Dareke Young pushes veteran WR for Seahawks roster spot

Published 10:30 am Thursday, August 21, 2025

Dareke Young entered this summer wondering what’s next.

In his position, at this point in his career, that’s suboptimal.

The big wide receiver Seattle drafted out of Division-II Lenoir-Rhyne in 2022 after impressing NFL scouts at the East-West Shrine game was starting this Seahawks training camp with his third offensive coordinator in four years. The previous two had him playing four different positions on offense. That didn’t include his work on all four of Seattle’s special-teams units.

That doggedness earned Young his place in the NFL as a rookie. It is why he’s stayed on the Seahawks for years two and three.

But another head coach drafted Young. Pete Carroll is gone. Mike Macdonald is in. This offseason Macdonald brought in a new offensive coordinator. Klint Kubiak didn’t know Young.

The Seahawks also signed wide receiver Cooper Kupp, the 2021 NFL offensive player of the year and Super Bowl MVP, from the Rams. They signed 30-year-old wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. They drafted a third wide receiver, Tory Horton. Horton’s been a summer star in Seattle’s training camp.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba is coming off tying a franchise record with 100 catches last season. Versatile, rugged Jake Bobo is coming back for his third Seahawks year.

Young began training camp appearing to be at best the sixth wide receiver in an offense that may keep only five this season. Kubiak’s use of a fullback and many two- and three-tight end formations reduces the times three and four wide receivers will be on the field. That’s particularly compared to Seattle’s offenses with Shane Waldron (2021-23) and Ryan Grubb (2024) as OC.

Yet amid all that, these have been the best four weeks of the 26-year-old Young’s career.

He caught three passes for 52 yards and three first downs in the second quarter of Seattle’s blowout, preseason win over Kansas City Friday.

On a third and 13, Young drifted into an open spot in zone coverage down the seam. The 6-foot-2, 224-pound receiver caught Drew Lock’s short pass. Young then lowered his shoulders and used his strength to bull through two Chiefs past the line to gain for a first down in Kansas City territory.

His second conversion on third and long came because Young beat the slot cornerback over him with an inside move off the line. He caught Lock’s 11-yard pass over the middle. He ran another 13 yards to the left sideline for a first down, again into the Chiefs’ end.

Young also ran a slant route inside two defenders and again lowered his shoulders for a 14-yard gain and another first down. On the next play, Lock threw one of his two touchdown passes to Bobo.

“I’ve talked to him one-on-one about his progression from mainly special teams to becoming a reliable receiver for us,” Lock said.

“(He’s) miles ahead of what I remember.

“That’s just a testament to how hard he works. He’s one of those guys who just puts his head down, grinds, works. You’re not going to get a ton of hoorah out of him. He’s going to come out and play his butt off.”

Young has also kept doing what he’s done in previous Seahawks offenses. He blocks. That’s more important with wide receivers in Kubiak’s new offense Kubiak — a run “first and foremost” system, as new starting quarterback Sam Darnold keeps saying.

Young also did against Kansas City what he’s also done in training camp — and in his first three NFL seasons with Seattle: He excelled on special teams. He’s again on all four units, kickoff, kickoff return, punt and punt return.

Young and second-year running back George Holani were back deep as the primary kickoff returners Friday. Young ran one back 29 yards, from the 5 to the 34-yard line. That gave the Seahawks a good drive start in the second quarter.

“I think this is a great system for him because he can show his physicality in the run game, and he’s really fast, so all the vertical, stretch stuff,” coach Mike Macdonald said. “And then just him in and out of his breaks is just way more decisive. You feel the burst, feel the flexibility, which is a tribute to his work ethic and the work he put on his body.

“The guy looks like a figurine out there, man. It’s impressive.” Exit Marquez Valdes-Scantling?

Young’s emergence has Macdonald and Kubiak rethinking their plans at the wide receiver spot they remodeled this offseason. In March, Seattle traded DK Metcalf to Pittsburgh and released Tyler Lockett

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, coming off a 100-catch season, and Kupp are the top two wide receivers. Horton surged in training camp to surpass Valdes-Scantling as the third wide out in the starting offense. Young’s and Bobo’s blocking and special-teams skills make them valuable. And Bobo just had two touchdown catches in one quarter Friday night.

The team signed Valdes-Scantling to be in the deep-threat, X-receiver role Metcalf had. He played last season in Kubiak’s system with New Orleans. But Horton has been doing, extraordinarily well, what Seattle signed Valdes-Scantling to do. Horton has been with the starting offense and Valdes-Scantling with Lock and the backups in most training camp practices, until this week.

Horton is also returning punts. At least he was, until he injured his ankle catching a pass and running against the Chiefs. The rookie hasn’t practiced since.

Horton seems unlikely to participate in the Seahawks’ ones-versus-ones joint practice in Green Bay Thursday, or preseason finale Saturday at Lambeau Field (1 p.m., KING-5 television). The team flew to Wisconsin Wednesday.

Valdes-Scantling doesn’t play special teams.

The Seahawks may keep only five wide receivers on the initial regular-season roster, instead of the six they kept last year. Valdes-Scantling could be the sixth, the even man out.

If there was a year this team could afford cutting Valdes-Scantling and eating the $3 million general manager John Schneider guaranteed him when Seattle signed him this spring, this is it. The Seahawks have an estimated $34.6 million in salary-cap space, per overthecap.com.

Or, might they be able trade Valdes-Scantling by 1 p.m. Tuesday? That’s when the Seahawks must cut 90 players to 53 for the initial regular-season roster.

The Minnesota Vikings are among the teams “seriously exploring” a trade for a veteran wide receiver, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported Wednesday. The Seahawks would likely take a conditional, late-round draft choice to allow another team to make any roster decision on Valdes-Scantling for them.

Horton’s ankle injury could factor in here. It has elevated Valdes-Scantling with Smith-Njigba and Kupp on the starting offense in the two practices so far this week. But Macdonald has said Horton’s injury isn’t serious, “not to my knowledge.”

Dareke Young with Sam Howell

Young said he came to training camp wanting to show “a better version of myself” for this final season of his rookie contract.

What’s that mean?

“Being better in my footwork, my releases (off the line into pass patterns), everything,” he said.

That “work he put in on his body” Macdonald notices, came from Young’s re-commitment this offseason to training. Young worked out this summer back home in North Carolina. The native of Raleigh was on a high school field in Charlotte.

The guy throwing him passes on some of those workouts?

Sam Howell.

You remember Howell’s not-so-legendary Seahawks career. It lasted two games, 14 pass attempts, five completions, four sacks and one interception. He was Geno Smith’s backup last season in Seattle.

Howell, now a backup to J.J. McCarthy with the Vikings, is also a native of North Carolina, from Waynesville. While Young was at Lenoir-Rhyne, Howell was starring at the University of North Carolina. The Washington Commanders selected Howell in the fifth round of the 2022 draft, while the Seahawks took Young in the seventh round.

Young worked with Howell this spring into summer in Charlotte on his footwork and quickness getting off the line into his routes. He worked on the precision of his cuts, the placement of his hands. He worked to master more of the skills of being an NFL wide receiver.

That was timely.

This spring, Kubiak and Macdonald drafted a tight end, Elijah Arroyo, in the second round. They selected a fullback; Robbie Ouzts, a 274-pound tight end at Alabama, is Seattle’s new fullback. The Seahawks cut pass-catch-only tight end Noah Fant. They signed a blocking tight end, ninth-year veteran Eric Saubert, to pair with AJ Barner. The coaches love Barner’s blocking and pass catching.

Those moves are why Kubiak has moved Young back to exclusively being a wide receiver.

The former part-time tight end, H-back, fullback, and still special-teams mainstay is excelling in his new-old wide receiver spot this month.

“It does feel good to get more offensive reps this preseason,” Young said. “You know, I’m getting pretty comfortable out there in this offense.

“I feel like this is a good scheme, probably the best scheme that I’ve been in since I’ve been in the league. “And I feel like it’s shown.”