RENTON – A fan of the Green Bay Packers as a child, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Charlie Whitehurst gets another opportunity to face the team he rooted for growing up.
Whitehurst’s father, David Whitehurst, played quarterback for the Packers from 1977 to 1983, finishing with a 16-20-1 record over seven seasons.
Charlie Whitehurst was born in Green Bay but relocated to suburban Atlanta at an early age after his father’s playing career was over.
But Whitehurst still has fond memories of watching Green Bay play from afar, and had hopes of the Packers drafting him when he came out of Clemson University in 2006.
But the Packers had already taken a flyer on a green quarterback the year before by selecting Aaron Rodgers with the No. 24 overall pick as the heir apparent to Brett Favre, which has turned out pretty well for Green Bay.
“It’s nice,” Charlie Whitehurst said about facing the Packers. “My first preseason game my rookie year (with San Diego) was against Green Bay, with Brett Favre and all that. So it’s pretty cool. They’re one of the great franchises.”
Whitehurst won’t be in a nostalgic mood when he takes to Qwest Field on Saturday. He’s hoping for a performance similar to last week, when he finished 14-of-22 passing for 214 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception.
But Whitehurst said that game is in the past.
“That’s the only way to be successful I think in this league is to forget about it,” Whitehurst said. “If it was good, forget about it. And if it was bad, forget about it and move forward. And that’s what I’ve done, and that’s what I think we should do as a team.
“It was great to get a win last week, but that doesn’t mean a lot. It was preseason, and it’s all about tomorrow. So hopefully we improve and play better this week.”
Whitehurst said he doesn’t know how much work he’ll get Saturday.
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said the first-team offense, led by veteran Matt Hasselbeck, will get more work than the three series it played against Tennessee last week.
Carroll also said he does not know how he will divide the snaps between the two quarterbacks.
The Seahawks broke training camp Thursday, with the team hosting a barbecue for family and friends after practice. Since Carroll and general manager John Schneider took over in January, Seattle has made an eye-popping 125 roster moves, continuing to revamp an aging roster. More than half of the roster has changed over from last season.
“John and I both felt that we needed to really to work it, and not just sit here and wait,” Carroll said. “Let’s be very proactive in all of our thoughts about helping to make this the most competitive team we could make it. And that meant changes were coming.
“It didn’t have to. But we thought that in each move we made, we helped ourselves, or have given ourselves a chance to get better. And we’re going to continue to work that way.
“And that doesn’t mean we’re going to make a bunch of changes from this time on. But we’re going to keep looking to. We’re going to keep working at it. Really, we’re going to keep competing to find out if we can upgrade the roster at all times. It’s the theme of our program.”
Carroll said his team learned how it needs to prepare and practice during the first three weeks of training camp, setting the tone for the rest of the season.
“We know how we want to practice,” Carroll said. “We learned how to do that in OTAs, but until you put the pads on and you learn the tempo and the hitting and how that all fits together, you don’t really know. So we’re practicing well.”
One player slated to get his first action is running back Leon Washington.
Picked up in a draft-day trade with the New York Jets, the Seahawks have taken a cautious approach with the 27-year-old runner who is returning from a compound leg fracture that cut short his 2009 season.
Washington has looked good in practice and appears ready to enter the running back competition with Julius Jones and Justin Forsett in earnest.
“We’re really excited about Leon playing this week,” Carroll said. “And he’s had terrific preparation for it. He’s been banged around plenty of times here, been knocked off his feet and has been tackled plenty of times here. He’s ready to go at this point, so we’ll see where he is.”
Eric D. Williams: 253-597-8437 eric.williams@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/seahawks
Seahawks training camp
Hill in NFL limbo
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said the team still needs to hear from the league before determining how it will handle linebacker Leroy Hill, who entered into an order of continuance Wednesday that avoids a trial on a domestic violence charge.
Hill is currently out with a sprained knee that Carroll said is expected to keep him sidelined for a few weeks.
Houshmandzadeh returns
After missing three days to take care of personal issues, wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh was back at practice Thursday. Houshmandzadeh did not elaborate on the situation that took him away from training camp .
Quotable
“I love Lawrence Jackson. I’ve known him since he was 14 years old. And I care a lot about his future and what he’s doing. This is a good opportunity for Lawrence. So we made a deal, and (GM John Schneider) got a chance to work something out. Hopefully it will work out for Lawrence, and we’ll be rooting for him.”
– Carroll, on trading defensive end Lawrence Jackson
Eric D. Williams, staff writer
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