From All-Big East hurdler to D3 receiving standout to mini-camp invitee to 90 man roster guy, what a wild trip
Two years ago, Mitch Van Vooren was earning all-Big East honors for Marquette in the 400 meter hurdles and breaking a school record at NCAA regionals in that same event a few weeks later.
Now? He’s getting signed to at the very least a training camp deal with the Seattle Seahawks, as he’s now on their 90 man roster.
How did this happen? Well, Van Vooren left Marquette after that NCAA regionals performance and moved on to Division 3 St. Norbert up in Green Bay. He had two quality years of competition with 13 touchdowns and over 1,000 yards receiving in 22 games. That was enough to get him onto NFL radars going into the 2025 NFL Draft, but not enough to get him a draft pick. After the draft, Van Vooren was invited to rookie mini-camp by the Cleveland Browns, and things went from there.
I’m not going to do the deep dive to try to divine the connection between the Browns’ coaching staff & front office and the same for the Seahawks to try to figure out exactly how Van Vooren landed in Seattle. Everyone knows there’s a whisper network amongst coaches and personnel people. A quick “hey, look, there’s no space for this guy with us, but if you need a guy, take a look” conversation is pretty commonplace, and it’s clear that someone said something nice about Van Vooren during the month of May to get him to the point of signing with Seattle.
Field Gulls, our sister site focused on the Seahawks, isn’t digging too deep at the possibilities of Van Vooren earning a spot on the 53 man roster when the 2025 NFL season gets going this fall, at least not quite yet. That makes sense, it’s way too early to make those kinds of statements, especially when training camp will make things clear one way or another.
Still, it does seem that this signing brings us to the doorstep of a former Marquette athlete playing in an NFL preseason game, right? Seattle is scheduled to host the Las Vegas Raiders for a preseason game on August 7, and we have to note that the Seahawks’ third preseason game is set for Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers on August 23rd. If Van Vooren is still on the camp roster at that point, I’d imagine suiting up for that one would be a pretty neat experience for the Peshtigo High School graduate.
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