Undrafted free agents have a major impact on the winning ways of the Hawks
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Ricardo Locketta (83) celebrates after winning the NFC Championship game on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015, at CenturyLink Field in Seattle. Lockette joined the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2011.
(TNS) - Seahawks receiver Chris Matthews still is waiting to make his first NFL catch.
But Sunday, he made what might have been the biggest grab of Seattle's 28-22 overtime victory over Green Bay in the NFC Championship Game, snatching the ball out of the air on an onside kick with just more than two minutes left after it bounced off Brandon Bostick of the Packers.
And as he did, Matthews became the latest player who overcame the odds of not being drafted to stake his place in Seahawks' lore.
In fact, the game against the Packers served as a showcase for the success Seattle has had with undrafted free agents.
There was Garry Gilliam, a rookie undrafted free agent this season, catching the pass off the fake field goal from punter Jon Ryan that made it 16-7 in the third quarter to give the Seahawks some life.
There was Doug Baldwin, who entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2011, leading the Seahawks with 106 yards receiving, including a 35-yard catch to convert third-and-seven in overtime.
And there was Jermaine Kearse, an undrafted free agent out of Washington in 2012, catching the winning touchdown on the next play.
In what might have been the most memorable game in the team's history, every reception made by a Seahawks receiver came from a player originally undrafted (the other being Ricardo Lockette). And two of the four touchdowns were scored by UDFAs.
Seattle coach Pete Carroll said the success the team has had with undrafted free agents has become so commonplace that "we're kind of numb to that right now. But it's the facts.''
All teams get contributions from undrafted free agents. For instance, each of Green Bay's starting cornerbacks Sunday -- Sam Shields and Tramon Williams -- were UDFAs.
And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, there were 456 undrafted free agents on NFL opening-day rosters this season -- 14.25 per team.
Seattle, though, typically has been ahead of that curve.
Consider that Sunday, the Seahawks had 22 players on their 53-man active roster who were never drafted. Ten were players who initially began their careers with the Seahawks.
Seattle so values the impact it can get from undrafted free agents that it created a brochure it sent to agents and others before the draft last May that touted the team's success at grooming such players and also touting that the Seahawks give UDFAs more playing time in the preseason than any other team.
"We're dedicated to giving all of our players a look to find out who they are and what they're all about so we can field the best team possible,'' Carroll is quoted as saying in the brochure.
Players say that's more than just lip service.
"He gives everyone an equal opportunity to compete and I feel like that brings the best out of players,'' Kearse said this week.
Teams, of course, have a lot of motivation to try to find diamonds in the rough because they represent the cheapest form of labor possible, most usually making the minimum (which this year is a base of $420,000 for rookies).
Such players often find their way onto the roster initially via special teams -- playing on kickoff and punt teams, specifically, the kind of hazardous duty most teams don't want to put on veterans.
Such is the case with Matthews, who played at Kentucky and then two seasons in the Canadian Football League before signing with the Seahawks as a free agent last February. Seattle was intrigued by the size of the 6-foot-5, 218-pounder as it continues its search for some bigger receivers.
"He could really be unique -- he is so big for a receiver," Carroll said.
Injuries, though, prevented Matthews from making much of an impact in the preseason and he was released and then signed to the practice squad. Twice during the season, he was cut from the practice squad before Seattle signed him back in November and then promoted him to the active roster in December.
What finally allowed him to stick was his ability on special teams. As Carroll said, "He crossed over in some areas that made him more valuable to us.''
Sunday, when the Seahawks had to get the ball back after scoring with 2:09 left, Matthews -- who had played in just four games -- was on the kickoff team, lined up on the right, where Steven Hauschka kicked it.
"I was going out there, not trying to mess up,'' he said. "That's all I was doing ... I knew exactly who I was going to and it just so happened it spread wide open and I came back with the ball.''
Kearse, minutes away from adding to his own Seahawks history and that of the team's undrafted free agents, said later "that may be the play of the game right there. For him to get the onside and have a heads-up play like that was truly incredible. But it's what Pete instills with his philosophy and this organization of just competing."
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