Seahawks minicamp: Zach Charbonnet surprise, the full Devon Witherspoon, more
Four months? Has it really only been four months?
That’s what came to mind Tuesday watching Zach Charbonnet doing training drills in the corner of the Seahawks practice field near Lake Washington.
Wearing a hoodie over sweatpants and flat, running shoes on grass, Seattle’s running back who rushed for 12 touchdowns last season (the team’s most since Marshawn Lynch in 2014) did about 15 minutes of high-knee hurdler steps. He also did lateral movement and other low-impact drills with a team trainer. That was while teammates warmed up on the main field to begin the first of three practices of mandatory minicamp.
These are the last practices before the Super Bowl champions go away for six weeks leading into training camp and the start of the preseason in late July.
It was the first time Charbonnet had been seen on the field by reporters doing anything since he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee Jan. 17 in Seattle’s divisional-round playoff win over San Francisco at Lumen Field.
Charbonnet had reconstructive knee surgery in mid-February. That was days after he missed the Seahawks’ win over New England in Super Bowl 60. The typical recovery time for torn ACLs and the resulting surgery in football players is eight to 12 months. That would mean Charbonnet remains out well past the start of the Seahawks’ opening game of the 2026 season Sept. 9 in a Super Bowl rematch with the Patriots at Lumen Field.
Coach Mike Macdonald has been vague if not coy this offseason on a timeline for Charbonnet’s return. After the running back’s surgery, Macdonald said news on it was “more optimistic” than the team expected in the days after Charbonnet got hurt.
“So, that’s exciting,” Macdonald said in the final days of February, at league’s scouting combine in Indianapolis. “Being able to come back at an earlier time, it’s hard to put a timetable on those things.
“If you’re betting on anybody, you’re going to bet on Zach. We’ll go from there.
“He’s not going to do anything in the spring.”
Except for what he did on the side for those 15 minutes or so Tuesday. Charbonnet then went inside to continue his rehabilitation, while his teammates practiced outside for another 2-1/2 hours.
Charbonnet’s entering the final year of the rookie contract he signed after the Seahawks drafted him in the second round out of UCLA in 2023. That was a year after Seattle drafted Kenneth Walker, also in the second round.
Charbonnet’s injury, his expiring contract and Walker leaving this offseason as the Super Bowl MVP in free agency to sign with Kansas City are why the Seahawks drafted running back Jadarian Price from Notre Dame in the first round this spring.
Yet Charbonnet’s work, albeit incremental, at this minicamp suggests he could be at the top of the plans Macdonald and new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury have for the start of the season.
Not necessarily the middle and end, as has been presumed for Charbonnet.
Jadarian Price’s progress
With Charbonnet rehabilitating his knee and Walker gone to the Chiefs, third-year veteran George Holani from Boise State was the first running back behind quarterback Sam Darnold on the starting offense to begin minicamp. Price alternated into the starting unit as the second back.
That’s the same arrangement as in offseason practices of organized team activities the previous two weeks.
Price did get entire drives with the starters Wednesday. That was more than first-team work than the 32nd pick in this year’s draft got in OTAs.
Holani impressed coaches during the playoffs last season replacing Charbonnet. They loved the former undrafted free agent’s receiving and pass blocking against the 49ers in the divisional playoffs and the Rams in the NFC championship.
Emanuel Wilson, Seattle’s 27-year-old free-agent signing this offseason coming off a 500-yard rushing season for Green Bay, has been the third back running mostly with quarterback Jalen Milroe and the third-team offense in practices this spring.
Wilson, a fifth-year veteran, is a bigger, more pounding back than Walker, Holani and Price. He’s listed at 5 feet 10 and 226 pounds. In his new Seahawks practice uniform he looks bigger and thicker than that. Wilson signed a one-year contract worth $1.6 million. Only $300,000 of it is guaranteed.
Devon Witherspoon fully engaged
Devon Witherspoon cackled with fellow defensive backs. He was all over wide receivers’ routes, as left cornerback, right cornerback and nickel inside.
Witherspoon barked from the sideline at Jake Bobo. That was after the wide receiver not known for his speed took a bubble-screen pass from Drew Lock in a twos-versus-twos scrimmage and ran past defenders who aren’t allowed to touch Bobo in these shorts, jerseys and helmets practices.
“Hell, nah!” Witherspoon roared from the sideline at Bobo. “No way! That will never happen in a game!”
Yes, the three-time Pro Bowl cornerback was fully participating in minicamp, doing all the team scrimmaging. That was more than he did in the OTAs practices.
Witherspoon, 25, is awaiting a massive contract extension that could make him the league’s richest at his position at more than $31 million per year.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider typically gets the huge extensions for foundational — think: Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, others in the past — done at or soon after the start of training camp. This summer that will be on or about July 25.
Extra points
•Josh Jobe is the starting cornerback opposite Witherspoon. That figures. The Seahawks signed back Jobe for $4 million a year this offseason.
•Macdonald said this offseason Nehemiah Pritchett would get a long look at cornerback before his third season, since the team drafted him out of Auburn in the fifth round in 2024. That’s with Riq Woolen gone, signed by Philadelphia in free agency as the Seahawks kept Jobe instead. Pritchett is alternating in the starting defense as the third cornerback, Woolen‘s role in 2025.
•DeMarcus Lawrence spent the early drills of practice advising Nick Emmanwori on pass-rush steps and rookie outside linebacker Aidan Hubbard on using his hands to shed blockers off a one-man blocking sled.
Asked what the 34-year-old Lawrence, in his 13th NFL preseason, is teaching the second-year safety/linebacker about edge rushing, Emmanwori said: “Just how to win. Easy. Not make it too complicated. A guy like him, he’s done it so long, anything he says is, like, green. Good to go. I’m just soaking up as much game as I can from him, and learning from him. He’s just giving me what he’s got.”
•Second-year (listed) linebacker Jared Ivey, 6-6, 274 pounds, is drilling with the defensive ends and scrimmaging on the end of the line with his hand on the ground.
•Veteran swing offensive tackle Josh Jones did not practice.
The Seahawks signed veteran Bobby Hart Monday. He’s started 75 games at tackle in the NFL, including eight last season for the Chargers.
Logan Brown and Amari Kight were the second tackles behind starters Charles Cross and Abe Lucas. Hart was the third-team right tackle, blocking for quarterback Jalen Milroe. *Tight end AJ Barner again did running on a side field with a trainer. He did that in OTAs. Barner had shoulder and ankle surgeries this offseason. He says he played through those pains for much of last season but is just about fully healthy now.
•Veteran backup tight end Eric Saubert practiced. He didn’t practice and with Barner on a side field last week in OTAs.
•Second-year tight end Elijah Arroyo did not practice. He came out of the training room and walked onto the field to watch miway through drills.
•Rookie nose tackle Deven Eastern, the team’s seventh-round pick from Minnesota, was not on the field.
•The practice was in bright sun with 15-mph winds gusting to 30 mph. Whitecaps were on Lake Washington. Jason Myers used the wind at his back to make a 62-yard field goal that would have been good from 67 or more.
This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 6:24 PM.
