Weber State Professional Athletes

Weber State's most prominent NFL export is in a race against the clock.

Rashid Shaheed, the Seahawks' two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver and return specialist, injured his knee in the third quarter of Seattle's 20-3 dismantling of the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football (Oct. 25) and has since missed back-to-back practices ahead of Monday's Week 8 matchup against the Chicago Bears. What began as an encouraging prognosis is now shading toward genuine concern.

The injury and its aftermath

Shaheed exited the Chiefs game early after logging just two receptions for one yard on three targets — a quiet night that got quieter fast when he didn't return. Head coach Mike Macdonald struck a measured tone Monday, suggesting initial assessments pointed away from a serious structural issue, but the optimism has been tempered by Shaheed's continued absence from the practice field as the week has progressed.

With a key divisional stretch ahead and the NFL trade deadline looming, the Seahawks' front office is already exploring contingencies. Seattle brought in two wide receivers for tryouts Wednesday, a clear signal that the team isn't banking on Shaheed suiting up Monday night. Trade speculation has also surfaced, with analysts floating names like Jets wideout Adonai Mitchell as a potential deadline acquisition to offset the loss of production if Shaheed misses extended time.

What Shaheed means to Seattle

This isn't just a depth concern — Shaheed is a genuine offensive weapon and one of the league's most dangerous returners. Losing him, even briefly, removes a big-play threat that defenses must account for on every snap. The Bears game, a winnable matchup for a Seahawks team with playoff aspirations, becomes a more complicated equation without him healthy and on the field.

Around the league: Wildcat alumni in Week 7

Shaheed wasn't the only Weber State alum in action Sunday. Raiders cornerback Taron Johnson suited up in Las Vegas's 21-35 loss to the Rams, where he figures to face a stiff test in Week 8 — Yahoo Sports flagged him as a key matchup against Jets rookie receiver Omar Cooper Jr., who has been on a tear since returning from injury. Johnson's ability to shadow slot receivers will be one of the storylines to watch as Las Vegas hosts New York.

Browns linebacker Winston Reid was also active as Cleveland edged the Titans 27-24 — a gritty win that keeps the Browns in the AFC wild card conversation.

The bottom line

Shaheed's knee is the headline, and it'll stay that way until he's either cleared or officially ruled out. For Weber State faithful watching across the league, it's a tense week — one of their own is fighting to get back on the field at exactly the wrong moment on the schedule.

Weber State in the NFL: Week of Oct. 11–17

When the Seahawks needed a running back, they didn't scroll through the waiver wire — they looked at their own receiver room. Rashid Shaheed, the Weber State product who carved out an NFL role as a wideout, has been moonlighting in the backfield amid Seattle's injury-depleted depth chart, and it turns out the position isn't entirely foreign to him.

Shaheed's history as a running back — a part of his pre-NFL identity — is suddenly relevant again in the Pacific Northwest. Against Denver on Thursday (Oct. 15), Shaheed logged two rushing yards alongside a sharp five-catch, 66-yard receiving performance in a 17-14 loss to the Broncos. The dual-role usage underscores just how much the Seahawks value his versatility, even as the team dropped the game. It also serves as a callback to the kind of multi-threat football Shaheed played at Weber State, where that adaptability first caught professional eyes.

His earlier outing against San Francisco on Oct. 11 was quieter — two catches for 23 yards in a 29-32 loss — but the broader two-week picture is one of a receiver being asked to do more than his job title suggests. Over two games, Shaheed totaled seven catches for 89 yards and saw legitimate carries out of the backfield, a workload that would have seemed unusual just a month ago.

The Wildcats' fingerprints are elsewhere in the league this week, though the ledger is mixed. Taron Johnson, now with the Raiders at cornerback, was on the field for Las Vegas's 45-17 blowout loss to New England on Oct. 11 — a rough afternoon for a Raiders squad still searching for its footing. Winston Reid, the linebacker the Browns picked up from the Weber State pipeline, was part of a Cleveland defense that dropped a 12-17 decision to the Jets on the same Sunday.

Neither Johnson nor Reid put up notable individual numbers in the brief, but both remain active contributors on NFL rosters — a point worth appreciating for a mid-major program in Ogden, Utah that continues to punch above its recruiting weight in producing professional talent.

The headline, though, belongs to Shaheed. The position switch isn't a gimmick — it's the Seahawks making a calculated bet on a player whose college versatility never fully disappeared. Weber State fans who watched him in the Big Sky Conference understand: Shaheed has always been more than one thing. Seattle is just now catching up to what Wildcat faithful already knew.