TOP STORIES
Camp
Nobody Is Replacing Nick Emmanwori, So Seattle Is Going to Use Everybody
Seattle says Nick Emmanwori has a chance to be out there for the opener against New England, and nobody in the building is willing to say anything stronger than that. Per ESPN’s Tuesday camp roundup, the return from offseason ankle surgery is possible for Week 1 but not a certainty. Asked who covers that job in the meantime, Mike Macdonald said everything is on the table: a cornerback, a safety, or a linebacker could end up in the role.
That is not a dodge. It is a description. Julian Love called Emmanwori a unicorn and said Seattle cannot perfectly replace him, which is what happens when a rookie spends his first year lining up at off-ball linebacker, nickel, safety and edge rusher. You do not find another one of those in August. You divide him up and hand out the pieces.
4
Positions Emmanwori lined up at as a rookie: off-ball linebacker, nickel, safety, and edge rusher.
The handing out is already visible. D’Anthony Bell has been getting first-team work all camp, and on Monday he stepped in front of a throw and took it back for a pick-six while a pack of celebrating defenders chased him down the field. Bell got claimed off waivers late last season, missed the title run entirely, and re-signed here anyway. He is now the most likely answer to the biggest open question on a championship defense.
He is not the only one. Second-round rookie Bud Clark can slot into the three-safety package, and third-round corner Julian Neal returned to limited work Monday as he comes back from a leg injury. Seattle spent both Day 2 picks on defensive backs in April. This is the month that starts to look deliberate.
“
You do not find another one of those in August. You divide him up and hand out the pieces.
The opener is September 9. Emmanwori is on a scooter, the depth chart is a group project, and I would rather be sorting through this than almost anything else on Seattle’s roster.
SOURCES →
Offense
AJ Barner Played a Whole Super Bowl Season Held Together With Tape
Keep Reading ↓
What he produced in that condition was 52 catches, 519 yards and six touchdowns, plus four grabs and a score in the Super Bowl and nine rushing first downs from short-yardage work. That is a starting NFL tight end playing on a body that needed a surgeon twice.
Now hand that guy to a coordinator who spent his last four years in San Francisco coaching tight ends. Brian Fleury’s install already has fullbacks and tight ends motioning in every direction, and on Friday Barner caught a play-action pass and turned it into a long touchdown.
Everyone spends the summer waiting on Elijah Arroyo to break out. The healthy version of Barner might be the bigger swing, and nobody is making a poster of it.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Jake Bobo, Julian Neal, Mike Morris and Jamie Sherriff all returned to work Monday, and offensive linemen Mason Richman and Logan Brown were back after getting dinged up at the Lumen Field scrimmage. The one player nobody could find during warmups was Jadarian Price. The running back room continues to be the one part of this roster that cannot have nice things. Field Gulls
Olu Oluwatimi lost the starting center job to Jalen Sundell last season and is in the final year of his rookie deal, which is why Bleacher Report named him Seattle’s most logical trade candidate before Week 1. Having too many usable centers is a luxury problem. It is also how you end up watching your backup snap for somebody else in November. Bleacher Report
Episode 2 of Hard Knocks lands tonight on HBO and HBO Max, the second of five. Episode 1 gave us a body slam and a contract phone call. Set expectations accordingly, because HBO has three more of these and final cuts are still to come. SI
Actual football against actual strangers arrives Saturday: Cowboys at Lumen Field, 5 p.m. PT on KING 5. The starters will play about as long as it takes to find your seat. Everything worth watching happens after that. SI
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Los Angeles closed camp and the injury list is the only thing in Thousand Oaks still adding names. Tight end Davis Allen is dealt with a quad, and Sean McVay is being careful: “You don’t want to rush him back.” Fair enough, it is a soft tissue thing in August. But this is a team built to win everything right now, and its stars are being handled like museum pieces. At some point the Super Bowl favorites have to actually go outside.
NINERS
Nick Bosa has now missed four straight practices with what San Francisco is calling soreness, which showed up while he was working his way back from the ACL he tore in Week 3 last season. Kyle Shanahan was asked whether it worries him. “No,” he said, then added they will wait for the soreness to go away and evaluate why it happened. So the plan is to find out later. They host Tennessee on Thursday.
CARDINALS
Mike LaFleur told his team that once the pads went on, Arizona’s camp would stop being a passing camp and become a running camp. He was serious: on one recent day the first-team offense ran 24 plays with 11 of them handoffs, and Jeremiyah Love took seven of those. A whole offensive identity announced by memo. Whatever gets you through a division where somebody else has the trophy.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This 5-11 quarterback out of Iowa State was Seattle’s fourth-round pick in 2003, spent seven seasons here taking snaps at quarterback, receiver and returner, and was traded to Cleveland in 2010 to reunite with Mike Holmgren. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Seneca Wallace. He played 46 games for Seattle with 14 starts at quarterback and 25 career touchdown passes, and reportedly slid in the draft because he refused to move to receiver full time, which did not stop the Seahawks from occasionally lining him up there anyway.
Got a Question? Yell It Into the Inbox.
Roster math, cap math, or an argument you lost in a group chat and want litigated by a stranger. Send it in. The good ones run, the bad ones make me a better person.
Camp is almost done. Enjoy the last few days of football with no scoreboard attached. — The Rooster