Practice impressions: Seahawks young receivers look good to Baldwin, Carroll

Doug Baldwin has gotten a look at the new receivers the Seahawks have brought in, and he’s impressed.

“It’s a great group of guys,” Baldwin said. “This group specifically speaks to the type of players we like in our receiver room, and that’s the hard nosed guys that go out there and do what they have to do.”

Baldwin called Amara Darboh (third-round pick), David Moore (seventh round) and Cyril Grayson (free agent) the “tunnel workers” because they work hard and do a lot of the dirty work.

But maybe that was apart of their DNA long before they arrived in Seattle.

Grayson started his athletic career at Louisiana State University – as a sprinter for the men’s track and field team. He earned All-American honors in the 400-meters. He never played a down of college football, having last played as a senior in high school.

But an impressive performance at LSU’s pro day landed him a chance with the Seahawks.

“He studies. He stays late. He’s in early,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “It’s been a really beautiful first impression he’s made on us. We’re going to be patient with him because he has such good, natural talent.”

Although Grayson was a receiver in high school, he’s facing a big learning curve. Baldwin said so far, the transition from track to football is going seamlessly.

“To be completely honest, he hasn’t really needed much attention,” Baldwin said. “He knows the concepts really well right now. He’s picked up our two-minute signals, and he knows the route concepts.

“He’s extremely fast, we all know, so I’m really excited to see what he can do against real competition, because he has a lot of talent and I think he can help us for sure.”

A more polished player is Darboh, the 6-foot-2 receiver out of Michigan. In his last season with the Wolverines, he had 57 receptions for 862 yards and seven touchdowns.

“What (Darboh) has shown us out here on the practice field , also in the meeting rooms, is that he is going to compete at the highest level,” Baldwin said. “That’s all we ask for is a guy to come in and be willing to work as hard as everybody else in the room.”

You probably remember his story from draft day – Darboh grew up in Sierra Leone, Africa where he tragically lost his parents before escaping with family to America.

Then there’s Moore, who played collegiately at Division II East Central University in Oklahoma. He put up big numbers –57 receptions, 878 yards and 10 TDs – at the small school.

Baldwin said Moore has been competing at a high level, while noting one outstanding skill.

“He has great hands,” Baldwin said. “He’s got to work on his transitions, but he’s done a fantastic job.”

Baldwin sets a perfect example for what can happen. He was an unsigned free agent out of Stanford and is now the leader of the Seahawks’ receiving corps.

“I want to provide those lessons,” Baldwin said. “They have giving me the opportunity to do that, they look to me in those moments, and I take that with pride.

“I want to serve these guys to be the best leader that I can so that ultimately we can be successful on the football field and win games.”

tholmes@thenewstribune.com

This story was originally published June 6, 2017 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Practice impressions: Seahawks young receivers look good to Baldwin, Carroll."