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Camp Preview
The Best Battle at Camp Is the One Nobody’s Hyping
Sports Illustrated dropped Ty Okada at No. 22 on its Top 25 Seahawks countdown Monday, and buried in the writeup is the most interesting subplot on this roster heading into camp: the safety job opposite Julian Love is genuinely up for grabs. Okada earned it with surprisingly good play down the stretch in 2025. Then Seattle spent a second-round pick on Bud Clark, and now the veteran gets to defend his own turf.
Here’s the honest read on Okada. SI notes the doubts are real, chiefly whether he can hold up in the deep passing game over a full season. The staff is reportedly scheming to keep him out of trouble, but there’s a limit to how much a defense can hide a safety. That’s not a knock so much as the situation every fringe starter lives in.
Clark is the more exciting name and everyone knows it. SI lays out the scenario cleanly: if the rookie takes over, Clark likely slides to free safety and Love shifts to strong. That’s a lot of moving parts for a defense that gave up 17.2 points per game and doesn’t have many holes to fill. The rookies who matter on this roster are the ones plugging the few that exist, and this is one of them.
17.2
Points per game the Seahawks defense allowed in 2025 — the standard both safeties are auditioning to protect.
What I like about it is the stakes cut both ways. Okada is playing for another contract, which sharpens a man in a hurry. Clark has the pedigree and the versatility Mike Macdonald covets. You don’t spend a second-round pick to sit a guy on the bench. You spend it to make him nervous. Hard Knocks cameras are going to eat this up.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler says Zach Charbonnet is “progressing well” from his ACL surgery with a late-July check-up on the calendar. Translation: cautiously optimistic, still probably PUP to open the season, and Jadarian Price should keep taking every rep he can get his talons on. Field Gulls
Seaside Joe is ranking all 91 players on the 90-man roster on his way to declaring this the best roster in the NFL. When your offseason project is arguing about whether your 26th-best player is underrated, life as a title defender is pretty good. Seaside Joe
Eighteen days until rookies can report. Field Gulls has already booked its bags for on-site coverage of three padded practices in the second week of camp, plus a live show at a SoDo brewery. The quiet part of the offseason is nearly over. Good. Field Gulls
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Turf Show Times previewed Rams camp and named the biggest story in the building: rookie quarterback Ty Simpson. Not Matthew Stafford. Not Puka Nacua. Not the reigning DPOY they imported to hunt Sam Darnold. A quarterback who has never taken an NFL snap is the marquee attraction. When your shiniest new toy in the Super Bowl-favorite conversation is a kid holding a clipboard, that’s a fun tell about how much faith there is in the guy currently holding the job.
NINERS
Brock Purdy landed at No. 85 on the NFL’s Top 100 Players of 2026, returning to the list after a full year off it. A former league MVP finalist coming in at 85, behind 84 other guys, is the kind of ranking that says a lot about a season built on nine starts and a lot of help. Maxx Crosby went on record defending him, which is what you do for a friend, not a top-10 quarterback.
CARDINALS
Arizona kicks off its preseason in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton on August 6, which means Mike LaFleur’s crew will play five preseason games instead of the usual four. Five dress rehearsals for a team coming off a rough year, while the defending champions sleep in and stretch. Enjoy the extra reps, fellas. You’ll need every one of them.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Which Seahawks receiver set the franchise’s single-season reception record with 100 catches in 2020, breaking the previous mark of 94 held by both Doug Baldwin and Bobby Engram?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Tyler Lockett. He needed seven catches entering the 2020 finale against the 49ers and grabbed twelve for 90 yards and two touchdowns to reach the century mark, clearing the old record set by Baldwin and Engram.
Got a Question for The Rooster?
Camp opens in eighteen days and the mailbag is thin. Send me your safety battle takes, your sale-of-the-team conspiracy theories, and your unhinged preseason predictions. Best submissions get answered in a future issue.
Eighteen days out, and the fight nobody's watching might be the one that matters most. — The Rooster