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Camp Battle
Ty Okada Isn’t Handing the Rookie Anything
Here’s the thing nobody planned for. Seattle spent a second-round pick on Bud Clark to fix the one hole on its defense, and the guy Clark was supposed to replace decided he wasn’t done. Per Sports Illustrated’s camp preview, Ty Okada is the one running with the first team alongside Julian Love, and the writeup flatly calls the starting job his to lose.
This is the funniest kind of roster problem to have. You identify a weakness, you use premium draft capital to address it, and then the incumbent looks at the new guy and says no thanks. SI notes Clark played well in minicamp. Okada just played better, or at least played like a fourth-year pro who earned the reps down the stretch last season and has no intention of giving them back to a draft pick who has never taken an NFL snap that counted.
I don’t hate it. The whole point of building the best defense in football, one that gave up 17.2 points a game, is that even your open competitions are between two guys you’d be fine starting. This isn’t a hole. It’s an argument, and the loser still plays real snaps.
17.2
Points per game Seattle’s defense allowed in 2025 — the safety spot is the only starting job even up for debate.
Clark isn’t going anywhere, and rookies who model their game after Kam Chancellor tend to figure it out. But for now the only genuinely open starting job on this defense has an incumbent leaning against the door. Camp opens July 25. That’s when we find out if the rookie has an answer.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
SI’s same camp preview tags Tory Horton among the players with soaring stock heading into camp, a full season removed from the shin injury that ended his rookie year at five touchdowns. Nice problem: the receiver room is so crowded he has to climb back up it. SI
The Seahawks.com storyline countdown named the open safety spot as the one genuinely open starting job on the roster. When your biggest camp question is which good safety starts next to Julian Love, that’s not dread. That’s what defending a title looks like. Seahawks.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Aaron Donald retired in 2024. This week he was spotted working out at the Rams’ facility, spending about an hour running ladder drills, medicine-ball throws, and agility work. The betting Super Bowl favorite already imported Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie, and now they’re trying to reanimate a Hall of Famer. When you lose a conference title game to Seattle, apparently the fix is to raid a retirement home. We host them Christmas Day either way.
NINERS
The 49ers’ offseason to-do list keeps circling back to one line: the interior of the offensive line. Yardbarker’s fix is to go sign a veteran free agent to plug the gap rather than trust the young guys. Nothing steadies a Super Bowl window like patching your quarterback’s blind side with a discount graybeard two weeks before camp. Bold.
CARDINALS
SI ran a piece on Cardinals players facing make-or-break 2026 seasons, and Marvin Harrison Jr. is on it. The former No. 4 overall pick, drafted to be a generational receiver, is now the subject of “flip the script” articles two years in. When the phrase around your franchise WR is “prove you belong,” the hype has quietly become a referendum.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This running back was the very first offensive player the expansion Seahawks ever drafted, in the second round of the 1976 NFL Draft, and led the inaugural team in rushing while earning the nickname “The Tank.” Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Sherman Smith. The Miami (Ohio) product ran for 537 yards to lead the 1976 Seahawks and was the first player in franchise history to rush for 100 yards in a game.
Got a question for The Rooster?
Camp opens in two weeks and the mailbag is hungrier than a defensive back trying to keep his job. Send your questions, your grievances, and your worst hot takes. I read every one.
Fourteen days to camp, and the rookie who was supposed to walk into a job is going to have to take it. — The Rooster