La Cueva's O'Toole makes Seahawks' 53-man roster

Connor O’Toole woke up Tuesday, his phone close by, and counted the hours.

“Hoping,” he said, “that I didn’t get a call.”

If the Seattle Seahawks had NOT called him by 1 p.m. Tuesday, he said, that was the signal that he had indeed made the team’s initial 53-man roster.

He waited and waited. The later it got, O’Toole said, the more confident he was.

The call never came.

“I knew I was right on the fringe, right on the bubble,” O’Toole said. “There was a chance I made it, a chance I didn’t.”

He’s made it.

On the day before his 23rd birthday, which is Wednesday, the former La Cueva High and University of Utah standout, officially joined the NFL roster of players.

“There were times I didn’t know if it would work out, and times I thought, OK, I can do this,” O’Toole said. “I just tried to stay as levelheaded as I could throughout the process. It’s a good feeling. I’m 100 percent blessed to make the 53.”

O’Toole reportedly signed a 3-year, $2.995 million contract with Seattle earlier this year, with an average annual salary of $998,333.

The Seahawks open the 2025 NFL season on Sept. 7 at home against San Francisco.

Tuesday completed a truly remarkable arc for the 6-foot-3, 250-pound O’Toole, who will wear No. 57 for Seattle and who has been designated as one of the Seahawks’ edge rushers from his outside linebacking position.

O’Toole was a dominant receiver at La Cueva, and defense certainly was not his forte. After he arrived in Salt Lake City, he spent a season at receiver before Utah transformed him into a defensive end/edge rusher. His sprinter’s speed served him well setting the edge in college, and clearly the Seahawks hope his explosiveness off the ball will serve him well in the NFL. He was considered one of the top undrafted edge rushers available when Seattle signed him in early May.

“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised, but I think, looking back on it, the way everything unfolded was crazy,” he said. “I knew going into Utah that there was a strong possibility I could change positions. I didn’t think it would be playing defensive end, but I trusted the coaches on that.”

O’Toole survived a couple of injury-plagued seasons with Utah, adding to the intrigue. O’Toole was one of three undrafted free agents to make Seattle’s 53-man roster Tuesday.

“After these last two years, that’s the most rewarding part, persevering through those,” he said. “Those were some tough times, working through the injuries.”

NFL teams had until Tuesday afternoon to slice their rosters down to 53.

O’Toole wasn’t even the only former New Mexico prep product to survive the 53-man cut in Seattle. So did former Clovis Wildcat Bryce Cabeldue, an offensive lineman who played at the University of Kansas. He and O’Toole even squared off in high school.

“In this business, and it really is a business, it’s hard to put into words,” O’Toole said in a phone interview with the Journal on Tuesday. “It’s a weird day in the NFL. A crazy, crazy day. The vibes are very interesting.”

O’Toole missed the first five days of practice, which put him behind, he said. And he said a couple of early practices where he struggled left him uneasy.

“There was a time when I thought, I don’t know if this is gonna work out,” he said.

But he performed well in the preseason opener against Las Vegas, and his mood pivoted.

“I thought, I can do this,” he said. “Once I had that first preseason game, I just needed to keep stacking good practices.”

He had a sack, a tackle for loss, three quarterback hits and a team-high nine pressures in three preseason games, according to PFF.

O’Toole said he also expects to see time on Seattle’s special teams.

And now that he’s gotten this far, he said the challenge as one of the final players to make the 53-man cut increases as he looks to make Seattle happy they signed him.

“It’s continuing to develop, continuing to prove that I can play at this level,” O’Toole said. He is a former Journal Male Metro Athlete of the Year. “I’m a fringy guy, I’m right on the bubble. … The NFL is all about, ‘what have you done for me lately?’ You have to show up and go to work every single day.”

In the meantime, Tuesday accomplished one other thing: forcing O’Toole — who said he had no plans to celebrate and would be breaking down film Tuesday night ahead of Wednesday’s practice — to find permanent housing in Seattle.

“I’ve been working on it,” he said.

NFL players with New Mexico ties

Five players with ties to New Mexico schools made the 53-man rosters of NFL teams. Three other players with ties to New Mexico schools were waived on Tuesday. The players who were waived are identified with an *