5 prominent battles to watch as Seahawks training camp begins

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 26, 2023

By Gregg Bell / The News Tribune

RENTON — Now that training camp is starting, Pete Carroll’s remake of the Seattle Seahawks defense will truly begin.

Or will it?

That will depend in sizable part of when Jamal Adams gets back on Seattle’s practice field at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, for the first time in 10 months — and counting.

Veteran and rookie players are to report to team headquarters Tuesday. The first practice was Wednesday. That was the first of 24 preseason practices between now and game week for the Seahawks’ opener Sept. 10 against the Los Angeles Rams.

Here five prominent competitions to watch during the 71-year-old Carroll’s 14th training camp as Seattle’s coach:

1. Jamal Adams vs. Time

Adams and particularly 2022 starting inside linebacker Jordyn Brooks began training camp on the physically-unable-to-perform list (along with tight end Noah Fant, cornerback Riq Woolen, and defensive tackles Bryan Mone and Austin Faoliu). That will give the team roster flexibility going into the regular season. That is, if they still aren’t back on the field by then.

Adams tore his quadriceps tendon in September. Brooks tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in January.

There are domino effects to Adams’ return to the defense.

If it happens early in camp, the Seahawks are likely to use three safeties as a base defense more than they have in any other of Carroll’s 14 seasons as Seattle’s coach. Carroll and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt are eager to play Adams in more of a roving role closer to the line of scrimmage to stop the run and blitz quarterbacks. That’s what Adams did more of in his Seattle debut season of 2000, when he set an NFL record for a defensive back with 9.5 sacks.

The Seahawks signed versatile former New York Giants captain Julian Love this spring. Love is likely to play back in tandem with Pro Bowl veteran free safety Quandre Diggs, allowing Adams to play closer to the line.

If Adams is not yet ready to play by late August, the defense is likely to begin the season with a more traditional, two-safety look, Love back with Diggs.

Playing Adams closer to the line could lead to Seattle using as many as six defensive backs and as few as one true downfield linebacker, Bobby Wagner, on many snaps. Carroll and Hurtt experimented with top rookie cornerback Devon Witherspoon inside covering slot receivers as a match-up, nickel defensive back in the offseason’s final minicamp last month. That would be the way to get Witherspoon, 2022 rookie Pro Bowl star cornerback Riq (the team lists him as Riq, no longer Tariq) Woolen and last season’s starting right corner Michael Jackson on the field together in 2023.

All that doesn’t consider the return of Coby Bryant, who often excelled at nickel back in passing situations as a rookie last season.

Possibly three cornerbacks plus the three safeties would be six defensive backs. That would leave one coverage linebacker (Wagner) behind four primary pass rushers.

So, yes, much of what Carroll wants to do to improve his defense hinges on how soon Adams is playing the roles the Seahawks want him in.

The top four pass rushers to begin camp appear to be new $51 mllion defensive end Dre’mont Jones, brought-back Jarran Reed, 2022 Seattle sack leader Uchenaa Nwosu and Darrell Taylor. Boye Mafe, Tyreke Smith (who missed his rookie 2022 season injured), rookie second-round draft choice Derick Hall, rookie fifth-round pick Mike Morris and former Raiders second-round pick Mario Edwards are also going to get chances rushing the quarterback.

2. Olu Oluwatimi vs. Evan Brown

Oluwatimi was the Rimington Award winner last season as college football’s best center, in Michigan’s NFL-ready offense. The fifth-round pick showed in offseason pratices this spring he already knows Seattle’s playbook and line calls. Those are the most difficult aspects for a rookie center to master.

The Seahawks getting in full pads beginning the first days of August will show if Oluwatimi is physically ready for the job. He could fix what’s been mostly a broken position for the Seahawks since 2015, when they traded Pro Bowl center Max Unger for Jimmy Graham.

Physicality should not be an issue for Oluwatimi. He is 6-foot-3 and 308 pounds. That’s bigger than most of the eight centers Seattle has started the last eight seasons.

Patrick Lewis. Drew Nowak. Justin Britt. Joey Hunt. Ethan Pocic. Kyle Fuller. Damien Lewis. Austin Blythe. That’s who has started at center for the Seahawks since 2015. Lewis did it for one game. He’s Seattle’s starting left guard.

“We gotta get the center thing figured out,” Carroll said in March at the NFL’s annual scouting combine in Indianapolis. “We got to get that thing nailed.”

The Seahawks signed Brown this offseason. He is on a one-year contract. It has a near-minimum base salary of $1.25 million and includes a $1 million signing bonus. That low-risk, non-guaranteed contract that doesn’t exactly dictate he must be Seattle’s starting center.

Plus Brown played more guard than center last season for Detroit, after veteran center Frank Ragnow returned to the Lions’ offensive line from injury.

Carroll or no Seahawks man will say it publicly, but they would love Oluwatimi to win the center job in this training camp. That would give them a starter at rookie, minimum cost for four seasons. It would finally fix the Seahawks’ constant problem in anchoring the offensive line.

3. Phil Haynes vs. Anthony Bradford and … Evan Brown

The other open competition for a new starter for 2023 is also on the offense line. But if offseason practices into last month prove any indication, Haynes may be on his way to winning the right-guard job.

The Seahawks cut veteran Gabe Jackson this offseason. He was often ineffective at right guard in 2022. Haynes, a fourth-round pick by Seattle in 2019, has had only five starts in four NFL seasons because of multiple injuries. This camp is his chance to win his first full-time starting job. This is Haynes’ chance to earn a contract beyond his ending following the 2023 season.

The big (6-5, 345) Bradford was Seattle’s fourth-round pick in May, from LSU — where starting left guard Damien Lewis played. Bradford was a second-team right guard in many offseason practices.

Brown could become a swing guard, an experienced option both sides, if Oluwatimi beats him out at center.

4. DeeJay Dallas vs. Zach Charbonnet and Kenny McIntosh

Charbonnet, the rookie second-round pick from UCLA, was faster during OTAs and minicamp with better receiving skills than his size (6-1, 220) suggests. He and McIntosh, the seventh-round pick from Georgia, have the challenge all rookie running backs do: pass blocking.

One-on-one pass-blocking drills are the must-watch moments of training-camp practices. They don’t happen every day. It’s as close to real-game physicality, speed and intensity as the Seahawks get.

If they prove as rugged at that as Dallas has been in recent seasons, Charbonnet and McIntosh will challenge Dallas’ playing time this season behind returning 1,000-yard rusher Kenneth Walker. If the rookies are not quick in picking up how to repel NFL pass rushers, Dallas will begin the season in the same role he’s had in recent years: situational, third-down back.

Either way, Charbonnet and McIntosh figure to get their chances. Running back is the sport’s most injured position, with its shortest career span. It’s why running backs haven’t been seeing the spikes in salaries that most other positions have across the league under corresponding annual rises in the NFL salary cap.

5. Dee Eskridge vs. Himself

It’s not quite now or never for Eskridge, not with two seasons remaining on his rookie contract.

But the Seahawks need their top pick from the 2021 to show he can stay on the field for an entire training camp, and then season, without getting hurt.

It would be inaccurate to state the competition as Eskridge vs. rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba for the third wide-receiver spot. Smith-Njigba, the rookie first-round pick from Ohio State, already has won that.

He was the slot receiver inside DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett in offseason practices. Smith-Njigba has already proven to be smooth and polished beyond his years. He’s particularly deft at catching the ball away from his body, and defensive backs.

Eskridge is trying to fend off second-year man Dareke Young, Cody Thompson, Cade Johnson, undrafted rookie Jake Bobo and others for the fourth wide-receiver spot.

He likely will…if he stays healthy.

“I think the biggest thing with Dee is that availability and being out there,” offensive coordinator Shane Waldron said.

“Just like when we drafted him, you can still feel the explosion and twitchiness on the field. So we are looking to get a chance to have that out there consistently and see where he competes and falls in with that group of receivers.”