Seahawks camp day 15: Robbie Ouzts 1st NFL play wowed Macdonald; Shaquill Griffin returns
Robbie Ouzts didn’t have to wait long for his welcome-to-the-NFL moment.
It came on his first snap of his first pro game.
The rookie fullback from Alabama with legs the size of redwood trunks stepped onto Lumen Field for his first NFL snap. It was the second play of the Seahawks’ preseason opener.
“You know, I was a little nervous going into it,” Ouzts told The News Tribune inside the Virginia Mason Athletic Center before training-camp practice this weekend. “Just wanted to have a good game.”
On his first snap, new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s play call directed Ouzts to be lead blocker for tailback George Holani on a run off left tackle.
At the snap, Ouzts ran to his left. He looked up and saw...
Four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby.
The Las Vegas Raiders surprised Kubiak and the Seahawks with a different front, with different personnel, than they expected. The Raiders’ defense was full of starters, not reserves that many teams run out in the first preseason game. Las Vegas’ front four defensive linemen slanted left. Their two inside linebackers scraped right. A strong-side safety blitzed into the off-tackle gap to the play side.
“That particular pressure there was a look that we hadn’t gone over,” Ouzts said.
And the young fullback had not gone over Crosby standing directly in the gap Ouzts had to clear on his first NFL snap.
Not only was this his first pro play, it was Ouzts first snap ever as a fullback. He was a tight end in college at Alabama, and a starring H-back/tight end/receiver at Rock Hill High School in his native South Carolina.
“I was just like, ‘Here we go!’” Ouzts said, laughing. The 22-year-old new fullback slammed into the 27-year-old Pro Bowl veteran. He stood up Crosby. Then he stayed in front of the star by moving his feet quickly left. Crosby couldn’t get past Ouzts.
Ouzts' block allowed Holani to speed around Crosby to open turf outside. He romped for 19 yards.
“I got a favorable look on that play. And I executed my assignment,” Ouzts told the TNT two days later.
“Great read by George, hitting it on the outside at the sideline.”
Then, after rendering the Pro Bowl edge rusher useless, Ouzts ran down the sideline behind Holani. He was looking for more Raiders to pummel.
Watching from the sideline, coach Mike Macdonald was impressed.
Maybe the kid in the new position the Seahawks are re-introducing for the first time in a generation is going to be all right.
“They brought a ‘Sam’ (strong-side) strong safety, something that we haven’t really repped much with that run scheme,” Macdonald said. “But to be able to follow those rules — and ended up blocking Maxx on that play, which was pretty cool.
“So, definitely felt (Ouzts). Just like, hey, what is that, your (first) play as an NFL player and you just go execute at a high level and pop an explosive run?
“That was pretty cool.”
Ouzts wasn’t done impressing.
In the final minute of the first quarter, the Seahawks offense advanced to the Raiders 23-yard line. Kubiak called for Ouzts in I formation again, with Holani behind the rookie fullback offset to his left. The play was for Seattle’s offensive line to block down to the right, Ouzts to block the first defender he saw in the off-tackle gap left, and Holani to read and react to Ouzts’ block.
Raiders defensive end Tyree Wilson must have thought he had a free shot at the ball carrier when all the Seahawks’ linemen blocked down away from him. Then he got a chest and facemask full of Ouzts.
The thudding block stood up Wilson like a light pole. Holani had his easiest read and run of the night, 23 yards to the end zone. There Holani ran into Marshawn Lynch, a credential sideline photographer for the night. The Seahawks legend gave Holani a forearm shiver for the only hit the ball carrier had on the play.
Thanks to Ouzts. Again.
The plan for Robbie Ouzts
All this is exactly why Macdonald and Seahawks general manager John Schneider drafted the 275-pound Alabama tight end to play fullback.
Perhaps more than any single player and position, Ouzts at fullback represents the essence of what Macdonald and Kubiak intend to do with Seattle’s remade offense. They are demanding physicality. They are requiring a rugged, run-first mentality.
They are hell bent on making Seattle better than the 29th-ranked rushing team in the NFL last, non-playoff season. It’s now I formation. Yes, old-school two backs. Plays like his first NFL one on Crosby showing why Ouzts is the clear winner in a short competition with veteran Brady Russell for the starting fullback job.
It’s two and even three tight ends to run the ball. Kubiak had three tight ends on the field for short-yardage runs multiple times in each half of the first preseason game.
It is, new quarterback Sam Darnold keeps saying, a run “first and foremost” offense. The coaches had been saying it for months. In the first game, they proved it. They ran, and in a smash-mouth style.
“Early on, just Coach Mike just preaching to us that we’re going to be shocking relentless as a football team, and we’re going to be physical. And we’re going to set the tone early and often at the line of scrimmage,” Ouzts said.
“And you know, 22 (two backs, two tight ends) personnel, 13 (one back, three tight ends) personnel. You know, whatever you need to do to get the job done, that’s what we’re gonna do.”
It fits exactly how Ouzts loves to play football.
“Oh, perfectly,” he said.
“Now I’m seeing their picture come into play, what they have in mind. I just love everything they’re doing here, and very thankful to be here.”
Shaquill Griffin slowly ramps up
Shaquill Griffin again worked on a side field with a trainer during individual drills at the full-pads practice Sunday morning. He was away for all but the first day of the the first two weeks of camp, attending to an undisclosed personal matter. So the coaches and training staff are ramping up the 30-year-old, ninth-year veteran cornerback up slowly into playing condition.
During team scrimmage Griffin did less in the Sunday than he did on Saturday — when he did too much.
After the veteran got in some second- and third-team plays at right cornerback Saturday, Macdonald said Griffin wasn’t supposed to practice that much.
“Yeah, he snuck in an extra couple of reps. That wasn’t necessarily part of the plan,” Macdonald said.
Griffin got the hint Sunday.
“I wasn’t trying to get my coaches in trouble. I’m excited to get my feet back running around in the grass,” he said, grinning. “I got myself a few reps in there. Just a quick burst here and there. Nothing crazy but I definitely don’t want to get my coaches in trouble.
“I dialed it back (Sunday), and I’ll get my reps (Monday). I’m taking it slow again. I don’t want to get my coaches in trouble.”
Griffin was a Seahawks draft pick in 2017. He signed big-bucks free-agent deal with home-state Jacksonville in the spring of 2021. He played for Houston and Carolina in 2023. Last season he was with Minnesota, a teammate of Darnold’s playing 50% of defensive snaps as a Vikings nickel defensive backs.
Griffin is now a father of three (ages 5, 2 and three months). This time in Seattle he’s the wise, ol’ veteran to the team’s young defensive backs, as Richard Sherman was to him in 2017.
Griffin is hoping to win a job as a depth cornerback this season behind starters Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen, who have both made the Pro Bowl already in their short NFL careers. Griffin was asked how different the environment is inside the Seahawks’ building now with the 37-year-old Macdonald running it versus 73-year-old Pete Carroll, the coach who drafted Griffin into the NFL.
“I feel like a lot of the things haven’t changed. I feel like it’s still players first, when it comes to how you run things around here,” Griffin said.
“Ultimately, the only thing that’s different is our coach is a tad bit younger.”
He laughed again.
Extra points
*Ernest Jones IV remained away for the second straight practice day. The starting middle linebacker and defense’s leaders was at home in Georgia this weekend attending the funeral services for his father, Ernest Jones III. The team expects him back Monday or Tuesday. With Tyrice Knight out a couple weeks with an undisclosed medical issue, the two starting inside linebackers Sunday were Patrick O’Connell and Drake Thomas.
*Sunday was another rest day for lead running back Kenneth Walker. It’s been about every other practice or so for him for most of this camp. He had a sore foot last week.
*Olu Oluwatimi did not practice, for the third time in four workouts. He did individual drills Saturday then his back stiffened and he went into the training room. Jalen Sundell again was the starting center.
*Rookies Jalen Milroe at quarterback and Tyrone Broden at wide receiver continued their camp-long connection with multiple completions deep down the field during 11-on-11 scrimmaging. Milroe and Broden say they go over plays each night together at the team camp hotel in Bellevue.
This story was originally published August 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM.
