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Can the Seahawks Revive Dion Jordan’s NFL Career?

Jordan has one more shot to make it in the NFL.

Dion Jordan might be the poster child for my complaint at the over-reliance of NFL general managers, coaches and owners on a player’s ability to exercise at the NFL Combine. Jordan was a very good college football player at the University of Oregon in his four seasons there, but he wasn’t an elite player. What he did have was an elite combine, at 6-6 and 248, he ran a 4.60 40-yard dash, threw down a 122-inch broad jump and a 4.35-second shuttle. All top scores.

So the Miami Dolphins drafted him No. 3 overall in the 2013 NFL draft. They cut him this offseason.

Now, the official reason for Jordan’s cut wasn’t the fact that he was a draft bust, and he most certainly was. The reason he was released is he’d just been reinstated this previous offseason after a season-long suspension for violating the NFL’s performance enhancing drugs policy. From April 2015 until July 2016, Jordan was completely out of the NFL. While he was still with the Dolphins last season, he never once made it onto the active roster and they parted ways with him on March 31 claiming he failed a physical. Jordan is still recovering from one of two knee surgeries he had while on his PED sabbatical.

About two weeks later he signed a one-year, $640,000 contract with the Seattle Seahawks with none of the money guaranteed. That means Jordan is going to have to earn his spot on a defensive roster that should be legitimately tough to make. It’s the best thing that ever happened to him.

Jordan was not without talent and I would never argue he shouldn’t have been drafted. His senior year with the ducks he had 44 tackles with 10.5 for a loss, five sacks, one pass defense and three fumble recoveries. For a speed rusher that weighs less than 250, that sounds a lot like a third or fourth round pick to me. And if he’d been brought in with the expectations of a mid-round pick, perhaps his two-sack, 26-tackle rookie year wouldn’t stick out as a disaster.

Truthfully, with his combine and physical skills, Jordan probably should have gone in the second round. I never saw him as a first round pick and sure as hell didn’t understand him going third overall.

https://twitter.com/David_Seahawks/status/869986209979813888

After two years of getting manhandled at the defensive end spot, it’s obvious Jordan tried to hit the needle in an effort to save his career and remove the draft bust label from his forehead. He got busted and, of course, made it even worse.

Jordan is in a good situation now. The Seattle Seahawks boast some of the best coaches in the game, all throughout the staff, and my guess is Jordan will be used as a pass rushing outside linebacker this season.  Defensive coordinator Kris Richard and his assistants Michael Barrow and Dwaine Board have to basically rebuilt Jordan from the ground up. Head coach Pete Carroll seems content to let him do just that. They should treat Jordan like an undrafted rookie. Hell, they’re paying him like one.

“Dion Jordan’s going to be a while before he’s ready to go,” Carroll told a Seattle radio station. “He’s still getting back from a knee that bothered him. …We know he’s going to be a good addition.”

I hate to see guys bust out of the NFL. I think the league gives up on some of these highly-drafted kids too soon when, most of the time, they were put in a bad situation out of the gate. Jordan’s mistake was trying to fix Miami’s mistake through chemical enhancement. Hopefully with the Seahawks, he can just do it with hard work and talent.

Speaking of reclamation projects…

There were plenty of rumblings over the last few weeks that Colin Kaepernick might sign a short-term deal to back up Russell Wilson with the Seattle Seahawks. As of today, those rumblings have completely ceased.

Seattle was probably Kaepernick’s last real chance at landing on an NFL roster. The Seahawks have the backbone to take the heat, even coming from the Wizard of Orange’s twitter account and a politically diverse enough fanbase that any issues with overly conservative fans would probably burn out quickly.

So what happened?

Though it was a move that made sense, it’s not as cut and dried as it seems. The Seahawks already have Trevone Boykin as Russell Wilson’s top back up and I can honestly say, I’m not sure Kaepernick could have beaten him out in camp. Jake Heaps, the No. 3 QB, could have been taken down, but Kaepernick probably priced himself out of a third spot on the depth chart contract. And that’s not a bad thing. Regardless of all of Kaepernick’s issues on the field, he’s definitely an NFL No. 2. I’d argue that’s all he ever was.

But whatever heat the Seahawks would have taken, it probably wouldn’t be worth it for a third-string QB. It could get interesting if Wilson is forced to miss some games this season. Kaepernick’s phone might ring, then.

This has been a tough year for quarterbacks on the free agent market. Jay Cutler, who I would have ranked above Kaepernick, had so little interest he just retired and went into broadcasting. Ryan Fitzpatrick, who I would also have ranked higher than Kaep, ended up signing a one-year, $3 million deal to back up Jameis Winston with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Would Kaepernick be any better option than Robert Griffin III right now? Just looking at the available free agents, just on football alone, I’d put Kaep behind RG3, Austin Davis, Christian Ponder and Shaun Hill.

The thing is, with Kaepernick it isn’t all about football. His “sit-down/kneel-down” protest hurt his free agent potential. Even with his promise to stand this season because, I guess he solved racism, it’s not helping. I predicted as much the minute he did it and I wholeheartedly support the message behind the protest. Kneeling is, in no way, disrespectful or people are disrespecting God constantly in churches all over the world.

Not everybody feels that way, especially rich, old NFL owners. Kaep, it’s time look north to Canada. It’s you’re only hope of playing again.

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Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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