Heady RB drills, love for Tyler Lockett, Brandon Marshall, more from Seahawks’ 14th camp day

“Keep the head out of the game!”

Those have been the buzzwords from Pete Carroll down through his assistants, quality-control coaches, heck, just about every Seahawks employee outside of the receptionists since spring minicamps and especially during this training camp at team headquarters.

Wednesday’s 14th practice of camp provided yet another example.

Running backs coach Chad Morton put his guys through a daily drill of ball carriers running through a gauntlet of six stand-up blocking pads arranged side by side in three pairs attached to a metal frame. The pads simulate defenders banging into the backs. There is a final, larger pad hanging by a vertical chain beyond the six other pads. Morton holds that bag then releases it one direction or the other as the running back gets to it, forcing him to react to the swinging bag with a sharp, final cut.

The object of the drill is to make decisive changes in direction and secure a strong hold on the ball in one arm—while keeping the head up during contact with those pads.

Chris Carson went first in this day’s hanging-bag drill. He showed why he’s number one, smoothly galloping through the pads with sharp cuts and bursts. His status as Seattle’s lead runner for the start of this regular season became cemented with rookie first-round pick Rashaad Penny’s broken finger and surgery in Philadelphia earlier in the day,

C.J. Prosise went through, then Morton made him go again. He didn’t keep his head up. Neither did undrafted rookie Gerald Holmes. He had to go again, too.

“Keep the head out of the game!” Morton yelled, not just to his players but to me and other media members standing maybe 10 yards away watching his drill.

The coaches’ motivation here is both for the safety of the players and the team pragmatics of reducing penalties. The Seahawks could sure use some of both.

They led the NFL with 148 enforced flags and 1,342 penalty yards lost last season. That was 10 penalties short of the league record set by Kansas City in 1998.

The most controversial rule change for this season, and the one seemingly most difficult for players to learn and officials to enforce, makes lowering the helmet for any reason, by anyone, a 15-yard penalty plus potential grounds for ejection from a game.

“It is a foul if a player lowers his head and initiates contact with the helmet, lowering the head to any part of the opponent’s body,” Alberto Riveron, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating, says in the annual video presentation in rule changes and points of emphasis the league sent to each team to show its players early in training camp.

Like it or not—and many do not—the NFL is truly trying to take the head out of the game.

Players and teams already are howling through one full weekend of preseason games, complaining how this isn’t football. How tackles and hits that used to be as routine as yard lines in the game are now illegal.

But the fact is the players and teams that adjust their way of playing to the league’s initiative and obvious direction soonest will be penalized least, and thus will gain a distinct advantage. That will be especially true early in the season when officials and players adjust to the new rule.

Hence, Morton’s running-back drill each day with the swinging bag.

Heads up.

“I think this is a topic that you guys should let yourselves become more familiar with, because this is a big deal. It’s a big deal,” Carroll said. “The game is in transition right now, and it’s a really important transition. We started transitioning some time ago, really specifically, and fortunately for us it’s put us in position where we’re OK. We’re comfortable with the changes that are coming. There’s a couple of particular things that, coaching points, that have come up that the league has generated, that will be points of emphasis for us. And that’s about keeping your face up as much as possible. It’s just a tremendously clear emphasis of not using the top of your helmet, and you’re not using your helmet as a weapon.

“There was a time, I don’t know how many years ago it was, I was fighting it like crazy. I was fighting it just like an old dog. I didn’t want to see it coming, didn’t want to have it come our way. And I know I transitioned a while back and so as this has been coming to us now. I’m excited about the change for the game...

“I think we’ll be able to see a great product. It’s not going to change things drastically, at all. But we have to make these adaptations now, and so we’re making a big deal about it to our players.”

What else I saw in the 14th practice of training camp:

• How popular is Tyler Lockett with his teammates? The entire offense and defense ran about 40 yards to him in the end zone after the wide receiver stayed down hurt from trying to make a leaping catch of Russell Wilson’s long pass. Lockett stayed down for a tense minute, then after got up. He sat out the rest of that session then returned to finish practice. You could feel the sighs across the practice field at that.

• Starting left cornerback Shaquill Griffin has noticeably more swagger on the practice field in his second preseason. It’s showing up in aggressive pass break-ups daily, and then theatrical celebrations and woofing at wide receivers after them.

• With Earl Thomas in the 16th day of his contract holdout and former Rams starter Maurice Alexander in pads and helmet but not fully participating because of his lingering hip-flexor issue, Tedric Thompson was the starting free safety and Bradley McDougald was the strong safety—yet again.
• The Seahawks signed 12-year outside linebacker Erik Walden, the former Chief, Dolphin, Packer, Colt and Titan confirmed Wednesday night.

He becomes another option at pass rusher for a Seattle defense that needs more. Walden, who turns 33 next week, had 11 sacks with Indianapolis two seasons ago. He hasn’t had more than six in any of his other seasons of a career he began in 2008 with Kansas City.

• Former San Francisco 49ers starter Dontae Johnson again got some snaps as first-team right cornerback. But Tre Flowers again got the vast majority of them. Byron Maxwell was back in pads and a helmet but did not participate in scrimmaging. The 30-year-old veteran had been the starter at the beginning of camp. Now he’s been out for nine days with a hip-flexor injury. Flowers has seized his chance and the job.

• This is how Brandon Marshall has been putting on a clinic against cornerbacks such as Flowers the last two weeks:

• Rookie punter Michael Dickson again held for Sebastian Janikowski. The 40-year-old is leading in the kicking competition over Jason Myers. He showed why by making all three of his field goals during scrimmaging.
  
  

• Justin Britt had a perfect, one-word answer when asked what new guard D.J. Fluker brings to Seattle’s offensive line:

• That starting O-line is settling in. Duane Brown was again the left tackle with Ethan Pocic at left guard, Britt at center, Fluker at right guard and Germain Ifedi at right tackle. Ifedi’s competition at right tackle seems to have disappeared with rookie Jamarco Jones’ serious ankle injury in last week’s preseason opener. George Fant has not moved to right tackle; he remained Brown’s backup on the right side in his second week back from knee reconstruction.
• The first- and second-team offenses were sloppy throughout practice. They had three interceptions, two lost fumbles, two dropped snaps and two passes knocked down in about 30 minutes of scrimmaging. New running back Gerald Holmes, one of only four healthy tailbacks, fumbled a pitch left from Wilson. Fullback Tre Madden lost a fumble in the line that Shaquem Griffin recovered. Backup quarterback Austin Davis was intercepted by free safety Lorenzo Jerome from St. Francis in Pennsylvania; Carroll praised the recently signed Jerome after practice for what he’s shown in his short time here.
• The tailback situation was so thin with Penny now out and Prosise not yet back fully from a hip-flexor injury, Holmes got the second carry of a run scrimmage of first offense versus first defense. The undrafted rookie from Flint, Mich., Rawls’ hometown, signed just last week. He is wearing Rawls’ old jersey number 34.
• This is how Wilson started practice, as usual:

And this is how he ended it. Also, as usual:

This story was originally published August 15, 2018 at 8:20 PM.