The Seattle Seahawks have been decidedly conservative with their training camp practices. Entering Saturday’s Lumen Field Football Fan Fest, the Super Bowl champs have held just three padded practices. We assume they’ll be in pads for Football Fest, but otherwise perhaps a combination of injuries and Mike Macdonald taking a different approach as reigning champions has led to a change in how this year’s camp will look.
Pads or no pads, there was still plenty to glean from Friday’s practice. Once again,
I’m emptying the notebook with what I saw, with some extra eyes credited to Field Gulls’ Bryce Coutts and Seahawks Forever’s Dan Viens.
Jadarian Price’s absence was Emanuel Wilson’s gain
When the Seahawks signed Emanuel Wilson, it was just a “meh” for me, especially when Tyler Allgeier was on the free agent market. When he was with the Green Bay Packers, he looked like a solid backup with not much burst but a willingness to go north-south.
Well, maybe that’s what John Schneider wanted.
Wilson in run schemes where the goal is one cut and go north is a more than capable back. He’s shown good hands catching passes out in the flat, and I bet in padded practices he’d be pretty physical lowering his shoulder and plowing through defenders. Emanuel had a lot of first-team reps and looked good with his opportunities. Incidentally, the running game was better on Friday than Wednesday, and some of that might also have been going under center more as opposed to a lot of shotgun.
Jadarian Price’s “lower body soreness” is not a major cause for concern yet and is worth monitoring, but I think Wilson was a Friday practice winner.
Cooper Kupp is looking crisp
When I was at camp last year, Cooper Kupp looked good and then wasn’t really that consistently good in the regular season. Come playoff time, Kupp looked close to his former Los Angeles Rams self. Perhaps time to heal from persistent injuries has given him a new lease on his football life, so to seapk.
Kupp had a route-running clinic on Devon Witherspoon in one 1-on-1 rep and had a great catch against ‘Spoon in 11-on-11. Now, I don’t want to extrapolate from those two plays too much, but Kupp has drawn rave reviews throughout training camp. He looks healthier, his route running has always been crisp, and the one thing he has that I think Tory Horton is still developing is playing through the catch point. Horton has had some plays where he’s had the ball jarred loose at the point of contact, whereas whatever football Kupp grabs is staying grabbed.
I think having Kupp still have some juice in this offense is beneficial for Horton, who isn’t under as much pressure to be thought of as a possible WR2. At the moment, I see Kupp and Rashid Shaheed as 2a/2b and Horton as WR4, which is totally fine.
Ricky White III and Montorie Foster have stood out among the “other” receivers
I mentioned this on Wednesday, but the WR6 competition is going to be really tight. Cody White is the established veteran at this point, such that it’d be no surprise if he’s waived and then put back on the practice squad again, but Ricky White III has really made a leap in terms of his route-running and catching in the offense. Jake Bobo being out has likely resulted in more of Ricky running with the twos, although he still gets time with the threes. When the third-team offense faced the first-team defense, Jalen Milroe threw a nice pass to Ricky, who hauled it in with Nehemiah Pritchett in coverage. Ricky caught a great back-shoulder catch on the sideline earlier with Drew Lock as the QB.
Montorie Foster has also justified Seattle keeping him on a futures contract after spending all of last year on the practice squad. He may have a harder road to the active roster but at the very least, he will likely be back on the practice squad again this season.
I don’t think any of Emmanuel Henderson, Irv Charles, or Rashad Rochelle has much of a chance to make it as a receiver.
There’s a clear competition brewing for backup tackle…
…But it’s not for Josh Jones’ spot. There’s no need to fret about Jones’ status as the top swing tackle on the team. Bobby Hart, who filled in for Jones during minicamp, has been chilling with the third-team offense and there’s almost no chance he’s on this roster come September.
The other backup tackle situation is less certain. Amari Kight fared well in limited playing time in the tail-end of last season, but Kansas’ Logan Brown has really made a push and has gotten second-team offense reps at left tackle. Frankly, he’s looked better than Kight in both practices outside of a couple of false starts.
Look out for Logan Brown to stake his claim for a roster spot.
Brian Fleury will be using the tight ends and running backs a lot
Seattle’s new offensive coordinator should lean into Shanahan Offense principles more so than Klint Kubiak ever did. Field Gulls’ Bryce Coutts did a great job of explaining this in his latest article. I’m not saying the Seahawks are going to make AJ Barner into Brock Bowers, but we will be seeing Barner and Elijah Arroyo’s route tree expand. I’m talking about Barner running an over route, or Arroyo lining up out wide, or (in Arroyo’s case) catching a shovel pass after a fake handoff from Sam Darnold. The TEs are also motioning constantly.
The Seahawks’ situational drills involved a lot of quick passing against heavy pressure, which meant Darnold looking for a running back as an outlet. Whether that’s Emanuel Wilson or George Holani or even Velus Jones Jr, this was something that was worked on quite a bit.
One wrinkle I liked was having Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the backfield (nothing new) but lining up Holani in the slot. There was a 21 personal shotgun formation with running backs on either side of Darnold.
This offense is going to have a lot of things that are identical to last year, but there will be several wrinkles that will distinguish Fleury’s offense from Kubiak’s.
The Jared Ivey “big EDGE” experiment is probably over
Coming in at about 275 pounds, Ivey is theoretically a bit undersized as an interior defensive lineman but larger than your average edge rusher. There was intrigue last year when he stayed on the active roster the entire season, and he figured to factor into the competition again. After missing some practices due to injury, Ivey was lined up exclusively on the interior (at least, all the reps I saw).
I think the reason Ivey is kicking inside has less to do with him and more to do with Rylie Mills being versatile enough to line up in a two-point stance and be an even bigger EDGE than Ivey. This, admittedly, may only make it harder for Ivey to make the roster this go-round.
Mike Macdonald is working on his blitz packages
Since this was not a simulated game type of practice, I won’t glean any indications that Macdonald wants to/is going to blitz more. However, as part of the situational 11-on-11s, it looked like there was a big push (particularly with the 1s) to have the offense have answers for Macdonald’s blitzes. One win for the defense was Ernest Jones blitzing Sam Darnold, with DeMarcus Lawrence coming unblocked and forcing a hurried throw over the middle to A.J. Barner. Drake Thomas picked off the pass and housed it.
Seattle didn’t have to blitz much last year because the front four performed demolition jobs on a weekly basis. Whether that holds up this year remains to be seen, but don’t be surprised if part of Macdonald’s goal is to really unleash his full defensive call sheet and dial up some extra pressure.
Jalan Gaines continues to make plays
In our Wednesday recap, we noted that the edge rushing depth failed to impress. If you remember Jalen Gaines from last year, he blocked the winning field goal that preserved a tied outcome with Pete Carroll’s Las Vegas Raiders in preseason.
Gaines has shown some flashes of pass rush potential, including a would-be sack after once again not biting on a play-action fake, as well as just owning Bryce Cabeldue on another 11-on-11 rep. I’m curious to see what he looks like in preseason, especially with Jamie Sheriff not practicing due to injury.
Michael Dickson is still great, but you already knew that
I cannot imagine most teams’ fans actually pay close attention to their punters in training camp for any reason. The Seahawks don’t have an ordinary punter. Michael Dickson put on some coffin cornering masterclasses, with Andre Fuller downing one of his punts inside the five-yard line. Granted, the punt drills were unopposed so the gunner’s job was just to down the punt and nothing else, but it’s still integral to pinning the opposition in their own territory.
Incidentally, there was no field goal kicking in Friday’s practice. Wednesday had field goal attempts on a breezy day, and I’ll just describe Jason Myers as having an off day.
Seahawks fans are dedicated to their team, no matter what time of day
You’ve heard Lumen Field turn into a cauldron of noise when the lights are bright. What about when the Seahawks practice at 9:45 am and the check-in for season ticket holders is at 7:45 am? Yeah, I’d say we’ve got a passionate fanbase.
The Seahawks Football Fest recap will come on Sunday, and that’ll be it for our on-site training camp coverage for the year!
