Seahawks set captains, Quinton Dunbar delayed, Ethan Pocic wins job, D’Andre Walker’s role
Their team is changing around them.
A thinned defensive line. A worrisome pass rush. A new starting cornerback not yet back practicing. And a new center.
Yet the Seahawks’ captains remain the same.
For the second consecutive year, the players voted franchise quarterback Russell Wilson captain of the offense, All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner captain of the defense and Neiko Thorpe the special-teams captain for the 2020 season.
Coach Pete Carroll announced that Monday following the team’s first practice of the regular season.
Now who all’s going to playing around them in Sunday’s opener at Atlanta?
The last two weeks of training camp showed Quinton Dunbar is going to supplant Tre Flowers, the starter the last two seasons, as the new first-team cornerback opposite Pro Bowl cover man Shaquill Griffin. Dunbar did not begin practicing with the Seahawks until Aug. 16, following his trade from Washington to Seattle in March and then an arrest, jailing and felony charges for armed robbery in his native Florida. After prosecutors there dropped all charges last month, Dunbar had to fly to Seattle then go through the five-day protocol the NFL set for players first reporting to training camps.
On Aug. 30, Dunbar took over as the starting cornerback fully when Flowers missed practice with a sprained ankle. When Flowers returned the next day and for practices all last week, Dunbar remained the starter.
Thursday, Dunbar missed practice. Carroll said his new arrival was excused to fly back home for a funeral.
Dunbar missed the Seahawks’ next practice Monday, too, following a three-day break.
That should not change Dunbar’s status as the starter over Flowers Sunday against Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and the Falcons.
Dunbar has to go through multiple days of COVID-19 testing again to get back into the Seahawks’ facility and back onto the practice field.
“He’s back in town. He’s got to go through protocol to get back in,” Carroll said.
Carroll said Flowers “had a really good camp, the best he’s been.”
But the Seahawks didn’t trade for Dunbar to have him sit in his contract year, before the team has to decide whether to try to re-sign him.
“This is a really unique football player, Quinton Dunbar,” Carroll said last week. “He’s got terrific awareness. He’s got size and speed and all that kind of stuff, so he can do the things we need our corners to do. But he has terrific awareness. He’s got very good spatial awareness and play-making ability and a really good, challenge attitude.
“I really like the way he plays.”
Dunbar said he’s not fully comfortable yet in the Seahawks defense, nor necessarily with taking Flowers’ job.
“I’m not here to flex, or anything like that,” he said.
“I’m just here to win.”
Pocic wins center job
Another new starter on Sunday in Atlanta: Ethan Pocic.
Carroll confirmed what had become obvious in training camp weeks ago: the team’s second-round draft choice in 2017 that’s been a backup guard and tackle is Wilson’s new starting center. Pocic moved in after B.J. Finney, signed this offseason for $4.5 million guaranteed to replace released, injured and more expensive Justin Britt at center, failed to immediately learn the offense.
Bottom line: Finney does not yet know the calls as intricately as Pocic has known them the last three seasons.
Pocic was LSU’s starting center in college before Seattle drafted him. Sunday he will join Max Unger and Britt as the only full-time centers Wilson’s had in the NFL.
“Ethan Pocic’s going to start for us. He had a great camp,” Carroll said.
“Ethan had offseason surgery on something that’s been bothering him for a number of years, (an) athletic-hernia thing that he’s been dealing with. All I can tell you is, he did a great job in camp and looked terrific. Was our most experienced guy in handling the whole system and all. It showed.
“We’re fired up to see him go.”
Spreadin’ it around
Expect more of Carlos Hyde and Travis Homer spelling lead running back Chris Carson in Atlanta on Sunday. Maybe more of John Ursua as an extra wide receiver than usual, too.
More than they usually would play in an opener, anyway.
Carroll said the Seahawks may be spreading playing time around more than usual in Atlanta. That’s because of no preseason games last month and no minicamps and organized team activities (OTAs) in May and June. Those were canceled because of the COVID-19 virus and the pandemic closing team facilities from March until the last week of July.
Coaches don’t have much of a read on how their new Seahawks may perform in an NFL game, so there will be more discovery in the early regular season instead of the preseason this year.
Plus, starters may need more of an acclimation period early in the season, to avoid more soft-tissue injuries and conditioning issues during games than they would have after a normal run-up to the season.
“I don’t mind saying it: there is some conversation we’ve been having about that, about making sure that we see a lot of guys playing early on, because we haven’t had the games,” Carroll said, “just to make sure we don’t overburden somebody in week one, week two. If we had some opportunities to trade some reps, yeah, that’s part of our focus.”
Carroll said some of that decision is based on his experience as a college coach at USC, which did not have preseason games. He played freshmen right away early in regular seasons to find out what they had in the new players.
New edge rusher
The Seahawks are going to use new waiver claim D’Andre Walker as they need most in the wake of missing out of signing Jadeveon Clowney and with top rookie pass rusher Darrell Taylor out indefinitely: as an edge rusher.
Carroll said Walker, claimed off waivers Sunday from Tennessee and put directly on Seattle’s active roster, can be a “SAM, strongside linebacker or a “Leo” defensive end on the weak side. That would be Taylor’s spot if the rookie second-round pick was practicing, which he has yet to do for the Seahawks.
Walker missed all his rookie season of a fifth-round draft pick by the Titans in 2019 out of Georgia. How did the Seahawks know the way Walker could fit their defense, without him playing in an NFL game yet?
“One of the things we did, we knew he would have the games so we stayed connected with his college film,” Carroll said.
“He has edge-rush ability. That’s what he did in college.”
Taylor stalled
The coach still can’t say for sure when Taylor will begin practicing. He remains on the non-football-injury list. He had surgery Jan. 30 that put a Titanium rod in his lower leg to fix a stress fracture.
Taylor is going to miss at least the first six weeks of the season before he can begin practicing. Carroll watched the defensive end workout this past weekend.
“He’s pushing it hard. He’s making big progress, numbers-wise, strength-wise, percentage-wise (on training tests). He’s doing really well,” the coach said.
“But I can’t tell you we know exactly what week it’s going to happen. He’s got to prove it, prove the strength gains, and then he’s got to prove that he can handle the workload once he gets back to all the heavy, on-the-field running.”
The week
The players take their customary Tuesday off—aside from another daily COVID-19 test in the morning outside team headquarters. They practice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday then leave Friday afternoon for Atlanta.
Carroll is keeping the team’s travel sequence the same for games in the Eastern and Central time zones: leave two days before the game. It’s worked: In the 10 seasons under Carroll Seattle has mostly junked its problems winning on the road in 10 a.m. Pacific Time starts.
