Seahawks Add Former 2-Time National Champion to Camp Roster: Report

Dylan Moses

Getty Former Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses #18 reacts after a sack at Bryant-Denny Stadium on November 4, 2017.

With limited cap space, the Seattle Seahawks are looking to fill out their roster at a discount with young prospects instead of signing veteran free agents. The Seahawks have signed over 20 undrafted free agents and continue to add prospective players through their rookie mini-camp, which kicks off this weekend.

On Tuesday, May 9, The Score‘s Jordan Schultz broke the news that former Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses was invited to the Seahawks’ mini-camp, which turned some heads on Twitter, as the former two-time National Champion (2017, 2020) was absent from the NFL last year.

While a knee injury hindered his draft capital, when the Jacksonville Jaguars signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2021, Alabama head coach Nick Saban called the move a steal, per Pro Football Talk‘s Charean Williams, noting the only reason the first-team All-SEC selection dropped on the boards was due to his injury history.

“It had nothing to do with what kind of football player he is,” Saban said after the 2021 NFL draft concluded. “It was based on medical grades by the teams, which, frankly, was a little surprising to me.”

Moses had missed the 2019 season with the Crimson Tide after undergoing knee surgery and while powering through an injured meniscus in 2020, earned first-team All-SEC honors. During his three years in Alabama, Moses recorded with 192 total tackles, six sacks, two interceptions, and three forced fumbles.

While the Jaguars placed Moses on the non-football injury list ahead of training camp, an expected move as he continued to rehab his knee, the 24-year-old never took an official snap with the team. He was waived in April 2022.


Dylan Moses Is Working on an NFL ‘Comeback’

Moses, a former five-star recruit, was ranked as the No. 1 athlete in the country when he transferred to Alabama in 2016, per ESPN. The linebacker was initially recruited by LSU at age 15, before he even appeared in a high school football game, but de-committed after Les Miles was fired as head coach.

While Moses’ football career has not gone as planned, he appears ready for a comeback. On January 12, he posted a series of workout videos on Instagram and addressed the adversity he’s faced over the years.

The Baton Rouge-native wrote, “PROGRESS PROGRESS PROGRESS. The comeback gone be CRAZY! They said I would never be able to play the game I love again, much less run again… I had people count me out and I lost it all from the people I love, respect, and haters throwing dirt on my name. BUT God had other plans. My life ain’t go how I envisioned it, but my testimony gone give athletes who go through adversity across the world the hope they need. If you know me, you know how down bad I was over the past few years. I had everything you could possibly want as a football player. I dead ass lost everything and for awhile I used to think God was punishing me. For the longest, I didn’t understand because I always did what I was supposed to. As time passed, I realized he was only preparing me for what’s to come in my life.”

The Athletic‘s Nick Baumgardner tweeted on Tuesday, “Moses was such a big, big-time athlete coming out of HS in Louisiana and never quite got to where he was going to go because of injury… this could be worth following if he’s healthy.”


Dylan Moses Will Face Heavy Competition at Seahawks Mini-Camp


While Moses has a shot to earn a spot on the Seahawks roster, Seattle has already signed a slew of undrafted free-agent linebackers that will also be attending their rookie mini-camp, including Washington’s Cam Bright, Montana’s Patrick O’Connell, Penn State’s Jonathon Sutherland, Ashland’s Michael Ayers, and Oklahoma State’s Lamont Bishop, per The Athletic.

According to Fantasy Pros‘ Thor Nystrom, the Seahawks collected the best crop of undrafted players this offseason.

“The Seahawks were the big winners of this year’s UDFA free-for-all,” Nystrom wrote.
The Seahawks signed 23 UDFA that I had rankings on pre-draft, tying for the NFL-lead. But the quality was even better than the quantity – Seattle’s signing of 17 players on my 500-player big board easily led the NFL. In my ranking system, there was a larger qualitative difference between Seattle’s UDFA class and the No. 2 class (Tampa Bay) than four different franchises’ UDFA groups scored in sum.”

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Seahawks Add Former 2-Time National Champion to Camp Roster: Report

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