After polishing off a lunch of leftovers—some amazing Mexican food from La Carta De Oaxaca in Ballard—it occurred to me that I have a lot of leftovers from the Seahawks’ OTA yesterday. With so much going on including Pete Carroll talking about USC’s sanctions as well as the return of LB Leroy Hill, I didn’t really get much into the happenings from yesterday’s practice. So, like last night’s dinner, hopefully this is still worth revisiting a day later.
Hill may be back, but he wasn’t with the first-team defense on his first day. David Hawthorne and Will Herring had split time at Hill’s weakside linebacker spot in his absence, but both were on the field with the No. 1 defense Tuesday because MLB Lofa Tatupu was taking a day off. Tatupu, who had surgery for a torn pectoral muscle last season, has been participating in minicamps and OTAs, and said he could have practiced and sounded like he wanted to.
““Yeah, I’m good. Judgment call – you can talk to Coach about that one,” he said.
Two other veterans coming off of surgeries, T.J. Houshmandzadeh (sports hernia) and Deion Butler (knee), are making good progress. Both did limited work yesterday, and should be good to go come training camp, if not sooner, Carroll said.
“This was an exciting day for us to see T.J. (Houshmandzadeh) get back on the field and Deion (Branch) get back on the field and catch some balls,” he said. “It’s been a long time those guys have been out. Of course the rehab concern, are they going to make it? Finally at the end of practice, it was great to see these guys get out and with a really good tempo run some routes which means that they are really on the mend and I wouldn’t be surprised if they can do some work next week . But certainly they’re going to be ready to go for camp and it was a great sign today so that was a nice boost to see that happening this late in OTAs and all. It was a good message today.”
It’s been mentioned plenty here and in other places this offseason, but one of the most heated position battles this season will come at running back, with Justin Forsett and Julius Jones fighting for the starting job (and that group could always grow should Seattle bring somebody else in). While that battle is a long, long ways from being decided, Jones didn’t help himself early in Tuesday’s practice. When the team started 11-on-11 drills, Jones tripped and fell in the backfield on his first carry—I think he was just trying to get into the World Cup spirit by falling when somebody got close to him—then fumbling on his second carry. Again, that won’t make or break his chances of making the team, it’s just not the way he wanted to start the day.
Two of the team’s new receivers, rookie Golden Tate and top-10 pick turned NFL washout Mike Williams, continued to make plays. Tate once again showed his ability to make plays down the field, fighting off CB Marcus Udell to catch a deep pass from Matt Hasselbeck. Williams, meanwhile, showed off his size advantage, going up to snag a deep pass over cornerback Josh Wilson.
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