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Training Camp
The Pads Came On and Byron Murphy Started Collecting
Seattle practiced in full pads Thursday for the first time since the Super Bowl, and the one-on-one pass rush drill turned into a Byron Murphy II highlight reel. He drove backup guard Christian Haynes into the backfield for a clean win, then used his quickness to beat starting guard Grey Zabel on consecutive reps.
Mike Macdonald was watching a different drill entirely and endorsed him anyway. “I didn’t watch that drill today … but really expect Murph to have a spike in productivity rushing the passer,” he said. “He’s earned it. But he does it every day.” That is a head coach getting out ahead of a stat line he clearly believes is arriving.
Which is the strange thing about Murphy. The 16th overall pick in 2024 was disruptive as a rookie and barely productive, finishing with a half sack and one quarterback hit. Last season was the breakout. Now he is in the conversation next to Leonard Williams, and the coaching staff is still talking about him like the ceiling is somewhere above the roof.
0.5
Murphy’s sack total as a rookie in 2024, when he was disruptive without much to show for it.
The offensive line did not lose the whole afternoon, for the record. But Haynes is fighting to survive final cuts on a line that got deeper without him, and on the first day the pads came out he got moved backward by a man who has been doing this in shorts for a week.
Then there was the setting. Bald eagles circling the practice fields, the Blue Angels overhead running their Seafair routes, pads popping in Renton. “I don’t know if it gets much better than this,” Macdonald said. It does not. That is the point of late July.
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Christian Haynes is fighting for a roster spot, and on the first day in pads he got used as a turnstile.
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Health
The PUP List Is Down to Two, and Nobody Will Start a Clock on Either
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Players left on Seattle’s PUP list after Eastern was activated Thursday.
Macdonald was warm about Emmanwori and gave away nothing. “He’s in an adverse situation, and he’s attacking it, and that’s all you can ask him to do,” he said. “He’s made a lot of progress, which is exciting. It’s one of these things where you don’t want to put a timetable on it, because you don’t want to limit it.”
Translation: the ankle surgery is healing, the September 9 opener is neither promised nor ruled out, and the coach would very much like everyone to stop asking. Last week he allowed that Emmanwori could play in the opener. This week he declined to hang a date on it. Both things can be true at once, and both are more comfortable than a firm answer.
Charbonnet, meanwhile, is on his own timeline after tearing his ACL in January, which is why Jadarian Price keeps getting the lead running back reps. A two-man PUP list in August is a luxury. Neither of these two feels like a small name.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
The league released a new Hard Knocks clip of Macdonald telling his team what the HBO cameras mean: “this is a gift from the football gods.” Premieres Tuesday, 9 p.m., HBO and HBO Max. The football gods have never handed anybody anything free in the history of this franchise. Yahoo Sports
Jake Bobo and Julian Neal are still out, and Brandon Pili, Jamie Sheriff and Jared Ivey joined them Thursday. Macdonald: “Nothing long term. Just a couple of things they’re working through, camp type of stuff.” Neal is the one to worry about. The third cornerback job is wide open and he is watching it from a bike. Field Gulls
The offensive line generally won the one-on-ones, and Charles Cross held off Uchenna Nwosu and Dante Fowler Jr. on back-to-back snaps. Two veteran edge rushers, two reps, nothing. Cross has quietly become the least discussed solved problem on the roster. The Spokesman-Review
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Los Angeles opens the season 7,900 miles from home against San Francisco in Melbourne, the NFL’s first regular season game in Australia, and the plan appears to be treating a 13-plus-hour flight like a trip to Phoenix. The 49ers intend to arrive about a week early. The Rams are not expected to, pointing instead at the quick in-and-out model they used for London. The Super Bowl favorites are going to cross the international date line and hope nobody’s legs notice. We open at home, under the lights, with a banner going up.
NINERS
Ricky Pearsall lasted two practices. The swelling in his right knee is tied to the PCL injury that held him to nine games last season, and San Francisco is now weighing every option, with a report that surgery at this point would cost him all of 2026. The part that stings for them: they gambled on it healing without an operation in March rather than take the hit then. It did not heal. Now they are staring at the same lost season, just five months later.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This Florida State product punted for Seattle from 1991 through 1997, made the Pro Bowl in 1994, and led the NFL with a 45.0-yard average in 1995. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Rick Tuten, known around here as “Bootin’ Tuten.” He closed his career by winning a Super Bowl ring with the Rams, which is a deeply annoying detail about an otherwise beloved man.
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Bald eagles overhead, pads on the ground. July in Renton is undefeated. — The Rooster