Seahawks wrap up minicamp

Published 6:33 am Friday, June 15, 2007

KIRKLAND – The Seattle Seahawks wrapped up another June minicamp on Thursday morning, which has come to mean that it’s time to take a few weeks off, pack up some things and head all the way over to … well, back to Kirkland.

Unlike the past 10 seasons, during which the Seahawks have headed across the mountains to Cheney, training camp will reconvene on this side of the state sometime in late July. The team originally made plans to hold training camp in Kirkland when the NFL announced the Seahawks would play an August preseason game against the New England Patriots in China, and Seattle decided not to go back to Cheney even after that game was later canceled.

“It’ll be nice to change it up a little bit,” defensive tackle Rocky Bernard said of holding training camp in Kirkland.

Like many of his teammates, Bernard has mixed feelings about the change. He said he likes the convenience of Kirkland, but that he’ll miss the weather on the east side of the state.

“We had a lot of good years over there,” said Bernard, a Texas native. “I didn’t mind it. It kind of reminded me of Texas because of the heat.”

Kicker Josh Brown, who grew up in Oklahoma, had similar feelings. He said that the heat made it easier to lose weight and stay loose, but added that the people behind the scenes had to move a lot of equipment for just a few weeks every year.

“That’s hard on everybody,” he said. “It’ll be nice to have a camp like we just had.”

The minicamp that concluded Thursday was not nearly as intense as a typical training camp, but the Seahawks felt like they got a lot done.

In addition to getting a longer look at some of the rookies and new players, the Seahawks challenged the veterans by adding a few wrinkles to the playbook on either side of the ball.

“I think it is healthy to stimulate the veterans that we have and get them thinking a little bit so it is not just business as usual,” coach Mike Holmgren said. “If it is the same-old-same-old, sometimes they are just going through the motions, and I didn’t want them to do that.”

Among the players who stood out were rookies like cornerback Josh Wilson and undrafted receiver Joe Fernandez, as well as several veterans – like receiver Nate Burleson and cornerback Kelly Jennings – who could see expanded roles.

Several players missed the camp, but Holmgren said that he expects all of them to be available for training camp – and possibly from Day 1. Even defensive tackle Marcus Tubbs, who underwent microfracture surgery on his knee, has been progressing well enough that he could be available when camp starts.

The other injured players included safety Mike Green, who gradually saw more action as the camp went on after suffering a Lisfranc foot injury last August, and defensive end Patrick Kerney, who took the camp off as a precaution so that the pectoral muscle he tore last season could get extra rest.

Starting middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu sat out the past three days to rest his hamstring, but Holmgren downplayed the injury and said he too would be ready for training camp.

“We shouldn’t have too many PUP candidates going into training camp,” Holmgren said, referring to a Physically Unable to Perform list that is for players unable to participate at the start of training camp.

“I think most those guys will be ready to go when we start. We might have a couple; that is all. I think we will be OK in a month, unless something crazy happens.”

One of the most difficult parts of training camp, as far as the players were concerned, was getting used to so many new faces. Even the returning Seahawks came and went, as starters like Walter Jones, Shaun Alexander, Deion Branch, Chris Gray, Sean Locklear and Mack Strong each missed at least one practice while attending to personal matters.

Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who was there for every practice and appears to be fully recovered from surgery to his non-throwing shoulder, mused that he looked around the offensive huddle at one session and saw just two other players from the 2005 Super Bowl team.

“That is the nature of change in the NFL,” he said. “We have to keep it going and realize it is a new team every year and just try and get to know each other as fast as we can.”

Like his teammates, Hasselbeck will miss some of the benefits of holding training camp on the other side of the state.

“There were some nice things about Cheney,” he said, referring to the lack of distractions the team faced while spending a few weeks at Eastern Washington University every August. “Either way it is training camp, and it is going to be tough. It will be new.”

While there is no official start date for training camp, it is expected to begin the weekend of July 28-29.

Holmgren said he’s looking forward to the camp, which he doesn’t expect to be all that different from past sessions.

“We are not calling it Holmgren’s Happy Vacation Land,” he said “It is training camp. We are going to have coaches on campus every night. I am going to stay here. I have to do what I do because that is what I have done for so many years.

“The players are in the dorm. We will tuck them every night.”