RENTON — The Seahawks entered the weekend as one of only two teams in the NFL with only two quarterbacks on their entire roster — active or practice squad.
That changed Monday when they signed former Minnesota Viking Jaren Hall to the practice squad, releasing receiver Easop Winston Jr. to make room.
P.J. Walker served as the Seahawks’ third quarterback behind starter Geno Smith and backup Sam Howell during the preseason.
Walker was released Tuesday in the cutdown to the regular-season max of 53.
General manager John Schneider said the next day that it was still an option for the team to sign Walker to the practice squad.
Hall, 26, became available on Thursday when he was waived off the Vikings’ 53-man roster after they decided to sign Brett Rypien — also briefly a Seahawk a year ago — after he was waived by the Bears.
That likely altered the Seahawks’ plans for their practice squad QB as it was known they liked Hall coming out of the draft in 2023 and might have taken him had he slid further than the 164th spot, which is where he was drafted by Minnesota in the fifth round.
Because of injuries to starter Kirk Cousins and backup Nick Mullens, the former BYU standout started two games for the Vikings as a rookie in 2023, completing 13 of 20 passes for 168 yards, an interception and no touchdowns.
The 6-foot, 211-pound Hall got his first start on Nov. 5 in a game at Atlanta but suffered a concussion early in a 31-28 win, completing 5 of 6 passes for 78 yards before departing. The Vikings signed Joshua Dobbs, who took over for a while.
Hall started a late-season game against the Packers but was replaced by Mullens after going 5 of 10 for 67 yards and an interception in an eventual 33-10 loss.
He got the bulk of the playing time for the Vikings in the preseason with Minnesota using Sam Darnold sparingly following a season-ending knee injury to rookie J.J. McCarthy. Hall was 28 of 46 for 339 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions while being sacked three times and rushing two times for 11 yards.
Minnesota coach Kevin O’Connell told reporters last week the Vikings wanted to re-sign Hall after initially waiving him.
“Just knowing that we put him in a tough situation as a rookie last year, I really want to evaluate what is in his best interest for him to have the most successful career, and reach all the goals that he’s more than talented enough to reach,” O’Connell said. “I do hope that involves him staying here and continuing that process.
“… I believe that we brought Jaren here for a long-term process. That timeline got sped up last year when we went through the amount of numbers at the position we did. All Jaren has done since then is do all the right things and improve. I thought he was showing a lot of those things in the preseason.”
GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah also said the Vikings hoped to retain Hall.
“We just want more time to pour into him,” Adofo-Mensah said. “That’s really what it is.”
Being the third QB in Seattle instead of the fourth in Minnesota likely appealed to Hall.
Hall made 25 starts at BYU as the primary starter in 2021-22 and finished first in school history in what the school termed “career interception avoidance percentage’’ with 52 touchdowns to 11 interceptions while throwing for 6,174 yards and rushing for 796 on 181 carries.
He is the son of former BYU running back Kalin Hall, who played there in 1992-93, and also played baseball at BYU in 2019-20, appearing in 27 games overall with eight starts in the outfield.
Seahawks to wear throwbacks against Denver
Media heading out to practice for the beginning of Monday’s practice noticed that offensive players were wearing the team’s throwback jerseys, with players also wearing the throwback helmets.
It soon became apparent there was a reason as the team announced it will wear the throwbacks for Sunday’s opener against Denver.
The team had already announced that they will also wear the throwbacks for a Thursday night game against the 49ers on Oct. 10. Teams can only wear throwbacks twice this season, via NFL rules.
The throwback uniforms debuted last season with the Seahawks going 1-1 in them, beating Cleveland at home and losing at Dallas.
Personnel report — Jenkins, Jones, N. Fant back in uniform
Coach Mike Macdonald did not speak to the media and the team does not have to produce an injury report until Wednesday, so there were no official updates on personnel.
But in seemingly encouraging news, three key players who had been out last week were in uniform during early warmups — rush end Dre’Mont Jones, tight end Noah Fant and safety Rayshawn Jenkins. Also again in uniform were two players who had missed time of late — cornerback Tre Brown and linebacker Jerome Baker.
Among those still out were cornerback Artie Burns and tight end Pharaoh Brown. And outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, who has been expected to miss a few weeks with a sprained knee, was also not on the field during the time media were allowed to watch.
Husky Stadium is where?
The Broncos announced that rookie Bo Nix of Oregon will start at quarterback on Sunday.
Denver coach Sean Payton was asked what kind of environment Nix may be stepping into Sunday and noted that Nix started a game at Washington during his Oregon career (that coming in a 36-33 loss on Oct. 14).
“It’s going to be loud,’’ Payton said in a quote distributed by the team’s public relations department. “I would imagine there will be some similarities to when Oregon goes to Washington and they’re playing in front of however many thousand people. That’s another loud stadium an hour down the road. So we’ll deal with the crowd noise this week. This won’t be the first game we play where it’s loud.”
