Seahawks camp day 3: Kenneth Walker out again. So is rookie RB2. Witherspoon not starting
The first time was peculiar.
This second consecutive day was more of...something.
Kenneth Walker, the Seahawks’ lead running back at the sport’s most-injured position, missed a second consecutive day of training camp. The absence remains for an unspecified reason.
Coach Pete Carroll is the sole source of medical and health information for the team. He did not speak to the media Thursday or Friday.
Carroll often gives veterans days off during camp. But Walker, 22, is starting just his second NFL season after his 1,000-yard breakout debut as a half-season Seattle starter in 2022. And these have been days two and three of training camp. Walker participated fully and was the number-one running back in the first practice of camp, Wednesday.
Zach Charbonnet, the rookie second-round pick from UCLA poised to be the No.-2 back behind Walker, also did not practice. That left rookie seventh-round pick Kenny McIntosh from Georgia and veteran DeeJay Dallas as the running backs with the starting offense.
Devon Witherspoon back, not starting
Devon Witherspoon practiced for the first time in camp. He became the last of 259 rookie draft choices to sign his contract Friday morning, reaching an agreement on the timing of signing-bonus payments.
He celebrating by dancing to DJ Supa Sam’s tunes as he stepped onto the field for warmups.
But coach Pete Carroll, defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt and secondary coach Karl Scott didn’t simply hand the fifth-overall pick in May’s draft the starting left-cornerback job Witherspoon had from the first organized team activities in May through the mandatory minicamp last month.
Witherspoon watched Tre Bown remain the starting cornerback on the left side for team scrimmaging Friday. Michael Jackson, the starter at left corner in 2022, was again on the starting right corner, as Riq Woolen remained on the physically-unable-to-perform list. He had arthroscopic knee surgery in May.
Witherspoon’s scrimmage time at outside cornerback was with the second-team defense, behind Brown.
Witherspoon joined the first-team defense Friday for the first time since June in a 2-minute-drill of 11-on-11 scrimmaging — as the first nickel, slot defensive back over Coby Bryant. Carroll and Hurtt first tried Witherspoon inside at nickel last month during the veteran minicamp.
Witherspoon lined up opposite slot receiver and fellow rookie first-round pick Jaxon Smith-Njigba three times on a drive. But quarterback Geno Smith did not throw their way.
Bryant was the team’s nickel DB in 2022 as a rookie. In a red-zone series Friday, Bryant, the Jim Thorpe Award winner as college football’s best cornerback at Cincinnati two seasons ago, was the second-team safety back with Joey Blount.
Late in the practice, Bryant was back as the primary nickel corner.
“I think this is probably the best depth that we’ve had since I have been here,” said Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs, who arrived in Seattle from Detroit in a trade during the 2019 season. “Where we’ve got two guys out with Spoon and Riq (and) we just plugged Tre in and we got Mike Jackson who is going to do his job. We got little ‘Cobe’. Young boys getting great reps.
“So at the end of the day, it’s a next-man-up mentality right now, and we’ll be happy when those guys get back out there. It just gives us more for our bodies to work together and get that chemistry going.”
Metcalf vs Jackson
No matter how highly they drafted Witherspoon, no matter when Woolen may get back on the field, Jackson remains relentless.
Friday’s red-zone drill featured three aggressive, not-past-me plays by Jackson, a former four-year practice player in the NFL until last season. First, he deftly walled off hulking wide receiver DK Metcalf in the end zone for the second consecutive day to force another incomplete pass from Smith on a fade route. The next play, Jackson broke fast on Smith’s pass to Metcalf, reached over the receiver’s right shoulder at batted the ball away on a curl route at the goal line.
Smith threw at Metcalf against Jackson the third consecutive time on the next play. Jackson bodied and grabbed Metcalf, who is three inches taller and 25 pounds heavier. Jackson grabbed too much, drawing a penalty flag from the officials who are in camp daily, for pass interference in the end zone as the ball arrived.
Metcalf got away from Jackson on a later series across the middle of the field for about a 15-yard catch from Smith.
Last month, Carroll called Jackson the star of preseason practices this spring. He’s been a star of the first three practices of training camp, too.
Drew Lock picked
Second-team quarterback Drew Lock threw three interceptions during scrimmaging.
The first was tipped, on an ill-advised throw into multiple defenders against Griffin Hebert and off the tight end’s hand. The deflection landed into the hands of linebacker Vi Jones, who zoomed over to the sideline for the interception.
On Lock’s second interception, Blount from safety basically ripped the ball from Hebert at the end of the throw in the red zone.
The third interception by Lock was also in red-zone scrimmaging, thrown right to undrafted rookie linebacker Patrick O’Connell from Montana.
This time last year Lock was in competition with Smith for the starting job. That was four months after the Seahawks acquired him, tight end Noah Fant and defensive end Shelby Harris from Denver in the Russell Wilson trade to the Broncos.
Smith, of course, won that competition rather easily in 2022’s training camp — and went on to a Pro Bowl and playoff season, leading to a big contract (three years, up to $105 million) to stay in Seattle.
Yet Lock re-signed with the Seahawks, too, for one-year and $4 million.
There is no quarterback competition in this camp.
But when asked this week if he knew of a quarterback in the league who is like he was this time last year, overlooked and an unused backup for years who deserves to start, Smith said: “Yeah. The guy on our team.”
Getting their kicks to end
Carroll did Friday what he often does during the season: He pitted one representative of the offense against one from the defense in a post-practice competition, for bragging rights and roars as much as anything else.
The latest one was reserve offensive tackle Greg Eiland against rookie nose tackle Cameron Young in a field-goal contest. The attempts were from about 15 yards, with a holder.
They were, of course, comical.
Eiland badly shanked his first kick low and wide left. Young’s attempt was so low it may have burned the field’s grass.
The 6-8, 321-pound Eiland then lined up for his second attempt. He shimmied his hips and twisted his torso, causing teammates to crack up. But then he swung his big right leg into the ball and pushed it just inside the right upright and not much over the crossbar to win the competition.
Carroll then triumphantly sent the players into their first off day of camp Saturday. They return to practice Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before another players day off Wednesday.
Those days off are mandated by the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union.
This story was originally published July 28, 2023 at 5:39 PM.
