Cardinals GM Steve Keim: Ricky Seals-Jones has been ‘fun to watch’
Nov 27, 2017, 8:30 AM | Updated: 3:57 pm
Arizona Cardinals tight end Ricky Seals-Jones (86) scores a touchdown against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2017, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Heading into the 2017 NFL Draft, the name Ricky Seals-Jones didn’t garner much attention.
After being a 5-star recruit that landed at Texas A&M, Seals-Jones was sort of an afterthought following his redshirt junior season in College Station. Was he receiver? Was he a tight end? Did he drop too many passes in college? Was his 40-time too slow?
In all, 253 players were drafted by NFL teams in April. Seals-Jones wasn’t one of them.
His signing with the Cardinals in late April didn’t make many headlines either.
But it’s better to make headlines in November, isn’t it?
Seals-Jones had another stellar game for the Cardinals Sunday in a win over Jacksonville as the rookie caught four passes for 72 yards and a touchdown — his third in two weeks.
The cousin of Pro Football Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson has impressed the man who signed him, general manager Steve Keim.
“You wonder at times when a guy is an undrafted free agent, if it’s a fluke that he comes in in his first game and has some success like he did,” Keim told Doug & Wolf Monday morning on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station. “But then all of a sudden, he capitalizes and does the same type of thing.
“The one thing you see on tape, you see the mismatches he creates, you see the foot speed, the suddenness, the explosiveness in and out of his routes, the fact that he can play in line, he can line up in the slot and he can move all over the field and create mismatches is really fun to watch.”
Despite playing only two games on offense, Seals-Jones is tied for second on the Cardinals’ roster with three touchdown receptions. He’s averaged 18 yards per catch and has given Arizona a tight end dynamic that they haven’t had in a really long time — a down-the-field threat that stresses defenses.
Seals-Jones, who had seen time on special teams, was pressed into duty after Ifeanyi Momah suffered a season-ending leg injury in a Thursday night loss to Seattle.
“With his body control and and his ball skills — although he did have one drop — to me, it encourages you to think about moving forward with a guy that we really haven’t had in this offense in a long time, a mismatch tight end.”
