O’Connell shows out for Seahawks Saturday

A handful of Griz and Cats are competing for NFL jobs this season, and no one had bigger stats this week than Glacier High product Patrick O’Connell.

O’Connell, the Griz All-America linebacker, made seven stops for the Seattle Seahawks Saturday in their 22-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys. Only Tyreke Smith, who had eight stops, had more on the Seahawks.

O’Connell signed as an undrafted free agent in May, and is listed as the No. 3 right inside linebacker on the Seattle depth chart posted to espn.com.

NFL teams are carrying 90 players currently, and not a few of them are from the Big Sky Conference and from Montana and Montana State in particular.

Troy Andersen, now a second-year linebacker out of MSU for the Atlanta Falcons, made one stop in a 13-13 tie with Cincinnati on Friday. He tops the Falcons depth chart at left inside linebacker.

Los Angeles Rams receiver Lance McCutcheon had no catches or targets Saturday, in his team’s 34-17 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. McCutcheon, Andersen and Kidd all caught on as rookies out of MSU last year; Kidd is listed as third string left tackle for the Saints.

Veteran linebacker Alex Singleton, an MSU standout now entering his fifth season in the NFL and second with Denver, had three tackles in the Broncos’ 21-20 loss to San Francisco on Saturday.

On the Griz side, Samori Toure was targeted once in Green Bay’s 21-17 loss to New England Saturday. Signed as an undrafted free agent out of Montana a year ago, he made two starts in 2022 with the Packers, catching five passes. He had three catches for 56 yards in the Packers’ preseason opener on Aug. 11, and is listed as one of three No. 1 receivers.

Another Griz on an NFL depth chart is Dylan Cook, who moved from Tampa Bay to Pittsburgh this offseason and is No. 3 at right tackle for the Steelers.

Justin Ford (Ravens, Vikings) and Malik Flowers (Saints) both landed training camp invites in May, but haven’t caught on yet. The Saints did keep Weber State’s Rashid Shaheed, who like Flowers was an outstanding kick returner, though Shaheed was listed as questionable this week and didn’t play in New Orleans’ 22-17 win over the Chargers Sunday night.