Seahawks stupidity on day 6 of camp: Jarran Reed, Ethan Pocic punching at helmeted heads
Frank Clark and Germain Ifedi wouldn’t have called this a training-camp fight. Not by their barroom-like standard.
Yet what defensive tackle Jarran Reed and guard Ethan Pocic had on Thursday during the sixth practice of this Seahawks preseason was a indeed scrap.
And a dumb one.
Reed and Pocic confronted each other at the end of a play during one of the team’s 11-on-11 scrimmages between offense and defense. The Seahawks were not in pads Thursday, after the camp’s first drills in full pads the previous practice.
Reed and Pocic traded punches at each other’s head—while each was still wearing his helmet. That bit of brilliance is a recipe for yet more injuries to a Seahawks lineman.
This was the first day since rookie first-round draft choice and defensive end L.J. Collier was lost likely for a month or more with a badly and unusually sprained ankle.
Center Justin Britt was one of the first players to intervene between Reed and Pocic, who was starting at left guard for the second consecutive practice because Mike Iupati remained out with a mild foot sprain. Then most of the players remaining on the field massed around the fighters. That created a mosh pit of 70 or so players choosing sides of blue (offense) and white (defense) jerseys before order got restored and the scrimmage resumed—without Pocic or Reed.
Coach Pete Carroll was far from amused by the spectacle. After Pocic slammed his helmet to the grass, the coach sent him inside to the locker room. Reed stayed outside but didn’t do anything but watch over the final 30-plus minutes of the practice.
After it, Carroll had the offense and defense run sprints sideline to sideline and back, 53 1/3 yards (times two), as Russell Wilson would remind. It appeared to be punishment.
In his latest impressive act of his first NFL training camp, rookie wide receiver DK Metcalf was the first offensive player to finish each of the three, 107-yard sprints.
“Couple guys, they got thrown out of practice today,” Carroll said. “It’s really important for us to recognize how devastating that can be, in a game, where you only save so many guys and you lose one position it can change the whole complexion of the game for you. And we cannot resort to that, at any time.
“So I was pleased to throw them out and fine them, and the whole thing.”
In August 2017, Clark decked Ifedi with one punch following a confrontation during a one-on-one pass-rush drill. Ifedi, the starting right tackle, got a bloodied and fat lip and missed some practices. Clark, Seattle’s top sack man last season before the team traded him to Kansas City this offseason, got suspended from a couple days of training-camp practices by Carroll for that punch.
Since then, Seahawks practices have generally been free of such overblown testosterone. There is often pushing and shoving and shouts after whistles, but rarely the dumb punching that happened Thursday.
“That’s just true training camp right there,’’ veteran safety Bradley McDougald said of the Pocic-Reed fight.
He sounded old school.
“Guys are going to scuffle,” he said. “Tempers are flared up. It’s hot out here and guys are competing to the ultimate. So, it’s just normal training camp activity. We will hash it out and be brothers in the locker room.”
Yet McDougald got Carroll’s coaching point the coach gave his players in a giant, extended huddle following practice.
“We’ve got to keep our heads, man, depending on the situation and the game. There’s no excuses for it,” McDougald said. “Those situations are very critical. You don’t want to lose an important player late in the game over a fight or someone calling you a name or pushing you after the play.
“It’s kind of just a message to stay focused and keep the main thing the main thing—and that’s winning the game and not getting ejected for fighting.’’
This story was originally published August 1, 2019 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Seahawks stupidity on day 6 of camp: Jarran Reed, Ethan Pocic punching at helmeted heads."
