Seahawks camp day 6: Bobby Wagner still away, Jamarco Jones injury exposes depth issues
Ken Norton Jr. looked at the middle of his defense. It was unrecognizable.
For the first time in eight years coaching the Seahawks’ defense—for the first time since the first season he did it, back in 2010—the coordinator did not have Bobby Wagner or K.J. Wright as one of his linebackers.
“It’s a little different,” Norton deadpanned Tuesday.
Wagner remained absent from training camp for the second consecutive day. The All-Pro is dealing with what coach Pete Carroll described as “a serious family matter.” Wagner has missed two games in the last six years.
Wright, Wagner’s fellow linebacker mainstay the last decade with Seattle, remains unsigned and seemingly not coming back to the Seahawks.
Tuesday was status quo for All-Pro safety Jamal Adams and left tackle Duane Brown. The Pro Bowl veterans are still watching training camp, not practicing in it.
Signs are of progress in recent days toward the Seahawks completing Adams’ new contract to make him the NFL’s highest-paid safety. Adams signing appears to be a matter of days, not weeks.
Carroll said this week he’s in no rush to get Brown into training-camp practices. Brown turns 36 this month. This is the 14th NFL training camp for Seattle’s best lineman. He also wants a new contract beyond his that ends with the 2021 season.
Brown’s place-holder at left tackle, Jamarco Jones, was out with a new injury Tuesday. He had a teammate roll up on his knee during a red-zone scrimmage Monday.
Pro Bowl veteran pass rusher Carlos Dunlap was watching practice on camp day six, wearing a bucket hat instead of a helmet. He appeared to get the day off.
Top rookie D’Wayne Eskridge, the new, speedy wide receiver, has been on Team Bucket Cap for all of camp. He’s had an injured big toe since last month.
Good thing for the Seahawks it was Aug. 3. Because their first day in shoulder pads this preseason—”closer to real football,” as Norton said—exposed Seattle’s areas of real depth concern.
Those are primarily at linebacker and offensive line.
Jon Rhattigan, the rookie free agent from Army West Point here on a Department of the Army professional-sports waiver, was watching not practicing for the first time. He was apparently injured.
So Norton’s linebackers for day six of training camp were:
- Cody Barton, the team’s third-round pick from Utah in 2019. He’s been the leading tackler on special teams. He’s had Wagner’s role of calling the defense’s signals the last two days.
- Jordyn Brooks, the first-round choice last year from Texas Tech and presumed starter this season at weakside linebacker. That’s Wright’s old job.
- Nate Evans, a waiver pickup this offseason from Jacksonville.
- Ben Burr-Kirven, the backup middle linebacker and former University of Washington Husky. He’s been exclusively on special teams since Seattle drafted him in the fifth round in 2019
- Aaron Donkor. He’s the 91st player on the training-camp roster. He’s from Germany, part of the NFL’s development program for international players.
The Seahawks have a half of another linebacker. They are using this camp to convert 2020 rookie Darrell Taylor from a full-time defensive end to an edge rusher at end on passing downs, and a strongside linebacker on early downs. Seattle’s second-round pick who did not play last season recovering from leg surgery has been doing individual position drills with the ends and some group work and scrimmaging at outside linebacker.
How are the coaches with Taylor’s progress?
“Very pleased,” Norton said. “When we looked at him to draft him, he was someone that we felt had a lot of promise, felt like he was a really a good who could make us better. We felt he had some special qualities.
“And now that we are working with him, talking to him, putting him in game situations, we feel really good about the future for him.”
That’s eight career starts among the 5 1/2 linebackers in camp Tuesday.
At least the first game isn’t for another 5 1/2 weeks.
“It allows the younger players the chance to step up and know what it’s like to be at the front of the line,” Norton said, looking on the bright side of another warm, sunny practice. “All of a sudden they look around and they’re in front.”
The offensive line is down to Plans C and D at left tackle, the most important protection position for a right-handed quarterback such as Seattle’s Russell Wilson.
Forsythe, the rookie sixth-round pick out of Florida, got one snap at left tackle Monday after Jones got hurt. He got his first extended series of plays there with the starters Tuesday.
In the first one-on-one pass-rushing drill of camp, Forsythe’s initial assignment was veteran former All-Pro edge rusher Aldon Smith. On the first snap, Forsythe forcefully stood Smith straight up with a two-hand blow to the chest plate of the defensive end’s shoulder pads, stonewalling Smith. His offensive linemates roared.
On the second snap, Smith came more forcefully straight at and under the chin of the 6-foot-8 Forsythe. That will be the challenge the rookie will have, staying low against NFL edge rushers. Smith won that snap early, though Forsythe stayed in front of him.
Cedric Ogbuehi had been competing at right tackle with Brandon Shell, the 2020 starter there. Ogbuehi finished Monday’s practice and spent part of Tuesday’s as the starting left tackle after Jones got hurt.
In the pass-rush drill, the 6-5, 308-pound Ogbuehi athletically moved his feet to push 6-3, 252-pound Benson Mayowa to the inside and effectively out of the play.
With Adams still watching, Marquise Blair is getting many snaps as the safety starting next to Pro Bowl veteran Quandre Diggs. Blair is poised to be the team’s primary nickel, fifth defensive back this season. That’s the job Seattle’s second-round pick in 2019 had through two games last year. Then he had a season-ending knee injury.
Ryan Neal has also played as a starting safety in the first six practices of camp. He was the dime, sixth defensive back late last season. Seattle signed him in 2019, from Atlanta. Thirteen of his 17 career games played were last season with the Seahawks.
“They are always asking for more plays, more reps, to be ‘The Man,’” Norton said. “And now, it’s right there.
“We can see exactly what it looks like when they are out front.”
Collier’s move
A third area of depth concern: defensive tackle.
NFL teams can never have enough proven ones. That’s why Carroll and the Seahawks have routinely signed veteran defensive tackles well into August in previous preseasons.
Al Woods was one of those a couple summer ago. He came back to Seattle this offseason. He signed after opting out of the 2020 season with the Jaguars over COVID-19 concerns.
Woods plus former undrafted rookies Poona Ford and Bryan Mone are the Seahawks’ only proven, true defensive tackles in this camp.
So they are moving L.J. Collier there.
The team still lists its first-round pick in 2019 as a defensive end. But he’s spending his time during individual position drills next to Ford, Mone, Woods and the tackles.
On consecutive snaps in the pass-rush drill Tuesday, reserve guard Jordan Simmons repelled Collier’s inside moves.
“Simmons is going to battle,” Carroll said.
How Reed does it
The most audacious play of Tuesday’s practice: All 5-9 and 193 pounds of right cornerback D.J. Reed banging and bodying 6-4, 235-pound hulk wide receiver DK Metcalf during a one-on-one pass-coverage drill.
Reed banged so hard his momentum carried him in front of Metcalf’s medium-depth out route. Wilson’s pass stuck into Reed’s chest for an interception before it could reach Metcalf.
It was likely a penalty on Reed for illegal contact and/or pass interference had it been a real NFL game. But the aggression was how Reed won the right-cornerback job late last season after arriving as an injury waiver claim from San Francisco in the summer.
Plays like Tuesday’s are why Reed has the inside track over Tre Flowers to be the starting right cornerback to begin the 2021 season, too.
Also on camp day six...
*Starting right guard Gabe Jackson was back practicing. He got Monday off.
*Colby Parkinson is getting reps with the first offense on running downs. The 6-foot-7 tight end has made leaping catches in red-zone scrimmaging.
Wilson and number-two quarterback Geno Smith are learning to throw it way high and Parkinson is likely to go get it, or no one will.
Parkinson missed all of last year’s training camp as a rookie recovering from a broken foot. The fourth-round pick from Stanford in 2020 played in only six of the 17 games.
*The team practices again Wednesday afternoon. The players get Thursday off from practice.
They have a mock game inside Lumen Field Sunday afternoon. As of last weekend the Seahawks had sold 12,000 tickets for that mock game. They are opening all of their 68,000-seat stadium for it.
