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Camp
The Doors Open Today, and the Line Forms Behind You
Fan registration for Seahawks training camp opens today, June 16. If you want to stand on the grass at the VMAC and watch a Super Bowl champion get ready to defend it, this is the moment you’ve been circling. It’s first come, first served, and the team has been blunt that the spots go fast. Translation: open the page, don’t browse it.
Here’s the shape of it. Camp runs July 25 through August 13 in Renton. The Seahawks announced nine public practices, with the annual Football Fest landing at Lumen Field on August 8. The whole thing is powered by Boeing, presented by Safeway, and watched over by HBO, because this is also the first camp in franchise history with Hard Knocks cameras parked in the building.
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Public practices open to fans, beginning July 25, with Football Fest at Lumen Field on August 8.
What makes this one different isn’t the logistics. It’s the banner. Every camp before this was about chasing something. This is the first one anybody in this organization gets to run while holding the trophy, and there’s a particular kind of fun in watching a champion try not to act like one. Macdonald has already set the tone with his “we’re not defending anything” line, which is exactly what a coach says when he’s terrified of his guys believing they’ve arrived.
So go register. Bring a clear bag, leave the long lens at home during the team period, and bring a kid 15 or under if you’ve got one, because they’ll need an adult anyway. This is the part where you find out whether you love this team enough to refresh a registration page at 9 a.m. I already know my answer.
SOURCES →
Injury
Macdonald Won’t Slam the Door on Charbonnet for Week 1
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The math is the math. An ACL repair usually means nine months minimum before game action, often closer to a year. Count forward from February and Week 1 in September is the optimistic edge of that window, not the middle of it. Which is why Macdonald followed up with the quote that actually tells you something: “If you’re going to guess what type of schedule Zach Charbonnet would be on, that’s the type of schedule he’s on.”
That’s coach for “he’s at the front of the class and please don’t make me promise anything.” Charbonnet got light on-field work at minicamp, which on a normal calendar he has no business doing yet. Nobody’s penciling him into the opener. But the door is open a crack, and with Jadarian Price the only first-round back this franchise has drafted since Shaun Alexander waiting behind him, how fast Charbonnet walks through it shapes the whole backfield.
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That’s coach for “he’s at the front of the class and please don’t make me promise anything.”
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Macdonald says the Seahawks are eyeing an early training camp return for Tory Horton, the second-year receiver still finishing his rehab from last year’s shin injury. Five touchdowns and a 95-yard punt return as a rookie before it ended in Week 9. Get him back and the receiver room gets genuinely scary. Field Gulls
The sale clock keeps ticking. Per a report relayed by NBC Sports, a deal is expected right before the season starts in early September, with the franchise possibly fetching as much as $9 billion. That’s not a price tag. That’s a phone number. NBC Sports
PFF flagged Leonard Williams as a 2026 extension candidate, and the case writes itself: second-team All-Pro, seven sacks, entering the final year of his deal, and turning 32 this month. If Schneider doesn’t pay the interior anchor, somebody else gladly will. Yahoo Sports
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Sean McVay was apparently so satisfied with his team’s OTA attendance that he canceled the Rams’ mandatory minicamp altogether, sending everyone home a week early. A reward for showing up to the practices that didn’t count, from a team that gave up Jared Verse and three premium picks to win right now. Bold strategy: less football for the franchise that traded its future for urgency.
NINERS
Fullback Kyle Juszczyk says George Kittle is ahead of schedule and clocking 16 miles per hour in his rehab, which is the kind of update you trumpet when it’s the most encouraging thing happening in your building. San Francisco needs a 32-year-old tight end hitting top speed in June to feel okay about a season where FanDuel slots them third in the NFC, behind the Rams and behind us.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This linebacker was Seattle’s first pick in the 1987 supplemental draft and signed what was then the richest rookie contract in NFL history, only to last just three injury-shortened seasons. Who is he, and how many career games did he play?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Brian Bosworth, who signed a 10-year, $11 million deal and played just 24 games before a shoulder injury ended his career in 1990. He wanted to wear No. 44 but league rules forced him to No. 55. The hype was historic. The output was not.
Got a question for The Rooster?
Camp’s coming, the roster’s set, and somebody out there has a question about how the running back room shakes out. Send it in. I answer the good ones, mock the lazy ones, and never reveal my name.
Register first, refresh later. The grass is waiting in Renton. — The Rooster