12 Things We Learned From Attending Wednesday’s Seahawks Training Camp Practice

The Seattle Seahawks are in the middle of their second week of training camp as they gear up for another Super Bowl run. Field Gulls was on-site for Wednesday’s non-padded practice at the VMAC in Renton, plus we got to have a great chat with Emerald City Spectrum’s Corbin Smith as part of our special Seahawks Syndicate live post-practice podcast.

Thursday is a glorified walkthrough for the Seahawks, so this is essentially an “off-day” for us before Friday and Saturday practices are public. In the meantime, I’ve emptied my notebook with a deeper summary of what we saw at Wednesday’s practice, along with some extra podcast insight from Corbin as a longtime credentialed Seahawks reporter.

The Sam Darnold to Rashid Shaheed connection is legit and it’s growing

I would not call Wednesday’s practice a great day for the offense; Drew Lock and the second unit probably fared the best in 11-on-11s. However, we want give-and-take and for both units to sharpen each other up, so please don’t fret too much.

If you want to get excited about something, it’s the Darnold to Shaheed combo. Shaheed ran an over route to the right sideline and Darnold lobbed the ball perfectly to Rashid for an explosive play. Shaheed also made a great hands-only catch along the sideline with Josh Jobe (I think, it could’ve been Nehemiah Pritchett but I didn’t write it down) draped all over him.

Shaheed shouldn’t be typecast as a deep threat and he won’t be in this offense. Seattle worked on getting him the ball on a screen pass in the red zone, on intermediate-ish throws over the middle, so there’s room to grow in Shaheed’s first camp with the Super Bowl champs. It will relieve the pressure off of having Jaxon Smith-Njigba put up OPOY numbers again.

Jalen Milroe is getting more put on his plate

Please do not conflate the sub-headline with the idea that he’s set to even overtake Drew Lock on the depth chart this season. What I mean by that is Milroe is not predominantly parked in shotgun and throwing to guys who have no functional shot to make the roster. Brian Fleury has Milroe getting plays in with Elijah Arroyo and Jadarian Price, who have worked with the first- through third-team offense. We’ll be here for two more practices, so I’ll have a more definitive assessment on his performances after Saturday.

Any thought of the Milroe package returning this year is contingent on Milroe being a threat as a passer. Brian Fleury all but hinted at that in his press conference on Tuesday. What I’m looking for in preseason is for Milroe to maybe get a few snaps with the second-team offense and to show enough for the staff to be confident that, if he has the odd snap in a regular season game, it is not an immediate tell that it’s just a QB run or option play.

Pass protection is a work in progress for the non-George Holani running backs

Seattle’s pass pro standouts at the running back position are George Holani (whom Corbin called ‘Furious George’ for his style) and Zach Charbonnet. One of these guys is not playing for another several weeks. Jadarian Price, Emanuel Wilson, and Velus Jones Jr collectively are not as good as either Holani or Charbonnet in pass pro. Price has a lot of time on his side to get better but I noticed how much Thomas Hammock was coaching him up during pass pro drills and having him re-do his reps. The lack of history of pass pro and pass catching at Notre Dame means Price still has a lot to learn. Velus Jones is a receiver/running back hybrid so a lot of this is new to him. Wilson is probably okay without being outstanding.

I think that RB pass pro is a reasonable concern for Seattle to have entering the regular season, but I also want to see what happens the rest of this week and in preseason.

Speaking of Charbonnet, by the way…

Zach Charbonnet’s return timeline looks promising

We saw Zach Charbonnet at practice not just walking normally, but also doing some ramp-up activities like one-legged jumping. One of Corbin’s tidbits from last night’s show was telling us that Charbonnet is both walking and running “perfectly normal” and from what he’s seen, he believes Charbonnet will be off PUP and ready to play Week 5 against the San Francisco 49ers.

The important thing to note about the PUP list this year is that players can now have their practice window open up as early as the start of Week 3 instead of Week 4, so that will be the litmus test for Charbonnet’s readiness.

It’s going to come down to the wire for that sixth wide receiver spot

I believe the Seahawks will roster six wide receivers this season. We can checkmark Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Tory Horton, Rashid Shaheed, Cooper Kupp (who had a vet rest day and barely practiced), and Jake Bobo as the top five. For WR6? Whoo boy it’s going to be fun.

Cody White is Cody White and I mean that endearingly. He’s a workmanlike player who seems to be getting better as a receiver, plus he has special teams value. Ricky White III, perhaps in part because Jake Bobo is hurt, is stepping up and earning more reps with the second-team offense and has shown smooth route-running and good hands. Montorie Foster, whose practice inauspiciously started by muffing a punt in punt return drills, had a few bright moments mostly working with the threes and Jalen Milroe. Emmanuel Henderson got involved a little bit but I think his route is realistically on special teams.

This will be a battle that will go through the end of preseason.

Anthony Bradford is not losing his starting job, deal with it

Sorry if I sound coarse but I’m also being realistic. Beau Stephens is an awesome hype man but he’s still a fifth-round rookie who is currently running with the third-team offense. That’s right. Christian Haynes has been with the second-team offense consistently, and he has no shot to usurp Bradford. This means that for the first time in his career, Bradford doesn’t have to battle to earn his job. If he has an indefensibly bad string of regular season performances, perhaps we can revisit this convo. But for now, there is no starting RG competition for Week 1.

Incidentally, Stephens had a big wrap on his left arm (thanks to Bryce Coutts for noticing that, hence he is “The Hawks Eye” podcast host), which suggested injury, but he practiced the whole way. Corbin said it’s the first time he’s seen it so it looks to be a new issue.

Rylie Mills is going to have a major role on Seattle’s defense

He lines up as a big end, he lines up as a 3-technique, he lines up sometimes at nose, he is a big, strong, versatile human being whose Super Bowl sack only scratched the surface of what he’s capable of. Mills blew up pass plays on the first- and second-team units and wins with power, hand fighting, and out-leveraging his man. I can’t wait to see him in a padded practice.

The one thing I’d say is I back him to be more of a pass rusher than top run defender, but that’s just instinct more than anything else. The camp hype is real.

The deeper EDGE depth was underwhelming

I specify “deeper” as anyone below Dante Fowler Jr on the depth chart. Aidan Hubbard, Jalan Gaines, Jared Ivey (who didn’t practice), Connor O’Toole, and Marvin Jones Jr are the bottom-end of the EDGE group. Gaines had a nice play in which he snuffed out a Drew Lock play-action and would’ve had a sack at normal game speed, and I think Marvin Jones would’ve been credited with a coverage sack on another 11-on-11 rep.

That’s about it.

In previous practice write-ups from beat reporters there have been scant mentions of any of the fringe edge rushers standing out and making a push to be on the 53. Corbin told us that Hubbard, “looked like he’s playing in slow motion.” Watching him in camp that looked to be the case.

Seattle was fortunate enough to have none of its core edge rushers miss more than a game here and there, because anything beyond that and I’d have some concern. However, this is Mike Macdonald, and he has some ideas…

Tyrice Knight, living on the “edge”?

It sounds like Tyrice Knight has had a good training camp, and the third-year linebacker had a few splash plays in coverage on Wednesday, including a diving interception (or maybe not?) on a ball Tory Horton couldn’t corral. What was most interesting to me was seeing Knight in a two-point stance lined up as an edge rusher a couple of times. We saw him get two strip-sacks on blitzes for DeMarcus Lawrernce touchdowns against the Arizona Cardinals, so the pass rushing talent is there.

Forgive me if this sounds poorly phrased, but I think the Seahawks can make up for a lack of individual, high-sack brilliance on the edge by having a lot of guys across all three levels who can rush the quarterback very well. This means Devon Witherspoon, Nick Emmanwori, and Knight are all viable threats just as much as the defensive line guys.

Knight ain’t moving full-time to edge, but he could certainly do some short-term rentals there.

We know why Chris Paul Jr is not practicing

One of the intriguing linebacker names on the roster is ‘Pooh’ Paul Jr, originally drafted by the Los Angeles Rams before he was surprisingly waived as a rookie and scooped up to win a Super Bowl with the Seahawks as a practice squad player. There was intrigue surrounding Paul’s game out of college and he was one of my guys to watch closely at camp, but it looks like that won’t be a thing any time soon.

Corbin Smith told us on The Seahawks Syndicate podcast last night that Paul, who wasn’t suited up for practice, suffered an ankle injury that doesn’t seem to indicate an imminent return.

Maxen Hook is a name to watch in preseason

Before the Seahawks drafted Andre Fuller, they had one of his teammate brought in last year. Maxen Hook had five years at Toledo, and he has ascended into getting reps with the second-team defense. We saw him a lot in two-deep looks alongside Rodney Thomas II, the free agent signing from the Indianapolis Colts. By hook or by crook, we will be seeing more of Maxen over the next few weeks as this camp competition heats up.

As an aside, the safety group is very deep. D’Anthony Bell is a menace as a blitzer, Bud Clark will be in three-safety looks for sure, and Ty Okada is ready to be the starter alongside Julian Love on Sundays.

Michael Dansby is this year’s training camp darling

The unheralded seventh-rounded corner out of Arizona didn’t do the combine and his claim to any draftable notoriety was his self-reported 4.2 40-yard dash. Dansby was a big part of Arizona’s secondary, which included the more touted Genesis Smith and Treydan Stukes. I like how much Dansby is quick to locate and drive to the ball and ball-carrier, and he blew up a screen to Emmanuel Henderson that would’ve been a TFL in an actual game.

With Julian Neal out, Dansby has worked his way up to second-team defensive snaps, so he’s another one to watch come next week’s preseason opener. Noah Igbinoghene and Nehemiah Pritchett also looked good from what I saw, although I do wonder a bit about Josh Jobe and how much his performance could be slightly negatively impacted now that Riq Woolen is gone.

And that’s that! We’ll do this again on Saturday for Friday’s practice, and maybe again on Sunday after Football Fan Fest but I’d sooner just return home on Monday and give my overall assessment through three practices. Hope you found this informative!