The Jon Rhattigan Story Continues To Unfold
Jon Rhattigan is likely to be remembered as the ultimate late bloomer in Army West Point football history. He was a virtual unknown to all but his teammates before his senior season in 2020.. As the understudy to Cole Christiansen at the Will Linebacker position, Rhattigan’s main contribution in his first three hears was as a member of special teams. He had his first opportunity to play on the defense in the big win over Houston at the Armed Forces Bowl in 2018. Rhattigan played 19 snaps in that game. His only other appearance on the defense before 2020 was for 2 snaps against UMass in 2019.
Christiansen departed after the 2019 season and Nate Woody arrived as the new defensive coordianator. Rhattigan moved into the starting lineup at Will in the opening game of the season against Middle Tennessee State and immediately drew the attention of Army fans. .He had 6 tackles for the day (tied for second on the team) and made the highlights with a 43 yard Pick Six in the third quarter. PFF gave him a phenomenal rating of 92.0 for the game.
Rhattiigan continued to impress Army fans and PFF analysts the remainder of the season, earning a spot on the PFF All American team as well as second team All American honors from USA Today.
The aforementioned narrative by GoBlackKnights.com Sr. Writer, Gordon Larson is also pointed out by SI.com writer Henry Curi in his May 18th article, “Late Bloomer Jon Rhattigan Takes Road Less Traveled From West Point to Seahawks”.
“With the program's (Army Black Knights) success came individual recognition for Rhattigan,” Curi pointed out. “Closing out his collegiate career with a bang, the 6-foot-1, 245-pound senior earned First-Team All-Independent honors, was recognized as a Second-Team All-American by the USA Today, and was named a Bednarik Award semi-finalist.”
Of course, now is the time in which Rhattigan has to impress the Seahawks’ staff, especially veteran head coach, Pete Carroll, who offered these sentiments to Curi regarding the former inside linebacker’s transition to the NFL.
“All I know is that it’s been seamless. There’s been no issues, but he’s here with us just like everybody else now,” Carroll said of Rhattigan. “I don’t know if it’s an exemption or how they, you know, how they do this, but he has the time and the freedom to be with us. And I would imagine that he has some reserve responsibilities out of season and all. I don’t know the particulars other than he’s with us and he’s all in. He seems like a really cool kid. I’m anxious to see the chip on his shoulder about this, you know, being from West Point and all that.”
Carroll followed by revealing that Rhattigan will start his time in Seattle working as an off-ball linebacker at both the WILL and MIKE positions, two spots he thinks will fit the player well as he tries to carve out a role with the team. He will also need to cut his teeth on special teams to have a realistic shot on sticking around, but with K.J. Wright and Shaquem Griffin currently unsigned, there's a window for him to potentially make the 53-man roster as a reserve.
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