Four Players Allocated To NFC West Through International Pathway Program

The NFL announced Tuesday each NFC West team was allocated a player as a part of this year’s NFL International Player Program, including:

• Seahawks assigned LB Aaron Donkor from Germany
• 49ers assigned OL Alfredo Gutierrez from Mexico
• Rams assigned OL Max Pircher from Italy
• Cardinals assigned TE Bernhard Seikovits from Austria

The International Player Pathway program was instituted by the NFL in 2017 as a way to grow the game of football. Each year one of the NFL’s eight divisions will be randomly chosen to receive one international player each.

Those players don’t count against the 90-man roster limit and can be carried as an eleventh practice squad member if they’re not signed to a contract. 

Donkor, 26, played two seasons at New Mexico Military Institute before transferring to Arkansas State in 2019. At Arkansas State he totaled 25 tackles and 1.5 tackles-for-loss. 

Gutierrez, 25, played college football at Tec de Monterrey in Mexico and won the National Championship in 2019.

Pircher, 21, was the starting right tackle for the Swarco Raiders in the Austrian Football league, and played for the Italian National Team.

Seikovits, 22, was the quarterback for the Austrian U19 national team, but became a wide receiver and captain for the Austrian National Team.