A familiar place for Easop Winston Jr: Trying to win a Seahawks spot — and honoring Mom

“Late hands.”

Easop Winston Jr. has them — for everyone but Mom.

He is always on time for her.

The Seahawks wide receiver from Washington State, born to Renee Winston in South San Francisco 26 years ago, has some of the best “late hands” on Seattle’s 90-man summer roster. They are why he scored the Seahawks’ only touchdown in their 16-15 preseason loss to the Tennessee Titans Saturday night.

“Late hands” is the skill crafty receivers use to fake out coverage defenders. To stay with elusive pass catchers, most defensive backs turn their backs and their head to the quarterback, to face and track the receiver. The best DBs have been taught to turn their heads and find the ball once they see the receiver raise their hands to catch a pass arriving over their shoulders.

The best receivers keep running with their hands down as if the ball is not arriving — until the last possible second when it does.

Seattle’s Tyler Lockett is a master of it. DK Metcalf has learned it from him. Jaxon Smith-Njigba did it for big plays throughout the two joint practices the Seahawks had with the Titans in Nashville this past week.

Saturday night, Winston did it better than Smith-Njigba, late in the first quarter against Tennessee.

In a scoreless game, the Seahawks had the ball on the Titans 23-yard line. Cornerback Tre Avery played up into Winston at the line of scrimmage in man-to-man coverage. Sam Howell, at quarterback as starter Geno Smith rested again following the first-teamers’ extensive work in the joint practices Wednesday and Thursday, noticed the press coverage on Winston. There was no safety deep to help the cornerback track Winston.

Howell, the ex-Washington Commanders starter Seattle acquired this spring in a trade, and Winston have worked extra on pass routes on the field immediately following training-camp practices. They have developed a bond. It is improving each player’s stock in the eyes of new head coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb.

Howell knew Winston would beat Avery off the line onto his go route to the end zone. Winston knew as Avery ran with him past the goal line to wait to move his hands to the arriving throw until the ball was over Avery’s shoulder.

Avery never saw the 23-yard touchdown pass. Seattle led 6-0.

“Yeah, ‘Sop’ can play,” Howell said. “I love Sop. He’s got great hands, great ball skills. Some of the best ball skills I’ve ever seen.

“In practice he makes some ridiculous catches. He’s great versus press coverage. He’s got a great release package. When we were in the red zone (Saturday), they came up and pressed him. And all I had to do was hold the safety a little bit and knew Easop was going to do the rest.

“He’s a good player and I love playing with him.”

Howell’s pass was money. Winston’s late hands were gold.

“I think that’s just something I always did, even since I was a kid. That wasn’t taught, at all. And I’ll be honest if it was, but it wasn’t,” Winston said before the Seahawks flew home from their week in Nashville. “And it was just something that I pride myself on in my game, never letting the DB know when the ball is coming.

“So, that was kind of a routine thing for me.

“You know, the late hands.”

Easop Winston, for Mom

His hands were on time to snare the ball Howell threw for Winston’s second NFL touchdown reception.

His first score was last summer for Seattle, in an exhibition win over Minnesota. Winston kept the ball from that touchdown in August 2023 for his mother, a pastor in Central California who posts Seahawks game photos of her son on her Instagram page.

Easop has always liked to hoard footballs. Renee Winston told the Cougar Sports Network when Winston was playing for Washington State that “from fifth grade to the 12th grade, he slept with the football every night.”

Winston kept the ball from his second TD catch in as many Seahawks preseasons Saturday night. So, The News Tribune asked him in Nashville following the game, is he also giving this ball to Mom?

“Yeah, she’ll probably get this one, too,” he said, beaming.

Mom has been there from Easop learning football as a kid, to being told that at 5 feet 11 and under 200 pounds from Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo south of San Francisco he wasn’t big enough for Pac-12 football at WSU. Then it was he certainly wasn’t big enough to play in the NFL.

She’s been there as he’s been cut five times by four NFL teams the four years he’s been in the league.

He signed out of WSU as a rookie free agent with the Rams in the spring of 2020. They cut him at the end of that preseason. He played the only three regular-season games of his NFL career in 2021 for New Orleans, mostly as a kickoff returner. His only career regular-season catch came in one of the three games he played for the Saints that season. They cut Winston in 2022’s training camp.

Cleveland claimed him off waivers that summer. The Browns released him two weeks later, at the end of the 2022 preseason. He signed onto Seattle’s practice squad that October. The Seahawks released him the following spring. They signed him back days later. Then they released him at the end of training camp last August. Undrafted rookie Jake Bobo beat him out for Seattle’s last spot at wide receiver.

Winston cleared league waivers. Seattle signed him to its practice squad. The team promoted him in late October to the active roster. He played in one game, Oct. 22 in Seattle’s home win over Arizona. He played two snaps on offense that day.

So, yes, he kept the ball from having scored Saturday night in Nashville.

For Mom.

Easop Winston’s roster chances

Winston’s warm smile becomes downright toasty when he talks about his mother.

“I love getting questions about my mom because she just sacrificed a lot for me,” he said. “It’s a lot of times I wanted to give up on the sport. A lot of times she had to talk me out of a lot of dark places. So being here, I just owe it all to her.

“And I know she watched (on television). I can’t wait to talk to her.

“So I go to her for a lot. For everything.”

He’s in the same spot now he was in last summer, same place he’s been since he entered the NFL. He’s fighting to win a last spot on the 53-man roster the Seahawks must set for the regular season next week, Aug. 27.

Bobo is now entrenched as a dependable, at-times remarkable fourth receiver. Laviska Shenault is earning the fifth spot. That’s because of his ability at 6-1 and 225 pounds to break tackles on offense, plus as a returner and blocker with the NFL’s new kickoff rules.

Winston is battling bigger, 2023 draft choice Dareke Young, impressive fifth-year veteran Cody White and fading, injured Dee Eskridge to be the sixth receiver. The Seahawks usually keep six, though that could change with Macdonald, Grubb and the new coaching staff.

“Unfortunately, every single guy can’t make the team. That’s the tough part about this business,” Howell said. “But we got some really, really good football players in that room.”

Macdonald and general manager John Schneider could presume Winston would be able to clear waivers and get onto Seattle’s practice squad at the end of this month, for call-ups to games this season.

It’s not like Winston hasn’t been through that before.

He smiled a knowing grin even before a questioner got done asking what he feels his chances are to make a team for the first time out of a training camp.

“I try not to look too far ahead. I treat every day as it is,” he said. “I just try to get better each and every day. I am thankful to God to be in this position.

“However it pans out, I’ll be grateful. I’m just grateful to be here. I know what it feels like to be on the outside looking in. So just to be here another year, like I said, I’m thankful and grateful and I’m blessed.

“Very, very blessed.”