What you need to know about new Seahawks DT Jamie Meder
Jan 15, 2019, 10:00 AM | Updated: 12:48 pm
The Seahawks signed former Browns DT Jamie Meder to a futures contract Jan. 15. (AP)
(AP)
The Seahawks’ offseason roster moves continued Monday when the team signed free agent defensive tackle Jamie Meder to a reserve/futures contract.
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The 6-feet-3, 309-pound Meder started all but one game for the Cleveland Browns in 2016, and is best remembered for blocking a 32-yard field goal attempt by Chargers kicker Josh Lambo in Week 16 to secure the Browns’ sole win of that season.
His 2017 season ended prematurely when a high-ankle sprain landed him on the injured reserve in November. But through the first six weeks of that season, Meder was ranked as the second-best run-stopping defensive tackle in the league by Pro Football Focus.
“He is a total run-stuffer,” Brock Huard said of Meder during Tuesday morning’s Brock and Salk show on 710 ESPN Seattle. “I think this is a reminder that these Seahawks – their personnel, their pro personnel, their college scouting – it never rests. And they will continue to search for answers.”
Meder is the most recent of a handful of players to receive a reserve/future contract from the Seahawks. Seattle signed former Rams kicker Sam Ficken to a reserve/future contract last Friday, just days after it signed nine of its practice squad players to future contracts on Jan. 8.
What is a futures contract?
Futures contracts are signings that won’t count against a team’s roster limit until the start of the new league year in March (literally, the promise of a future contract). Upon entering the new league year, players who have signed these deals will officially become part of the 90-man roster teams are allowed to carry through the the 2019 offseason/preseason.
These contracts can only be offered to players who were not on any team’s active roster at the close of the regular season (both Ficken and Meder, for example, were free agents).
“Most of them don’t work out, but you may get a couple of them that may be able to sneak onto the roster,” 710 ESPN Seattle’s John Clayton told Huard and co-host Mike Salk. “You have the luxury of just signing as many guys as you can that are on the street. These are guys on the street that don’t have (teams), a lot of them came from practice squads. And you can sign as many as you can.”
Listen to Brock and Salk every weekday morning from 7 a.m. – 10 a.m. on 710 ESPN Seattle. You can hear John Clayton break down the latest NFL news during his “Morning Drive” segment at 7:15 am. on Brock and Salk. Listen to the rest of Tuesday’s show here.
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