Not sure we watched the same games. I thought he had a chance to make the 52. Not flashy...but the dude just made plays through sheer determination.
I'm sure we watched the same games. I'm also sure that we had very different interpretations of what we saw.
NFL teams don't generally play their starters any more. The back-ups start the game. The 3rd-stringers come in at some point in the 2nd quarter. The 4th-stringers come in during the 3rd quarter and the bottom of the roster scrubs get playing time in the 4th quarter. The players who are on the field for the game's last offensive or defensive series are normally the players that won't even make the PS.
Non primary back-ups that stand out in the 1st 2 preseason games often get promoted up the order in the 3rd game so they can show what they can do against the better back-ups on the opponent's depth chart. Ivey was with the 4th-stringers and scrubs for all 3 games. He didn't stand out, or look better than the opposition, until he made 2 sacks/plays for loss on the final defensive drive of the final game after the outcome had already been decided. I don't think he did enough in those games to indicate he'd be a PS candidate.
However...preseason games rarely mean anything at all. Teams go by what they see on the practice field and in meetings. Presumably the Seahawks saw enough athletic ability or future potential outside of the preseason games to have him as a developmental project on the active roster. Maybe LB was a position was a position of weakness and he was the best 'last choice' of a bad group. Maybe they just wanted 1 more player at that position.
He's now had the extra year and all the benefit of the doubt that he's going to get. He'll need to look better than this year's crop of athletic desperado UDFAs. If not the team will go with the younger player with more time left on a cheap rookie contract.
Side note: I don't know what happened with Ivey's pre-Draft measurables, but those numbers suggest that he's not good enough to be in the NFL.
