Dave Boling: Easop Winston Jr. and his pair of ‘oven mitts’ look to catch on at Seahawks training camp

RENTON, Wash. – Renee Winston noticed something highly unusual about her baby son. So much so that she consulted the pediatrician about little Easop Jr.

“Is there something wrong with his hands?” she asked the doctor.

The doctor, with a degree of amazement, observed: “They’re huge.”

During later appointments, as Easop grew, his mother would pressure doctors for second and third opinions. Really, can this be normal?

Well, they all agreed, his hands were extraordinarily large, but nothing to worry about.

Like the paws of a Saint Bernard puppy, they portended Easop’s maturing into an imposing adult.

It is now fair to suggest that the 5-foot-11 Winston never really did fully grow into those hands, but he has found a means of marrying his unusual physical attribute to the perfect vocation.

Catching footballs.

He is doing so now, trying to earn a roster spot in training camp with the Seattle Seahawks.

Renee Winston laughs as she tells the story about his fabled phalanges, and how his college coach, Washington State’s Mike Leach, had a name for Winston’s hands: Oven mitts.

After a walk-through practice with the Seahawks on Monday morning, Winston was asked to display his extended digits.

“God’s gift,” he said, explaining they were somewhere between 10.5 and 11 inches when spread, tip of the thumb to the tip of the pinky.

For comparison, a few measurements of great NFL receivers:

Six-foot-5 Calvin Johnson: 9¼-inch hands.

Six-foot-4 Randy Moss: 9 5/8.

Six-foot-4 D.K. Metcalf: 9 7/8.

Granted, hand size doesn’t always correlate to the ability to catch a ball. Bricks are large, too.

But watching Winston in drills with the Seahawks this week provided evidence that he doesn’t so much catch passes as he ensnares and absorbs them. The ball seems as if it’s settling into a welcoming home.

In Leach’s Air Raid offensive system, Winston scored 19 touchdowns in two seasons, at one point having the most receptions in college football without a drop.

But he went undrafted, and although he had stays with the Rams, Saints and Browns before joining Seattle’s practice squad last fall, he has a slender resume: one NFL catch for 5 yards, and 10 returned punts for 119 yards, all for the Saints in 2021.

This is what sets up the core of Winston’s story, and makes it more about his determination and heart than the size of his hands. He’s 26 years old, with one career catch, yet is fiercely unwilling to relinquish his fight to make it.

“I love it here and I love Pete (Carroll) and all the coaches,” Winston said. “He’s just the epitome of a players’ coach, very interactive with all the players. That’s passed down through other staff members and it makes it feel like a family here.”

Aside from the connection of having played at WSU, the fit in Seattle seems natural. Winston noted the career of receiver Doug Baldwin, an undrafted receiver who became one of the franchise’s best, and also current standout Tyler Lockett, and small-but-productive receiver.

Winston sees both as paradigms for what he hopes to become.

“My locker is right next to (Lockett’s) so I’ve been asking him a lot of questions,” Winston said. “He’s just a great guy, a seasoned vet, who does it the right way on the field and off it, so he gives me a lot of ideas on how to carry myself.”

As did Lockett early in his career, Winston hopes to prove himself as a punt returner and work his way into the receiver rotation. Carroll said earlier that Winston would be considered in that role this training camp.

“It’s never been easy for him,” Renee Winston said of Easop, who several times had to be talked out of quitting football. “He said, ‘Mom, I’m thinking about quitting and getting a job, I want to help you with the bills.’ I told him, ‘I’ll worry about you eating and you worry about football.’ ”

She didn’t have to worry about his academics, as he carried a 3.5 to 3.7 grade-point average at Junipero Serra in San Mateo, California, which produced Tom Brady and Barry Bonds.

Renee envisioned Easop taking his high grades to an academically respected university, but when he received no Division I football offers, he chose instead to attend and play for City College of San Francisco in hopes of eliciting belated attention from some Pacific-12 Conference schools.

“That’s what ended up happening,” Renee said.

Although he caught 12 touchdowns his sophomore season, only WSU, shortly before signing deadline, offered a ride that appealed to Winston.

“(Coach Leach) was a great influence on me,” Winston said of the coach who died of a heart attack while at Mississippi State last winter.

“He was the only Pac-12 coach to take a chance on me out of junior college. He taught me a lot about toughness and being in the moment. I’ll never forget him.”

Winston rewarded Leach’s faith, tying the Cougars’ single-game record for touchdowns with four against UCLA in 2019.

His greatest influence, though, was always his mother, who is now a pastor with an Instagram following of 55,000, while also working as a finance manager, author, singer and entrepreneur.

“She has sacrificed a lot for me to get this far in football,” Easop said. “Her encouragement has always been there. I’m doing a lot of this for her and my family.”

Renee said her daughter, Essence, graduated college with high honors and has an internship at the White House, and will be entering Howard University in the study of law this fall.

The Seahawks are loaded with receiving talent. Winston will need to flash brightly in the preseason to earn his place.

“I’m still hungry to prove myself and I’m not going to stop playing until I can’t anymore,” he said.

“I know I’m not done yet and I’m going to just keep attacking it until it works out.”

Let him get his hands on a roster spot, it will be hard to take it away.