The Seattle Seahawks brought in former Detroit Lions first-round pick Terrion Arnold for what is listed in the NFL transaction wire as an official tryout. Arnold is in legal limbo after his recent arrest on multiple felony robbery and kidnapping charges, with an arraignment hearing scheduled for later this week.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald addressed the visit during Monday’s training camp media availability.
“It’s enough right now that we had him in for a great visit, a great tryout,” Macdonald
said of the team’s interest in Arnold. “It’s a situation where there’s some other things that are surrounding it as well—we’re aware of that. But we’re working through the situation right now. It was a great visit, I really enjoyed meeting him and I think he enjoyed being here, so we’ll see where it goes.”
Arnold, a former standout cornerback at Alabama, figured to be a key piece of Detroit’s defense before his arrest and subsequent release. Now that he’s currently out on bail but can travel domestically for work, which means he can potentially sign with another NFL team, Seahawks obviously included.
“We’re going to do our due diligence,” Macdonald added when asked about protecting the team culture. “There’s a lot of people in Terrion’s corner that we respect in terms of the type of guy he is, so we’re going to work through all that. I trust our people to make the best decision for us. We also think this is a great place to come work, too, and that people can be the best version of themselves if given the opportunity. It kind of works both ways.”
One person on the coaching staff with at least some familiarity is defensive backs coach Karl Scott, who helped recruit Arnold to Alabama but left for the NFL prior to Arnold’s freshman season.
“Karl recruited him to my knowledge but didn’t coach him, so it’s not as big of a relationship as you might expect, but he’s definitely a person that we would talk to,” Macdonald said. “You know, anybody that has a relationship with anybody that we’re going to bring in we’re going to seek that counsel so this is an example of that.”
The Seahawks let Riq Woolen walk to the Philadelphia Eagles and followed that up by drafting three cornerbacks (Julian Neal, Andre Fuller, and Michael Dansby) and signing Noah Igbinoghene in free agency. With nothing set in stone at corner outside of Josh Jobe and Devon Witherspoon, the interest in Arnold given his ongoing case could be seen as an eyebrow raiser concerning the current group.
“I have a ton of confidence in our defensive backfield room,” Macdonald said. “This is a situation of we’re kind of in everything all the time. We’re always trying to make our team the best we can possibly make it. Whether or not Terrion ends up here or not or it works out or it doesn’t, we’ll keep on rolling the way we know how.”
Arnold is slated to meet with the New Orleans Saints, having met with the Houston Texans prior to his Seahawks tryout.
