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Training Camp
A Year Ago He Left Lumen Field on a Cart. Saturday He Left With the Ball.
AJ Finley intercepted a Sam Darnold pass intended for Jaxon Smith-Njigba at Football Fest on Saturday night, and the entire sideline came apart. There is a reason for that. One year earlier, at the same event, on the same field, Finley tore his ACL fighting for a jump ball in the end zone and left Lumen on a cart.
Seattle re-signed him in March anyway, which is not nothing for a player who was competing for a roster spot when the knee went. He spent the rehab here, showing up to practices he could not take part in, which is the least fun way a human being can spend a football season. “It really didn’t hit me until I got to the sideline and all the boys were congratulating me,” Finley said. “It’s definitely a full-circle moment.”
Mike Macdonald is normally allergic to sentiment in August. Not here. “Incredibly happy for him. He’s worked incredibly hard. He’s been a great teammate the whole process,” he said, and then landed the actual point: “It just shows you how fragile it is. How do you not be incredibly happy for the guy?”
He wasn’t the only safety who had a night, either. Rodney Thomas II, signed this offseason, came away with a pick of his own. With Nick Emmanwori still on PUP and the job alongside Julian Love genuinely open, every ball a backup safety takes away in August is an argument.
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Every ball a backup safety takes away in August is an argument.
None of this changes the arithmetic on a 53-man roster, and Finley knows it better than anybody. But the guy who got carted off that turf last August walked off it Saturday holding a football, in front of a stadium that showed up on a Mariners night to watch a practice. Good weekend.
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Defense
Rylie Mills Is Turning Camp Into a Problem for Everyone Else
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Mills has exactly one career sack. It came in Super Bowl LX. That is an absurd resume line for a fifth-round pick who tore his ACL at Notre Dame before he ever took a professional snap, and ESPN had him pegged as a breakout candidate back in July on the theory that a healthy version of him was always the point.
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Career sacks for Rylie Mills. It came in Super Bowl LX.
Seattle has responded by refusing to leave him in one place, giving him snaps at defensive end with both the first and second units rather than parking him at three-technique behind Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II. Sensible, when you have three interior linemen you like and two spots to put them.
Camp hype is camp hype and I’ve been burned by August defensive linemen before. But the interior of this defense was already the best in football, and the thing that would make it genuinely obnoxious is depth. Preseason opens Saturday. Let’s watch him do it to somebody in a different color.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Jadarian Price missed a second straight practice, and Macdonald finally put a clock on it: “It’s a minor issue right now. It’s a matter of days, so he will be back soon.” He also located it “somewhere between the upper leg and lower body.” Thanks, coach. Very specific. Field Gulls
Seattle signed running back Justin Jones and waived linebacker Power Echols, whose Seahawks career lasted one practice. Jones had 16 carries in three seasons at Auburn. That’s not a depth signing, that’s renting a body to take handoffs so the healthy guys don’t have to. Field Gulls
Montorie Foster Jr. was cut last August with a hamstring injury, went home to Ohio to substitute teach and get a real estate license, and is back wearing 87 with a Super Bowl ring. He hasn’t dropped anything in weeks. Somebody at the back of that receiver room should be sleeping poorly. Everett Herald
Macdonald on Nick Emmanwori and the opener, via NFL Network: “We’re not sure on Week 1 yet.” He added that nobody is putting timelines on anything and the plan is to put a foot on the gas. Six months of ankle, and the official status remains optimism. Heavy
Heading into Saturday, the defending champions had held three padded practices all camp. Three. Macdonald is running August like a man who already knows what his football team is, which is either enormous confidence or a hostage situation with the injury report. Field Gulls
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
NINERS
Brock Purdy threw two pick-sixes in one practice on Saturday. Deommodore Lenoir took the first one the length of the field. Upton Stout took the second one about 25 yards the other way. San Francisco’s defense had spent Thursday getting carved up by him and evidently held a meeting about it. Nine practices into camp and the most decisive thing the 49ers offense has produced all summer was produced by the 49ers defense.
CARDINALS
Arizona put safety Joey Blount and tight end Kenny Yeboah on injured reserve Saturday, ending both of their seasons. That makes five Cardinals on IR and the regular season is still a month out. Blount got hurt in practice after coming back from neck surgery, which is a specific kind of cruel. They reported to camp a week before everybody else to get a jump on the year. They are certainly ahead of schedule on something.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
In October 2004, Seattle sent a seventh-round pick to the Oakland Raiders for a 42-year-old wide receiver in his 20th NFL season, reuniting him with Mike Holmgren. Who is he?
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Jerry Rice. He played 11 games in Seattle, catching 25 passes for 362 yards and three touchdowns — the final regular-season football of the greatest receiving career the sport has ever produced, bought for a seventh-rounder.
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Six days until somebody in a different colored jersey finally shows up. I can wait. Barely. — The Rooster