Seahawks rookie minicamp shows off new bookend tackles, intriguing corners, more changes
It’s only May. But some issues are already becoming clearer for the 2022 Seahawks.
Based on what The News Tribune saw in the team’s rookie minicamp last weekend plus roster and salary-cap situations, both sides of Seattle’s line of scrimmage are going to be new this year.
The new defense was already clear:
- New coordinator Clint Hurtt replaced fired Ken Norton Jr. in January.
- New assistant coaches arrived for the back seven, with Sean Desai in from Chicago and Karl Scott from Minnesota.
- There’s a new system for them to install. Hurtt, Desai and Scott are bringing faster, more varied 3-4 styles different from coach Pete Carroll’s base 4-3 Seattle’s run the last dozen years
- And there are new players to run the new schemes. Among them: second-round draft choice Boye Mafe and fellow edge rusher Tyreke Smith, a fifth-round pick, plus rookie cornerbacks and draft choices Coby Bryant (fourth round) and Tariq Woolen (fifth round).
Seattle is changing at the sport’s most important position, as well. The team traded quarterback Russell Wilson, acquired Drew Lock in the mammoth deal with Denver then re-signed veteran Geno Smith to compete with Lock to replace Wilson for the Seahawks.
Last weekend the offensive line showed signs it’s going to be mostly different, too.
When the rookies and veteran compete fully for jobs beginning in training camp in late July, expect Charles Cross will be the starting left tackle. That’s what he was all last weekend in the rookie minicamp. That fits for 6-foot-5, 315-pound Cross. He is Seattle’s highest draft choice since 2010.
Duane Brown remains a free agent. If the Seahawks wanted to re-sign their 36-year-old starting left tackle from the last five seasons, they would have by now. And they wouldn’t have drafted Cross with the ninth pick in this year’s draft.
It appears rookie Abe Lucas, the third-round pick from Washington State and Everett, will compete with 2020 undrafted rookie surprise Jake Curhan to replace departed free agent Brandon Shell as the starting right tackle.
Asked who stood out to him during the rookie minicamp on the Seahawks’ indoor practice field, Carroll said: “I was so caught by the draft picks.”
“I thought everybody was able to show something, and the tackles jumped out, right off the bat,” Carroll said of Cross and Lucas. “Both guys look well-equipped, physically. They look like they can move like we would hope they can move. They’re both bright kids, and will pick up their stuff, so the process is underway.
“I was really fired up about that.”
Sixty percent of Seattle’s starting offensive line may be changing. The team signed free agent Austin Blythe this offseason. The 29-year-old former starting center for the Rams signed with Seattle for one year and $1.5 million to replace departed Ethan Pocic, the Seahawks’ starting center the last two seasons.
Pass rush help
Summer workouts will give Seahawks coaches four looks for the price two. Mafe and Smith will be rushing off the edges, often opposite each other against Cross at left tackle and Lucas at right throughout training camp deep into August.
Cross and Lucas — and Mafe and Smith for the sickly pass rush — all will have prime chances to win starting jobs as rookies.
“It’s an interesting matchup that we have, because we have two outside rushers that are here, too,” Carroll said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see some guys have a shot at pushing for a lot of playing time out of this (draft) class.”
The 6-foot-4, 261-pound Mafe was a defensive end who dropped into short pass coverage occasionally at the University of Minnesota. His college career pass-rush win rate on third-and-4 or more for the Gophers was 26%, according to Pro Football Focus. That was better than first-overall draft choice Travon Walker (21%), second-overall pick Aidan Hutchinson (24%) and fifth choice Kayvon Thibodeaux (25%).
This past weekend, Mafe began the process of learning 3-4 pass rushing off the edge as more of an outside linebacker with Hurtt in Seattle’s new schemes.
“Boye did a really good job, and he really had a chance to show,” Carroll said. “It’s just like molding clay. He’s such a new player to what we’re doing. It’s going to be really exciting to see what he can do because he’s got great physical tools.”
The new corners
Bryant wore his namesake Kobe Bryant’s immortalized number 8 in rookie minicamp. The fourth-round pick from Cincinnati looked smooth running and leaping to pick off passes in position drills.
The unique, 6-4 Woolen is in the long, tall, Richard Sherman mold of Carroll’s cornerbacks with the Seahawks. Woolen, from Texas-San Antonio, has run the 40-yard dash in 4.26 seconds.
Carroll thinks there hasn’t been a man that tall run that fast, anywhere.
Woolen missed Friday’s and Saturday’s practices with a minor hamstring strain. He was in the defense Sunday at right cornerback, on the first team opposite Bryant.
Carroll watched closely what Woolen did in walk-through drills against fellow defensive players as scout-teamers. The 70-year-old head man and former defensive back talked at length with Woolen at one point during practice.
“On the outside, with the receivers and the corners, man, those were the guys...I can’t keep my focus on these corners,” Carroll said. “We got to bring them along quickly, give them a chance to get their work done.
“Unfortunately, Tariq wasn’t able to do everything, but he got a ton of walk-throughs. He knows his assignments. He understands what we’re asking him.
“We’ll just have to wait to get his hammy right in the weeks ahead here to see what he can do.”
