Seahawks' backup QB might not be on roster yet After unsuccessful claim for Browns' Shaw, Seattle seems in the market for a veteran reserve

The Seahawks reportedly put an unsuccessful waiver claim in on former Cleveland Browns quarterback Connor Shaw last week, highlighting the team's unsettled backup quarterback situation heading into training camp. Check out the rest of the gallery for some of Seattle's potential veteran options. less The Seahawks reportedly put an unsuccessful waiver claim in on former Cleveland Browns quarterback Connor Shaw last week, highlighting the team's unsettled backup quarterback situation heading into training ... more Photo: Diamond Images/Diamond Images/Getty Images Photo: Diamond Images/Diamond Images/Getty Images Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Seahawks' backup QB might not be on roster yet 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

Amid fireworks and high-profile NBA defections -- sorry, not sorry Oklahoma City -- there was an interesting Seahawks nugget almost lost over the holiday weekend: the waiver claim Seattle put on former Cleveland Browns quarterback Connor Shaw on Friday.

That claim, which was first reported by The New Orleans Advocate, was unsuccessful. The Chicago Bears were awarded the 24-year-old Shaw despite reported claims from the Seahawks and New Orleans Saints. (Teams with worse records are given higher offseason waiver priority in a system similar to the NFL draft order.)

Seattle's claim likely has more to do with their current in-house quarterback situation than it does with their opinion of Shaw, who appeared in only one regular season game after signing with the Browns as an undrafted free agent out of South Carolina in 2014.

Related: Seahawks rookie QB Trevone Boykin avoids jail in assault

The Seahawks find themselves in the unfamiliar and unenviable position of having no veteran depth behind starter and face-of-the-franchise Russell Wilson, with only undrafted rookie Trevone Boykin and second-year pro Jake Heaps at the position.

Boykin, who took second-string reps throughout the team's offseason program, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault charges stemming from a highly publicized incident on Dec. 31, 2015, when he was still a member of the Texas Christian Horned Frogs. Boykin's plea bargain should allow him to avoid any jail time and fully participate in Seattle's training camp.

The Seahawks' insurance at the No. 2 position evaporated when Tarvaris Jackson, who backed up Wilson for the last three years after starting 14 games for Seattle in 2011, was arrested in Florida last month after police claimed he pulled a gun on a woman reported to be his wife and threatened to kill her.

Barring some kind of swift and unforeseen resolution to Jackson's legal problems -- he reportedly told a judge he was broke and requested a public defender before the judge denied his request last week -- his NFL career is all but over. That means if the Seahawks feel compelled to add a veteran to give them a buffer between Wilson and the unproven youngsters at the position, he will need to come from outside the organization.

Related: Tarvaris Jackson claims he's broke, asks for public defender, per report

ESPN analyst Phil Savage recently pointed to four-time Pro Bowler Michael Vick as an option for Seattle, per Sheil Kapadia. A former No. 1 overall pick in 2001, the 36-year-old Vick appeared in five games for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2015, starting three and throwing for just 371 yards, two touchdowns and an interception on 40-of-66 passing.

On one level, Vick would make sense. Like Wilson, running ability and elusiveness are trademarks of his game, with 6,109 career rushing yards, the most for a quarterback in NFL history. But Vick's best days came 10 years ago, and the wear and tear of 13 NFL seasons has taken its toll, with Vick rushing for just 16.8 yards per game over the last two seasons.

Additionally, passing accuracy has never been part of Vick's repertoire. He completed over 60.6 percent of his passes just once in his NFL career, when he made his last Pro Bowl appearance and completed 62.6 percent of 372 attempts in 2010. Compare that to Wilson, who set a franchise record by completing 68.1 percent of his passes in 2015.

It goes without saying that any veteran backup Seattle brings in at this point will have some significant flaws to his game, otherwise he would be with another team already. But there are some players with Seattle ties still languishing on the open market, along with a couple of intriguing options who might become available when teams start making cuts in August. You can check out some of the Seahawks' potential options in the gallery above.

Visit seattlepi.com for more Seattle Seahawks news. Contact sports reporter Stephen Cohen at stephencohen@seattlepi.com or @scohenPI.