Sam Darnold, Jadarian Price, Byron Murphy II shine at Seahawks camp

Published 9:56 am Friday, July 31, 2026

It was a uniquely Seattle, Pacific Northwest Seahawks day.

The fifth day of training camp was the first day the players were in full pads. Full, real football, for the first time since they won Super Bowl 60 five months ago.

It was the first morning practice of camp. A blue, crystal clear sky. Sun and 74 degrees. Eagles soared from their nests next to the fields. The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels roared over practice on the lush, green grass fields along Lake Washington.

“I don’t know if it gets much better than this,” coach Mike Macdonald said Thursday, grinning proudly at what he gets to do. “Beautiful weather. Training camp. Pads on. Playing football. We’ve got bald eagles flying. We’ve got the Blue Angels in the sky. It’s pretty awesome.

“We’re very blessed. Pretty awesome day. Great practice. Guys were after it.

“An all-around really great day. Just really pleased.”

Especially with Sam Darnold, Jadarian Price and Byron Murphy.

The Blue Angels weren’t the only guys showing up with thunder on the Seahawks’ idyllic, best day yet of training camp.

Darnold continued to throw more decisively, more accurately and assuredly than he was this time last year, in his first training camp as Seattle’s quarterback. He’s armed with the confidence that comes with now being a Super Bowl-winning quarterback coming off the two best seasons of his eight years in the NFL.

And it shows. The first camp practice in pads again showed the 29-year-old Darnold is more the general than a mere commander of the Seahawks offense this year.

“You’re with them every day. You don’t see your uncle for a year or two, and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, you’ve changed.’ But, you see Sam everyday so it’s kind of like seeing the same guy,” Macdonald said.

“I’ll tell you right now, he’s being really decisive with the ball, taking care of the ball, making great decisions. He’s playing fast. He’s being aggressive when he needs to be. He’s doing a lot of great things. Great command. His process is really cool.”

There is an evenness to Darnold, a consistency in the one aspect Macdonald cherishes most leading these champions: the process.

“The thing I appreciate about Sam — and you can’t speak for everybody— but just every rep is a rep,” the head coach said. “If it’s in the quarterback room, and they’re going over the script, he treats that rep the same as he does here. If it’s practice on the line, or we’re a game, it’s all the same.

“That’s the mental approach that we want all of our guys to take.”

Darnold credits his even keel to a sports psychologist he began working with in early 2024, before his lone season with the Minnesota Vikings.

After six years, mostly failed as a starter or idling as a backup with the Jets, Panthers and 49ers, Darnold soared with Minnesota. He went 14-2 and threw for 4,300 yards with 35 touchdowns to lead Minnesota into the playoffs.

He’s 31-6 for the Vikings and Seahawks with his first Super Bowl ring, and joined Tom Brady as the only NFL quarterback to win 14 games in consecutive regular seasons, since beginning his work with his unnamed sports psychologist.

Darnold summarized the main lesson the mental coach taught him while he appeared on the Green Light Podcast hosted by former NFL player Chris Long before this Seahawks training camp.

“You get to this point, you make it so far in your career and as an athlete by hammering away on that house. You are building a house your entire career and you are hammering nails. Just building the house,” Darnold said of his new perspective.

“And he was like, ‘At this point in your career you’ve developed such a great base and a great foundation for your house,’ he’s like, ‘it’s time to start painting the house and using a brush. You need to kinda tell yourself that you’re really good, and you deserve to be here. And you start patting yourself on the back a little bit more.’

“And that was kind of a like a weird — I don’t know if it took the analogy, or what it took for me — but that was the weird unlock for me.”

Jadarian Price, RB1

The lead running back on the first play of the first full-team scrimmage, starting offense versus starting defense, on the first day in full pads was…

Jadarian Price.

After a spring of learning and following veteran George Holani through running-back drills and scrimmages, the rookie first-round pick from Notre Dame was exactly where the Seahawks drafted him this spring to be when the season starts Sept. 9: The starting running back for the defending Super Bowl champions.

Price was deep in the backfield as the lone back in the end zone taking a handoff from Darnold with the offense scrimmaging plays off its own goal line Thursday morning.

It was the first of about nine practices in pads the Seahawks will have through the preseason until the end of August.

In addition to running the ball in full pads for the first time as a Seahawk, Price continued his daily regimen of catching passes. It’s constant. From running backs coach Thomas Hammock in position drills. From Darnold, backup Drew Lock and third-string quarterback Jalen Milroe as Price works on the first-, second- and third-string offenses. Price is catching passes from everyone, everywhere.

Darnold — and anyone watching these practices — can sense new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury is going to feature running backs in Seattle’s passing game more this season. Only 53 of the team’s 325 completed passes last season went to running backs (16%).

Fleury is coming from being the tight ends coach and run-game coordinator for the 49ers. San Francisco’s leading receiver last season was running back Christian McCaffrey with 102, sixth-most among all NFL receivers in 2025. The 49ers completed passes to running backs more than twice as often as the Seahawks did last season, 34% of the time.

“Yeah, I think it helps the quarterback a ton because it does present a different problem for the defense,” Darnold said. “Sometimes the defense assumes, especially on third down, that the running back’s going to stay in and protect so they can build their pressures off of that. …If you get the protections right, you’re not ‘hot,’ and the running back’s out on a route, sometimes that’s a mismatch with a linebacker, especially with a guy like JD or George (Holani).

“So, it’s going to be really fun to see what those guys can do coming out of the backfield.”

Nick Emmanwori’s progress in ‘adverse situation’

Nick Emmanwori was on the sidelines watching practice for the first time since the team put the dynamic safety/linebacker star on its physically-unable-to-perform list. The 22-year-old second-round draft choice from last year had arthroscopic surgery this month before he reported for training camp, to repair a slow-healing sprained ankle he got in practice four days before the Super Bowl in February.

He had a high-ankle sprain four plays into his NFL career 11 months ago, in the Seahawks’ 2025 opener against San Francisco. He missed three games.

Then he flourished. Emmanwori became one of the most unique, productive defensive players in the league as Macdonald moved him all around his defense, from back in the secondary to the defensive line — all at the age of 21.

Now he’s got another challenge: Get back for the Seahawks’ and the NFL’s kickoff game Sept. 9 in a Super Bowl 60 rematch with the New England Patriots at Lumen Field.

“He’s in an adverse situation. And he’s attacking it,” Macdonald said. “And that’s all you can ask him to do.

“He’s made a lot of progress, which is exciting.”

On Saturday, the head coach said Emmanwori’s injury and absence wasn’t long-term. When The News Tribune asked him if that meant Emmanwori would play in the opener, Macdonald said: “I don’t know.”

The coach elaborated some on that comment Thursday.

“You don’t want to put a timetable on it, because you don’t want to limit him. Or you don’t want to put him (under pressure to return). You just want him to go rip it every day. We’ve got great people surrounding him, by him, and let’s go see what we get.

“But great returns so far. He’s done a great job. And it’s not going to be easy, but he’s just the man for the job.”

Byron Murphy: Strong

The most real football of camp is full-pads pass-rush drills, one-on-one between offensive and defensive linemen plus running backs against linebackers and defensive backs blitzing.

Defensive tackle Byron Murphy, 306 pounds, took Christian Haynes trying to block him and plowed the guard four yards into the backfield with a powerful bull-rush strike into the 317-pound guard’s chest.

Murphy also showed his speed with a quick swim move that beat stud left guard Grey Zabel.

Murphy had seven sacks last season, his second year after Seattle drafted him in the first round in 2024.

His head coach thinks he could have more than that, approaching or perhaps exceeding double digits in sacks, this season.

“Really expect ‘Murph’ to have a spike in productivity rushing the passer. He’s earned it,” Macdonald said. “But he does it every day. And it’s great work for our offensive line. It’s great. He’s in a great spot.

“We talk about stacking wins, moment-by-moment mindset. Those things come to life with Byron.”

Rylie Mills vs. Anthony Bradford

Second-year defensive end Rylie Mills and starting right guard Anthony Bradford had three great one-on-one matches in the pass-rush drill.

Mills beat Bradford with an inside rip move. On the next rep, Bradford moved quickly outside to stop Mills’ spin move away from him. On the third snap, they pushed each other to a draw.

It’s usual for coaches to have two guys go at it on two consecutive reps. It’s unusual for them to do three in a row.

Mills also slammed second-year guard Bryce Cabledue well into the backfield on a pass rush.

Holani again showed why he made the Seahawks’ roster as an undrafted rookie in 2024 from Boise State, and each season since. The stout, 5-foot-10, 208-pound running back repeatedly repelled onrushing linebackers in their one-on-one drill.

‘Zen-like’ AJ Barner

AJ Barner continues to look faster and healthier than he was last season, before he had surgeries on his shoulder and ankle following the Super Bowl. They were the first surgeries the 24-year-old who played at Michigan and Indiana had ever had.

The tight end said he began tai chi this past offseason, at a studio in Seattle.

“It calmed my mind, and I was in a Zen state,” Barner said. “I felt very flow and worked on my balance too. So it was cool.

“I’ve said it before: I love football. I’m obsessed with football. I was like, ‘How can I recover better?’ I was feeling some type of way. My body was hurting. I was like, ‘Let’s try Tai Chi and see if this is like what I need.’

“It wasn’t like a magic pill or nothing, but it was cool to try on.”

Extra points

• Veteran wide receiver Jake Bobo and rookie third-round pick Julian Neal at cornerback missed their second consecutive practices. A source told the TNT Bobo may have a hamstring issue. Neal’s is a leg injury.

“Nothing long term, just couple things they’re we’re working thru. Camp-type of stuff,” Macdonald said. “It’s a bummer, but we’ll get ‘em back soon.”

• The increased intensity in full pads resulting in one skirmish after a play, along the line of scrimmage. Guard Christian Haynes was pushing with defensive linemen before others quickly intervened.