Long-snapper roulette: Seahawks release Andrew East, sign Drew Ferris as possible replacement for Gresham
Where is Nate Boyer, anyway?
The Seahawks are churning through long snappers in their search to replace Clint Gresham, the veteran they released last week.
Seattle has signed former University of Florida kick snapper Drew Ferris and on Thursday released long snapper Andrew East.
Excited to be the newest member of the @Seahawks !!! Let's get to work pic.twitter.com/bJATXcHCzy
— Drew Ferris (@D_ferriswheel46) March 23, 2016
Ferris spent last spring in a New York Jets rookie minicamp. The Seahawks’ scouts obviously like him more than East. The league’s official transactions Thursday showed Seattle released East without so much as a minicamp tryout. The team had signed East to a futures contract in January.
Ferris is for now the only long snapper on the roster. The Seahawks have signed and released four long snappers in the last seven months.
Gresham, Seattle’s kick snapper since 2010, was one season into a three-year, $2.7 million contract when the team released him last week.
On his way out Gresham had a request concerning the popular former U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret the Seahawks had in training camp last summer as an undrafted rookie free agent before they released him, too:
Alright if we are gonna do this at least bring back @NateBoyer37 he's the man, great snapper and could probably kill any of us at any moment
— Clint Gresham (@Gresh49) March 17, 2016
Cutting Gresham saved the Seahawks $660,000 against their salary cap for 2016. That isn’t much, but the move hinted at how up against the cap they are. Seattle was in the bottom third of the league in cap space before the NFL’s free-agent market opened this month. Then the team re-signed cornerback Jeremy Lane (to a $21 million deal), wide receiver Jermaine Kearse ($13.5 million), defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin ($12 million), punter Jon Ryan ($10 million) and signed free-agent offensive lineman J’Marcus Webb ($6.25 million), guard Bradley Sowell ($1.5 million) and defensive tackle Sealver Siliga ($1.4 million).
As of Thursday overthecap.com estimated the Seahawks were 24th in the league with just over $8 million left to spend under this year’s cap. The teams needs a few million to sign picks from next month’s draft plus undrafted free agents and veterans such as running backs and linemen that are likely to arrive before training camp in late July.
It’s why this week at the league meetings in Florida general manager John Schneider mentioned a few times to reporters the limitations the team has against its salary cap.
This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Long-snapper roulette: Seahawks release Andrew East, sign Drew Ferris as possible replacement for Gresham."