Seahawks Sign Trevon Diggs to Active Roster, Lose Another Rookie to Injured Reserve

Shaking up the depth in their secondary heading into Sunday's much-anticipated clash with the San Francisco 49ers, the Seattle Seahawks signed veteran cornerback Trevon Diggs to the active roster off of the practice squad.

In a corresponding move, Seattle placed rookie cornerback Julian Neal on injured reserve after he tweaked his hamstring in Thursday's practice, meaning the third round pick out of Arkansas will miss at least the next four games before he can return to play.

After signing with Seattle late in training camp and appearing briefly in the team's preseason finale, Diggs didn't make the initial 53-man roster, as coach Mike Macdonald indicated the former All-Pro needed more time to ramp up. But he finally made his team debut in a Week 4 home win over the Chargers, playing nine defensive snaps with no statistics.

“Tre did a great job. He had a good game," Macdonald said on Monday.

With Devon Witherspoon and Josh Jobe entrenched in the starting lineup and third-year cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett enjoying a stellar season thus far, including intercepting a pass and producing two pass breakups with no touchdowns allowed in coverage, Diggs likely won't see much more action than he did in his debut barring injuries ahead of him on the depth chart.

However, Macdonald and defensive coordinator Aden Durde have always liked to mix in reserve defensive backs in different personnel groupings, and the veteran appears to have plenty of trust from both coaches now that he has been in the scheme for two months. If they decide to go with four cornerbacks on the field when in dime, for example, Diggs could easily check into the lineup as one of the boundary cornerbacks.

To this point, Neal has played just two defensive snaps in four games, seeing brief action at the tail end of a 31-7 win over the Cardinals in Week 2. The rookie cornerback missed most of training camp and the entire preseason with a quad injury, but he earned a spot on the initial roster and has played 52 special teams snaps, generating one tackle in punt coverage.

Battling multiple injuries, Neal becomes the latest Seattle rookie to land on injured reserve, joining running back Jadarian Price and safety Bud Clark. While Clark will miss the entire season with a broken ankle suffered in the preseason, both Price and Neal should be able to make it back after they become eligible to return, but having all three of their top picks on the shelf at the same time certainly isn't an ideal situation for the team in early October.

With Price and Neal out, the Seahawks have only one rookie in guard Beau Stephens, who continues to platoon with Christian Haynes in place of injured starter Anthony Bradford, healthy and available on the active roster. Receiver Emmanuel Henderson, cornerbacks Andre Fuller and Michael Dansby, and defensive tackle Deven Eastern are all on the practice squad.

In additional news, after Macdonald told reporters that veteran receiver Irvin Charles had a "chance" to be activated from injured reserve and play on Sunday, the Seahawks downgraded him from questionable to out. Known for his special teams prowess, the 6-4 wideout could be an option to activate for Thursday's upcoming matchup with the Broncos in Denver on short rest.