The Seahawks have signed cornerback Blessuan Austin (Twitter link via Dave Wyman of KCPQ). Austin will serve as a depth option for the ‘Hawks as they prepare to face the Colts on Sunday.
The Jets shopped Austin towards the end of the summer but couldn’t find a taker for him. Last week, they cut him loose in order to pick up linebacker Quincy Williams, the brother of defensive lineman Quinnen Williams.
Austin appeared in eleven games with ten starts last year, registering 63 stops, four passes defensed, one forced fumble, and three tackles for loss. Between his two Jets seasons, Austin registered 88 tackles and two forced fumbles across 18 games.
The 25-year-old Rutgers product now gets to reunite with old pal Jamal Adams while he supports the Seahawks’ CB group. For now, that leaves the Seahawks with six CBs in total — Sidney Jones, D.J. Reed, Tre Flowers, Tre Brown, and Nigel Warrior.
Essentially they’re trading Witherspoon for Austin? How is that an upgrade?
No one claimed this to be an upgrade. Witherspoon was quite a ways down on the depth chart, cost much more agai st Seattle’s salary cap, and Seattle got a pick out of moving witherspoon. They gave up nothing to acquire Austin. He will do just fine as end of bench depth and a special team’s player. If you need an upgrade, a puck and cap space is an upgrade.
Pick even
Maybe you missed some information while reading about the Witherspoon trade, the part that read: Seahawks traded Witherspoon for a 5th rd pick! So, essentially they traded Witherspoon for a 5th rd pick AND Bless Austin.
Blessuan? Sounds like what you would say after someone sneezes