CHENEY – They fight for every yard on Sundays in the fall, and this time of year the Seattle Seahawks’ tight ends are refusing to give an inch.
In what might be the most intriguing position battle of Seahawks training camp, Itula Mili and Jerramy Stevens are doing everything they can to keep themselves from being seen as the No. 2 option.
Take Tuesday afternoon, for example, when the Seahawks quarterbacks got so focused in on the tight ends that everyone else on the field might as well have stood around and watched.
Matt Hasselbeck found Mili over the middle for a long gain.
On the next play, Seneca Wallace rolled out and hit Mili along the sideline.
A few plays later, Hasselbeck came back in and rifled a pass to Stevens over the middle.
Within less than five minutes, Seattle’s top two tight ends had engaged in a friendly battle of can-you-top-this.
“It’s a great situation,” tight ends coach Jim Lind said. “Doggone, we need two or three guys anyway.”
Most tight ends in Mili’s position would have a starting spot all locked up. He did, after all, set franchise records for receptions by a tight end during both the 2002 and 2003 seasons – 43 and 46, respectively.
But Stevens was a first-round pick in 2002 who is expected to one day wrestle the starting job from him.
“I think other people thought I was going to walk into the starting lineup because I was a first-rounder,” Stevens said, “but Itula’s a great player and he continues to play real well.”
In his next breath, Stevens shows the confidence befitting a third-year veteran.
“I plan on starting,” he said. “But I think we’re going to put a lot of two-tight-end packages on the field. He’s a great player, and it would be stupid to have him watching from the sideline all game.”
Mili, who started 12 games last year, doesn’t plan on watching from the sideline. His goal is to win the starting job for the third year in a row.
“I don’t see myself as the incumbent,” he said. “As long as I can remember, I’ve had to work for everything I’ve gotten. Coming into this year, too, it’s the same situation. So I don’t think I’m fighting off anybody. I think I’m going after the same thing.”
Upset over the lack of a long-term contract, Mili skipped some of the Seahawks’ offseason minicamps in an effort to force the team’s hand. The front office didn’t blink, and Mili was quick to report to a June camp after realizing that Stevens was making a push for the starting spot.
“My goal, when I came into (training) camp, was to think of nothing else but football,” said Mili, 31. “I leave all the rest, and it will take care of itself. I do what I do best, and that’s play football.
” … When you get older, you start learning about the business side and how it works. But I always tell myself that I’m better as a football player than I am at anything else, so I try to stick to that.”
While both players have shown uncanny receiving ability at training camp, Mili continues to be the better blocker. He showed as much on one play earlier this week in which he sealed off defensive end Omar Nazel to spring running back Kerry Carter outside.
Stevens, a University of Washington product, has improved on his blocking since being selected with the 28th overall pick in the 2002 NFL draft. But he still has room to get even better.
“There are still some fundamental things that he’s working on,” Lind said. “But he’s improving. Itula’s been around a few years, so he has a little more confidence in his technique.”
Stevens, whose 32 career receptions have led some to wonder if he may be a first-round bust, is feeling like a much better player than the one Seahawks have seen over the past two years.
“It’s more than just physical,” he said. “I feel real confident about where I’m at as a player and where I’m at in the coaches’ eyes.”
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