What we learned: Seahawks WR Kasen Williams is making this team

The preseason is no time for drawing conclusions.

Not unless it’s with regard to a receiver who won’t stop defying gravity when he’s on the sidelines to make one improbable catch after the next.

Kasen Williams had two more catches in Friday’s preseason game, one of them for a touchdown, and he leads our list of things we learned from Seattle’s 20-13 victory over Minnesota.

Three things we learned

1. Kasen point.

Kasen Williams caught four passes for 119 yards in the preseason opener, then he caught two passes on Seattle’s first drive of Friday’s win, each of which came on third down. The second of those third-down catches came at the goal line, and it came one play after Jermaine Kearse failed to make a play on a jump ball from Russell Wilson. Not saying the competition to make this team at wide receiver will come down to a pair of plays, but if it does …

But the most important play in Williams’ bid to make the roster was his tackle on a first-half kickoff. As good as Williams is catching sideline fades – and he has been great – his primary role were he to make the team is on special teams, and he showed he can be an asset in that regard.

Barring injury, it’s tough to see Kasen Williams not being among the five or six receivers the Seahawks keep on the 53-man roster.

2. The Earl of Orange reigns again.

If there was any question about Earl Thomas’ readiness as he returns from the broken leg he suffered last season, that question has been answered pretty definitively by the first two preseason games. Dude is ready. If his ability to get to the sideline in the first game against the Chargers wasn’t sufficient proof, then his hit on Stefon Diggs on a third-down play in the first half of Friday’s game certainly was. Diggs may have gotten a reception – the Vikings even got a first down – but everyone got to see that Thomas is as instinctive and as unflinching as ever.

“He’s even more explosive than he already was,” linebacker Bobby Wagner said after the game, “and I didn’t think that was possible. But he has been flying around, making plays. Big hits. And you can tell he’s really locked in and really focusing and wants to have a great year.”

3. Chris crosses up Vikings returner.

Chris Carson had two touchdown runs in the preseason opener and a 13-yard run in the first half of Friday’s game. But much like Williams’ big play on special teams, it was the fumble Carson forced on the opening kickoff of the second half that might mean the most in his bid to make the roster. Carson stripped the ball from Rodney Adams and the ball was recovered by Seattle linebacker David Bass for Seattle’s fifth takeaway of the preseason.

If Williams made this team as one of the wide receivers, you can write Carson’s name in pen among Seattle’s running backs.

Check 710Sports.com on Sunday for Danny O’Neil’s three things we’re still trying to figure out after the Seahawks’ second win of the preseason.

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