermaine Kearse and a lot of Doug Baldwin in him.

The Seattle Seahawks brought in a whopping 17 undrafted free agents from the 2020 class to compete for spots on the active roster.

Most years, teams are lucky to get one UDFA to make the squad, as they are primarily brought in to give the team extra bodies during training camp.

However, the Seahawks have had plenty of luck in the past, going all the way back to Dave Krieg, and including Jermaine Kearse, Doug Baldwin and more recently, defensive tackle Poona Ford.

Speaking of Kearse, the Seahawks are hoping another undrafted receiver out of the University of Washington, Aaron Fuller, will do enough during training camp to earn a spot on the team’s roster in 2020.

While Kearse is the obvious comparison thanks to their alma mater, Fuller actually drew a lot of comparisons to Baldwin, Seattle’s other prominent undrafted free agent receiver.

Baldwin was an unassuming, undersized slot receiver out ot Stanford who Seattle signed in 2011. He went on to haul in 493 receptions for 6,563 yards and 49 touchdowns in eight seasons with the Seahawks, retiring after the 2018 season after suffering a shoulder injury the previous year.

Fuller has some big shoes to fill that role, but at five-foot-ten and 190 pounds, and with excellent production in college and some of the best route-running skills in the NCAA coming out of UW, there’s plenty of reason for optimism.

Seattle already has their own mini-Baldwin on the roster, however, after using a seventh round pick to select John Ursua in 2019.

Ursua and Fuller are two of a handful of receivers competing for one of the final spots on Seattle’s 53-man roster, a list that includes David Moore, Penny Hart, Cody Thompson, Freddie Swain, and Seth Dawkins.

With Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf and Phillip Dorsett all seemingly locked into the top three receiving roles, there’s little room for error if Fuller wants to make the roster.

However, Moore is a potential cap casualty, and no one else has proven anything in the NFL – so if Fuller makes a strong impression in camp, there’s reason to believe he will be wearing the green and blue next year, and still donning the No. 2 he wore while with the Huskies.

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3 undrafted free agents who could make Seahawks roster

The Seattle Seahawks have 17 undrafted free agents vying for roster spots this summer. Here are three that could make it.

The Seattle Seahawks have now signed a whopping 17 undrafted free agents to the 90-man roster, after reportedly coming to terms with 12 more on Monday afternoon.

Add in the eight draft picks and the Seahawks have 25 first-year players vying for spots on the active roster this summer.

While most of the draft picks are expected to earn a spot, that is not the case for the undrafted guys. Seattle has had plenty of success with undrafted free agents in the past, including Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse and Poona Ford, but for the most part they are camp fodder who end up getting cut in early September.

Still, of the 17 newcomers, there are a handful who appear to have the tools, athleticism, and performance to make this squad out of camp.

Here are the three with the best chance, and why they could find themselves on the field in Week 1.

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Todd McShay: Sam Darnold more talented than other recent college QBs

ESPN NFL draft analyst Todd McShay said Sam Darnold was more talented than other elite college quarterbacks when he entered the NFL.

Jets quarterback Sam Darnold has not had much to work with in his two seasons in the NFL.

Throughout his rookie season, Darnold’s only consistent target was Robby Anderson. No. 2 receiver Quincy Enunwa missed five games due to injury. Jermaine Kearse regressed after a strong 2017 campaign. Free agent signing Terrell Pryor contributed next to nothing before being released. Chris Herndon performed relatively well, but still caught only 39 passes as he learned the ropes in his rookie year.

In 2019, the Jets made an effort to surround Darnold with some weapons by signing Le’Veon Bell and Jamison Crowder. Crowder developed chemistry with Darnold, but Bell failed to contribute much of anything due to pitiful offensive line play. Enunwa and Herndon appeared in one game each, forcing Darnold to work without one of his starting receivers and a budding tight end.

Darnold has caught plenty of heat for his turnover-prone play in his first two years with the Jets. Some have questioned his ability to read NFL defenses, while others have questioned his arm talent. Throughout all of this, the lack of talent the USC product has been surrounded with frequently flies under the radar.

On Monday, ESPN’s Todd McShay shined a light on the subject. Not only did McShay emphasize that Darnold needs help from his skill position players, but he went as far as saying he was better coming out of college than other recent signal callers that have either entered the NFL in recent years or are preparing to do so in the 2020 draft.

“Sam Darnold was more talented than Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Joe Burrow coming out of college,” McShay said. “Darnold just needs people around him.”

Many will argue against McShay’s opinion, but his tenure as a veteran draft analyst gives his words some credence. The jury is still out on Burrow and Murray, but Mayfield had Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry and David Njoku to throw to last season, yet failed to lead the Browns to more wins than Darnold accumulated with the Jets while working with a motley crew of wideouts.

Regardless of McShay’s words, it looks like Darnold will be forced to make due with less yet again in 2020. Bell returns at running back, but it remains to be seen what he can bring to the table in his second year with the Jets. Anderson departed in free agency and his replacement, Breshad Perriman, still has to prove he can consistently produce for a whole season.

On the bright side, Darnold still has Crowder to work with in the slot and the Jets will feature a solid tight end duo in Ryan Griffin and Herndon. Enunwa could return, although it is unclear what kind of impact he can make after a second neck injury. It’s not the most electric group of skill position players in the league, but one that can get open and catch passes.

Could year three be the year Darnold breaks out and separates himself from the quarterbacks he has been compared to for years? Only time will tell. Until then, let the record show that any evaluation of Darnold’s play must take into account how little he has had to work with throughout his professional career.

How did former Jets fare in 2019 after leaving New York?

Here’s how some notable players performed a year after playing for the Jets in 2018.

The Jets had a lot of roster turnover between 2018 and 2019 — thanks in part to a lot of organizational turnover — which left a handful of players in new locations this past season.

There were an abundance of notable players from New York’s 2018 roster that were on different teams in 2019. That list includes Darron Lee, Mike Pennel, Morris Claiborne, Buster Skrine, Jason Myers, Leonard Williams, Andre Roberts, Josh McCown, Isaiah Crowell and Jermaine Kearse.

Let’s take a look at how those 10 players performed after leaving the Jets.

Super Bowl Champs

Three former Jets were were part of the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs: Darron Lee, Mike Pennel and Morris Claiborne.

Lee found himself in a backup role this season with the Chiefs after being a three-year starter for the Jets. After having three straight seasons of 40+ tackles, Lee only recorded 22 tackles in his first season in Kansas City.

Despite not playing a full season, Pennel had one of the better years of his career. In the Super Bowl, he was one of the players who caused Jimmy Garoppolo to throw his first interception. Pennel had 13 total tackles and one sack during the regular season.

Like Lee, Claiborne was also a backup player. He only played in eight games and had nine tackles to go along with no pass defenses. It was the first time in his eight-career that he didn’t record a breakup.

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