Role with Seahawks in Payne’s grasp

ELAINE THOMPSON/The Associated Press |

| JIM BRYANT/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Just another day for Payne.

“I think I’m doing pretty well,” Payne said after practice. “I’m getting good feedback from the coaches and other players. But every day you learn something new. I make mistakes and try to make sure I come back the next day and not make the same one again.”

Mistakes … such as?

“Oh, mostly just little things. You can always get better,” Payne said. “The little things make the difference. Guys like Jerry Rice, they always worked on getting all the little things right.”

Payne came to the Hawks as a longshot free agent who had very little chance to show off his receiving skills at a University of Minnesota program that was heavily run-oriented. All he did was work hard, learn his assignments, and catch everything thrown in his direction.

The staff saw enough in him to stash him on the practice squad, and late in the season they elevated him to the 53-man roster.

“They told me they appreciated the hard work and the way I had approached the season on the practice squad,” Payne said. “They said they wanted to reward me and make sure they kept me around.”

Going against the No. 1 secondary every day in practice sharpened his skills, and rather than take time off in the winter, Payne “just kept working, staying focused, staying on the grind,” he said.

Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck was impressed by Payne’s efforts on the scout team last season.

“He didn’t coast through it,” Hasselbeck said. “He worked very hard, earned the respect of this teammates, of everybody upstairs, coaches, everybody.”

Hasselbeck stressed Payne’s ability to block in the running game, too, which is an area of increased focus this season. He likened his efforts in the offense to the inside slot work of veteran Bobby Engram.

But Payne, at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, is much larger than Engram. Some suggest he’s a smaller version of Joe Jurevicius (6-5, 230). Payne is niftier but still rangy, perhaps more like a shorter Ed McCaffrey (6-5), who used to give the Seahawks problems when he was with Denver.

As for catching the ball in traffic, it doesn’t exactly come naturally, as Hasselbeck suggests. It comes from years of schooling by his father.

“Growing up, I never played football until high school,” Payne said. “My dad would always sign me up and my mom would take me off the list. My dad was always my coach, though … in baseball, and he had one firm rule: If it hits your hands, you’ve gotta catch it. That’s something that has always stuck with me.

“It’s all about focusing, no matter whatever else is going on – you may have linebackers and safeties trying to kill you – but you’ve got to focus in on nothing but that ball and keep your nose on it.”

With Deion Branch still recovering from a knee injury, the Hawks are going to have to figure out who gets the third-receiver duties to go along with presumed starters Engram and Nate Burleson. There’s a number of solid, young candidates.

I would speculate that if there’s a Seahawks player most likely to be the next to reach league-wide elite status, it would be linebacker Leroy Hill.

But if you’re looking for somebody to go from nearly unknown to important contributor, I’d say that these great catches by Logan Payne soon will be available for viewing on Sunday afternoons rather than merely in practice sessions during training camp.