TOP STORIES
Training Camp
The Guy With No Contract Was the Happiest Man on the Grass
Camp opened Saturday at the VMAC and the one starter in the building without a long-term deal spent the afternoon high-fiving a line of kids on his way to the field, then blitzed off the edge and got to Sam Darnold so cleanly it would have been a sack if quarterbacks were live. Devon Witherspoon was a full participant. Nothing about his day looked like leverage.
Asked where the extension stands, Mike Macdonald pushed the specifics to John Schneider and then said this: “I couldn’t have any more confidence in our process and all the people involved in the whole operation.” He added that Witherspoon is “practicing his tail off. He’s the same guy. Nothing’s changed.”
No. 21
The jersey Macdonald’s 20-month-old son wore onto the field after practice. Read whatever you want into it.
The more persuasive tell came after practice. As Witherspoon signed autographs, Macdonald’s 20-month-old son wandered the field at his mother’s side in a No. 21 jersey. Nobody dresses a toddler in the jersey of a man they’re about to have a public fight with.
None of that is a signature, and I’m not going to pretend it is. There is still a gap between what Seattle has offered and what the cornerback market says he’s worth, and the two sides have been at this for months. But a defense that opened camp with free rushers arriving from everywhere just watched its best defensive back rush the passer like a man who intends to be here in September.
“
You can learn a lot about a negotiation by watching whether the guy still stops at the fence to high-five kids.
SOURCES →
Injury
Emmanwori’s Mystery Ailment Has a Name Now, and It’s His Ankle
Keep Reading ↓
“It’s not like we lost him for the season or anything,” Macdonald said. “You know me, I don’t want to put a time on it.” An ESPN report, corroborated to the Seattle Times, says the expectation is he’ll be back for the September 9 opener against New England.
So the timeline is fine. The inconvenience isn’t. Emmanwori is the piece that lets this defense line up in one personnel group and play three different ways, and every week he spends off the field is a week the safety competition behind Julian Love gets sorted without the most versatile man in the room in it. Get the ankle right. There’s a banner-raising Wednesday night waiting.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Veteran edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr. sat out the first practice for what Macdonald called precautionary reasons. Seattle signed him in May specifically to keep the pass rush deep. Precautionary in July is nothing. Precautionary in September is a problem with a depth chart attached. MyNorthwest
Kenny McIntosh opened camp on PUP, roughly 12 months removed from reconstructive knee surgery. He was supposed to be a candidate for carries in a wide-open backfield. Instead the running back room is being assembled by whoever can currently stand up. Everett Herald
Tory Horton was a full go on Day 1, and HBO’s cameras were rolling for it. His rookie year ended at five touchdowns with a shin injury nobody thought was serious. First rep back and it’s already someone’s B-roll. Field Gulls
Jaxon Smith-Njigba came out of the locker room to a wall of kids screaming his name. That’s what a franchise receiving record and a record extension buy you at 23. Somewhere in there is a lesson for the guy still waiting on his. Seahawks.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Los Angeles finally got Ty Simpson under contract on report day, four years and $25.4 million fully guaranteed with a $14.9 million signing bonus. He was the last of all 32 first-round picks in the league to come to terms. The team building a win-now roster around a 38-year-old quarterback spent the run-up to camp negotiating paperwork for a rookie who may not throw a regular-season pass.
NINERS
San Francisco opened camp with George Kittle on the PUP list with an Achilles, alongside Isaac Guerendo (pectoral), Mykel Williams (ACL) and Alfred Collins (shoulder). Kittle is the most reliable thing that offense has left, and he starts the summer on a list instead of a field. Eleven open practices, and the Faithful get to watch him wave from the sideline at a few of them.
CARDINALS
Arizona put four players on PUP to open camp, including pass rusher Josh Sweat and left tackle Paris Johnson Jr., both with knees. Mike LaFleur called the knee issues more maintenance than anything. Fourth-round pick Kaleb Proctor went to injured reserve entirely. A rebuild that needs every healthy body it can find opened the summer subtracting its blindside protector and its best rusher.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This fifth-round pick out of Arkansas led the NFL in punt return average at 12.3 yards as a rookie in 1986, earning first-team All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl trip in his first season in Seattle. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Bobby Joe Edmonds. He piled up 419 punt return yards as a rookie and never got another season quite like it, which is a very specific kind of Seahawks tragedy.
Got a Question? Send It.
The mailbag is open and the queue is short. Contract math, camp battles, grievances you’ve held since the Kingdome. Send it in and I’ll answer it in a voice my editor describes as unhelpfully honest.
Practice two is at one o'clock. Bring water and low expectations about the depth chart. — The Rooster