By Bob Condotta

The Seattle Times

RENTON — Shaquem Griffin is one of the most life-affirming examples offered up by professional sports of the human capacity for overcoming obstacles to reach one’s goals.

So maybe his approach to his new role with the Seahawks — trying to rush the passer off the edge at a listed 227 pounds — shouldn’t be surprising.

Griffin hints he may actually weigh a little less than 227, saying “that’s the weight I came in at” when asked if it’s accurate. He spent this offseason trying to lose weight.

Whatever his exact weight, the role the Seahawks debuted for him at San Francisco often pits him against offensive linemen who may tip the scales at 100 pounds heavier.

“He’s just not very big,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “You have to do special things with him.”

Griffin — who overcame losing his left hand when he was 4 due to amniotic band syndrome to forge a career as a professional football player — notes that in his role as a pass rusher, the goal is to run by the offensive linemen and not through them. It puts one of his greatest strengths — speed, which was illustrated in the memorable 4.38-second 40-yard dash he ran at the 2018 combine — to maximum use.

“I don’t think weight really matters to me because I shouldn’t be fighting hands to hands with them,” he said. “If I am, I’m not doing something right. So my whole thing is don’t get grabbed, don’t get touched.”

Griffin played 14 snaps Nov. 11 and didn’t record an official stat — no tackles, and no pressures as recorded by football analytic site Pro Football Focus.

But his 14 snaps (13 official and another on a play nullified by a penalty) came in a game in which the Seahawks played the best defense they have all season, holding the 49ers, who had been tearing up the NFL, to 302 yards in a game that went as long as an NFL game can — 70 minutes.

No one seems to think that was a coincidence.

“It was a good shot in the arm for the group to have a young, fast guy to come in there and just be a guy that comes off the ball really hard,” Seahawks defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. said.

It was a long time coming for Griffin. His selection by the Seahawks might have been the highlight of the 2018 draft.

Griffin had begun to fall out of the spotlight this season, not playing a single defensive snap until Nov. 11, and only nine since the first game of 2018, when he filled in for injured K.J. Wright at weakside linebacker.

But with the season on the line, and the Seahawks looking for anything to rejuvenate a defense that ranked near the bottom of the NFL, Carroll decided to unleash Griffin as an edge rusher, essentially replacing Ziggy Ansah, who signed a one-year deal last May worth up to $9 million.

Griffin and Ansah played 14 snaps against the 49ers.

“It was a little game-plan thing,” Carroll said of the division of the snaps. “We weren’t in a lot of those situations to rush the passer. Also, we’ve got to look at Shaquem and make some time. It’s just about reps and competing.”

Carroll and Norton said to expect Griffin to continue as an edge rusher, the spot where he excelled during his Central Florida career, recording 181⁄2 sacks.