Seahawks, Packers fight in joint practice. Devon Witherspoon, Ernest Jones in it
On brand and on cue, Devon Witherspoon began woofin’.
Even before he and his Seahawks were on the field.
Seattle’s Pro Bowl cornerback was walking with his teammates through Green Bay’s indoor Don Hutson Center, across the street from Lambeau Field. The Seahawks were using the indoor facility as a pass-through to get from the field where they practiced position drills early Thursday morning to the Packers’ main, Ray Nitschke Field on the other side of the building, to begin scrimmaging the home team in this zesty joint practice.
From across the indoor field Witherspoon spotted Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed. Reed was by an exercise bike, rehabilitating from a sprained foot. They played against each other in the Big Ten from 2019-22, when Witherspoon played for Illinois and Reed was at Michigan State.
Then the scrimmaging began. The 24-year-old Witherspoon was center stage, as usual
Joint practices are made for Devon Witherspoon. The fifth pick in the 2023 NFL draft is loud. One of the Seahawks’ best overall players is brash. He’s constantly jumping up and down celebrating his teammates, himself, opponents failing.
These joint practices are always spicy.
Witherspoon brings the most spice.
Packers starting quarterback Jordan Love, limited returning from injury to seven-on-seven drills only, repeatedly threw to the side of the field opposite Witherspoon. Love instead targeted Seattle’s Riq Woolen, who had a strong practice breaking up multiple passes. Witherspoon howled from across the field at each one. He waved his arms in a wipe-out manner.
He jammed Cornelius Johnson off the snap with a two-hand shiver to the chest so hard the Packers wide receiver’s head snapped back. Witherspoon was jumping up and down after that. The NFL field judge officiating the practice came over to caution him for being excessive.
Witherspoon kept crowing.
At the end of one play, Packers starting right tackle Zach Tom got so tired of Witherspoon he jumped and threw a flying punch with his right hand at the Seahawks cornerback’s helmet. Witherspoon threw a punch back. It slapped off Tom’s face mask. Tom punched back.
Witherspoon weighs 185 pounds, maybe. Tom weighs 304.
Teammate Ernest Jones came to Witherspoon’s aid. The Seahawks middle linebacker began throwing his own punches.
Then, it was on. Both teams’ defenses ran onto the field. Players inside the mosh pit threw each other to the ground. Assistants jumped in to try to separate combatants, while on the ground. It was wrestling, MMA and boxing, all at once at an NFL preseason practice.
“One thing I love about ‘Spoon’ is that he plays with so much passion,” Williams said after practice Thursday. “For a little guy, he tackles big. He plays big.
“And I tell him all the time that he acts like a D-lineman, pretty much. I have a connection with him because of that. The physicality.”
When this fight ended, Jones needed multiple teammates and staffers to calm him down.
Witherspoon stomped back to the Seahawks sideline, still yelling.
“They better ask around!” Witherspoon bellowed.
More Seahawks-Packers fights
Per usual at joint practices, there were other scraps:
- Seahawks right guard Anthony Bradford jumping Packers linebacker Quay Walker, for him hitting Kenneth Walker as Seattle’s lead back was easing up across the goal line having run through another huge hole the Seahawks’ starting offensive line opened this month.
- Rookie second-round draft pick Nick Emmanwori not liking Packers returner Mecole Hardman shoving him as he finished covering a punt by Michael Dickson.
- Rookie nose tackle J.R. Singleton punching a Packer in the helmet to start another mosh pit of Seahawks and Packers. They pushed each other through and out the back of the end zone on that one.
- And, of course, verbal sparring: Pro Bowl defensive end Leonard Williams not appreciating Green Bay starting cornerback Nate Hobbs, who didn’t practice Thursday, coming into the Seahawks’ huddle on Seattle’s sideline immediately after the practice ended. “Who ARE you?!” Williams yelled at Hobbs. “You’re not even in pads! Go finish rehab!”
“I didn’t appreciate them, in general, coming to our sideline when practice is over,” Williams said later. “We’d already broken the (team) huddle. Practice is (over). Our guys are on our side, their guys are on their side. And people are coming over.”
In that final scrap, one Packers player yelled that a Seahawk was doing a lot of talking “for being bald.”
That apparently was a verbal jab at Walker. Seattle’s lead running back recently shaved his head.
“With these joint practices, because stuff like that always happens,” Williams said.
“We try to avoid it as much as possible.
“Yeah, I didn’t appreciate it.”
Devon Witherspoon’s spirit
Through it all, Witherspoon had the last — and loudest — word.
He wouldn’t leave and waited for all other Seahawks teammates to walk off the field back through the indoor facility Thursday following the three-hour joint practice, to ensure no more Packers came back over to challenge again.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald didn’t mind. At all.
“The other team hears him, too,” Macdonald said of Witherspoon.
As if the coach needed to say that.
Veteran cornerback Shaquill Griffin, on the second-team defense, had his best practice in his return to Seattle this summer. He broke up three passes, two in the end zone Love tried to throw past him.
Each time, Witherspoon ran off the sidelines to Griffin in the middle of the field, yelling and waving his arms like he’d just won the lottery.
“It’s great. It’s so positive. It’s all with a spirit of energy and getting our guys to play the way we want,” Macdonald said.
“And it’s infectious. Shoot, it affects me.
“We love having him out there.”
New Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold loves Witherspoon — presumably far more than when he went against him in December when Darnold’s Vikings beat Witherspoon and the Seahawks at Lumen Field late last season. He loves Williams barking at opponents. Jones throwing hands to support his teammates. All of it.
Now that he’s on their team, that is.
“It’s incredible. To be able to go up against that defense every day (in practices back home) and then come out here and finally be on the same team? It’s incredible,” Darnold said.
“The defense, the way that they come out, every single practice...even in the locker room, not in practice, they’re always laughing, joking around, super loud in the locker room.
“They’re great guys to be around and guys that you love to have on your team.”
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 2:56 PM.
