Camp day 5: Jaron Brown’s slip of tongue on Seahawks’ offense, John Ursua impresses, more
If Jaron Brown can change direction against defensive backs as deftly and quickly as he did while talking about changes to the Seahawks’ offense for this year, he’s going to have a gigantic season.
The former Arizona Cardinals third wide receiver basically scored but did nothing else statistically last season while debuting for Seattle. He had five touchdowns on 14 receptions in 2018. Coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer have said they didn’t use Brown correctly last season.
Already this preseason they are using Brown differently. As in, everywhere. They have Brown, 29, playing all main wide-receiver positions: slot, “X”split end on the line opposite the tight end, “Z” flanker off the line on the tight-end side.
The hope is more versatility means more consistent production all over the field for Brown and the offense in its first season without retired Doug Baldwin.
While talking Tuesday following the fifth practice of training camp about his excitement for this season, Brown said something that may get all those critics who fault Carroll and Schottenheimer for running the ball too much drooling over their keyboards and phones about the coming season.
“You know, we are opening up the playbook a little bit this year, so I am excited about that,” Brown said.
“Just having fun with it.”
Wait, no more runs off tackle on second and long? No more running it more than any other team in the league, to help pass protection that remains an issue? That was the recipe Seattle used to create the league’s top rushing offense, a return to the postseason—and freaking out all over the internet by many analytics disciples that believe they need to pass more. Like, always.
Wait...is Brown saying those who think Carroll’s approach is as outdated as two-bar face masks in today’s NFL are going to get more Air Raid than Ground Chuck from the Seahawks’ offense in 2019?
Brown was asked to elaborate on “we are opening the playbook at little bit this year.”
He looked like he wanted to run through the closed glass door to his immediate right and do a post route into the Seahawks’ locker room rather than answer that.
“I mean...um...ha ha,” Brown said, chuckling, smiling_and pretty much realizing he’d said too much about a sensitive topic around this offense and region.
“When I say that, I mean I’m kind of being thrown around everywhere,” he said.
“I’ll leave it at that; I’m playing multiple positions.”
OK. We’ll see, starting Sept. 8 when the games get real against Cincinnati.
Brown had an impressive catch Tuesday during the first 11-on-11 scrimmage in full pad—shoulder pads and pants—of camp. During a red-zone scrimmage, the 6-foot-3, 204-pound Brown was lined up outside left. He turned sharply across the face of starting cornerback Tre Flowers 6-3, 203) at the goal line. Then he walled off Flowers with his back and rear end. Russell Wilson’s pass arrived as Brown was fighting off Flowers trying to go through his back. Brown extended both hands away from Flowers’ hounding and caught the zipped throw, with Flowers still all over him, for the touchdown.
Here’s what else I saw, heard and learned on a day dominated news-wise by L.J. Collier getting carted out of practice with a lower-leg injury that could keep the top rookie draft choice out a month or more:
IUPATI HURT (AGAIN). SO, POCIC: Ethan Pocic (remember him?) was the starting left guard.
Usual starter Mike Iupati, signed in the offseason after 2018 left guard J.R. Sweezy signed with Arizona, was wearing a low walking boot over his left foot. It was one day after Iupati was in the first practice with shoulder pads of the camp.
Iupati is 32 and entering his 10th season. He has played in just 11 games the last two seasons, with the Cardinals. He hasn’t played all 16 games of any season since 2012, when he was with San Francisco and current Seahawks offensive line coach Mike Solari was his 49ers position coach.
Seeing the 6-5, 331-pound Iupati (he looks much bigger than that team listing, by the way) in a walking boot is a reminder why Seattle drafted guard Phil Haynes in the fourth round this spring. But Haynes was also watching instead of practicing. He is on the physically-unable-to-perform list following sports-hernia surgery.
So Tuesday, it was Pocic at left guard
Pocic has yet to become what Seattle hoped he’d be when ex-Seahawks line coach Tom Cable drafted the versatile former center at LSU in the second round in 2017. Pocic started 11 games as a rookie. He has struggled with strength and leveraging his 6-6 body low enough to move shorter, heavier defensive linemen. He started four games last year when right guard D.J. Fluker and others had injuries.
“Just a learning experience,” Pocic told me just off the field following Tuesday’s practice. “That’s the one thing I take away from the older guys is, you never stop learning. Duane (Brown, the 12th-year left tackle), (center Justin) Britt, Germain (Ifedi, the right tackle), Sweezy last year, Fluker—you know, you are just always learning.”
He says Iupati—Pocic calls him “Big Mike”—has taught him in the few months he’s been a Seahawk “a lot about pass pro. My (feet) set. My punch.
“Yeah, he’s another vet that’s got a lot of snaps. So he’s seen a lot of stuff.”
The time is now for Pocic to put that learning to performing.
URSUA’S FAMILIAR-LOOKING SKILL: Really like how rookie seventh-round pick John Ursua makes quick-strike moves with his feet and shoulder immediately after he catches the ball. It gets him instant separation from a defender, and gives the smaller wide receiver (5-9, 182) a better chance for yards after his catch.
He looks a little like Baldwin in that regard—though in no way is Ursua anywhere close to approaching Baldwin’s unique skill.
No one is.
But Ursua is in Baldwin’s old spot. The rookie is backing up Tyler Lockett as the slot receiver inside. Ursua led major-college football with 16 touchdown receptions last season as Hawaii’s slot back.
He made a catch in that role Tuesday with fellow rookie Ugo Amadi, the backup nickel back, all over him.
DISSLY’S BACK: Tight end Will Dissly looks all the way back from the patellar surgery in his knee last fall that ended his impressive rookie year after one month. The former University of Washington tight end was Wilson’s man on the second play of the red-zone scrimmage, before Brown’s TD. Dissly again did not look like a converted UW defensive lineman running down the inside slot left turning and catching Wilson’s dart inside free safety Tedric Thompson just before the goal line for the first touchdown of the day.
To be fair, Thompson let up and would have hit Dissly hard at the point of the grab had the tight end been an opponent instead of teammate.
Then again, Dissly is so native-Montana rugged he may have held onto the ball for the score, anyway.
SHEAD SO FAR: DeShawn Shead, re-signed Saturday after a year away in Detroit, again was the second-team strong safety in his third practice of his second Seattle go-round.
After practice, fans showed how popular Shead is here.
BEST DAILY DRILL: Once the pads come on in camp, the must-see drill each day is offensive linemen versus defensive linemen in a pass-rush drill. The intensity is the highest of any action in camp. It’s what led to Frank Clark decking Ifedi with one punch and bloodying the blocker a few summers ago here.
“It’s mano-y-mano,” blocker Duane Brown said.
Tuesday’s session featured the massive Fluker throwing starting defensive tackle Jarran Reed to the grass. Coaches and teammates went “Ohhhh!!” while Reed appeared stunned while on the ground for a moment.
But most of the drill went the defense’s way. Edge rusher Barkevious Mingo, in danger of perhaps being cut to save $4.1 million after having just one sack in 2018, went through Ifedi twice off the right side. Recently signed defensive tackle Earl Mitchell beat Britt up the middle before Britt stonewalled Mitchell in round two.
George Fant, the former college basketball player whose athleticism makes him a quick pass blocker at tackle, pushed out Collier (before Collier got hurt in a team scrimmage).
Undrafted rookie defensive tackle Bryan Mone continues to impress. The former Michigan Wolverine mauled undrafted rookie Demetrius Knox, pushing him back so hard it looked like he was angry at him. Maybe Mone is: Knox played for Ohio State.
When the pass-rush drill ended, defensive-line coach Clint Hurtt was happy. He pumped his fist into the air, in time with the blasts of the air horn signaling the next practice period.
During team scrimmaging, Mone rushed Wilson then peeled back up the field and chased wide receiver Keenan Reynolds 10 yards up the field into the defensive secondary after a bubble-screen pass. Carroll loved that. The coach ran from behind the offensive huddle to Mone deep into the defense to congratulate the rookie for his effort.
THAT PLAY STILL WORKS: Last season Wilson had a perfect passer rating throwing to Lockett: 158.3 (57 of 71 throws for 965 yards, 10 touchdowns and no interceptions while targeting Lockett in the regular season). That included a winning touchdown at the end of the home game against Arizona in December.
Tuesday on the first play of 11 on 11 in the middle of the field, the in-flux Seahawks secondary got burned on one of the plays Wilson, Lockett and Schottenheimer used repeatedly in 2018. Wilson rolled right, allowed Lockett to run diagonally across the field outside the opposite hashmarks, then threw far across the field to the left more than 40 yards. Thompson was left chasing Lockett to the end zone. No defender was within 5 yards of Lockett.
Wilson thrusted his arms to the air at the end of that play.
DK METCALF HEROICS WATCH, DAY 5: It took about five plays of the first 11-on-11 red-zone drill for the daily Wilson-to-DK-Metcalf-for-a-touchdown-even-though-the-rookie-was-covered moment. Metcalf beat veteran defensive back Neiko Thorpe with a sharp, quick outside cut at the goal line, then snared the ball away from his body and Thrope for the TD.
On one of the last plays of practice, Metcalf made a tumbling catch at the 10-yard line from Wilson. No defender touched him, so the rookie got up and sprinted to the goal line. Carroll and Wilson ran down toward the end zone to slap him on the back and helmet for that effort.
EXTRA POINTS:
- Mychal Kendricks was back practicing as the first-team strongside linebacker, next to Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright as the starting linebackers. Kendricks was out Monday. Signs continue to point to Seattle using more 4-3 base defense with that Super Bowl-veteran trio and less nickel defense using only two linebackers this season.
- Geno Smith continues to look more the number-two quarterback behind Wilson than Paxton Lynch. Lynch, the former Denver Broncos’ starter and first-round pick, has a cannon for an arm. Yet in a 2-minute drill near the end of practice he underthrew by 4 yards a 40-yard ball intended for Reynolds, who was behind everyone on a fly route in the end zone. Thompson easily intercepted Lynch’s lofted mistake.
- New kicker Jason Myers made three of his four field goals in the interlude between scrimmages. Last season’s Pro Bowl selection for the New York Jets was good easily from 33, 38 and 43 yards, then was well long enough but wide from 48.
- Others who were not in pads and did not practice: defensive end Ziggy Ansah (again, not back from shoulder surgery perhaps until the end of August), tight end Tyrone Swoopes (in a walking boot), Haynes, undrafted rookie strong safety Jalen Harvey, linebacker Justin Currie, undrafted rookie cornerback Davante Davis and strong safety Lano Hill.
- The Seahawks are off from practicing Wednesday. They return to the field on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
This story was originally published July 30, 2019 at 6:55 PM.
