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Game Day
The First Football Since February, and Darnold Isn’t Touching It
Seattle plays a football game tonight and almost nobody who won the Super Bowl will be on the field for it. Mike Macdonald confirmed that the established starters sit out the preseason opener against Dallas, which means Sam Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Devon Witherspoon spend 5 p.m. standing around at their own stadium in very expensive sweatpants. “Sam’s not going to play,” Macdonald said.
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Players currently in Renton who will not be on the 53-man roster when cutdown day arrives Aug. 30.
Drew Lock starts. That part was never in question. The new part is what comes after: instead of letting Lock play a fixed chunk and handing the rest to Jalen Milroe, Macdonald is rotating the two of them by series. Same offense, same field position, alternating drivers. It’s the closest thing to a controlled experiment anyone runs in August.
And Macdonald wants Milroe turned loose. “I’m excited to see him go rip it,” he said, adding that he wants Milroe to feel empowered to play his own brand of football. As a rookie, Milroe took his snaps almost exclusively with the third-team offense, throwing to receivers who did not survive cutdown day. Tonight he gets actual protection and actual targets, in rotation, with the lights on.
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Preseason football is the only sport where the people playing care more than the people watching.
Everybody else out there is playing for a chair. Kickoff is 5 p.m. at Lumen, the only home preseason game on the calendar, and HBO has cameras in the building, so whatever happens becomes Tuesday’s television. Set your expectations at floor level and watch anyway.
SOURCES →
Roster
The Backfield Picked a Rough Week to Thin Out
Keep Reading ↓
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Healthy running backs on Seattle’s roster heading into Saturday night, per ESPN.
So George Holani plays, and Macdonald said he should see some action. He is the name sitting first on the unofficial depth chart, a placement roughly nobody predicted, and he now has an entire evening to argue that the chart knew something we didn’t.
An audition where the other actors call in sick isn’t much of an audition. But Brian Fleury’s offense wants a back who can find a crease behind all that pre-snap motion, and Holani has spent two years waiting to be the guy anybody asked. Tonight he’s the only one being asked.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Tonight’s game becomes Tuesday’s television. Episode 3 of Hard Knocks lands Aug. 18 and covers the Dallas game. HBO will find more drama in one fourth-quarter fumble by a roster-bubble linebacker than the broadcast will find all night. SI
Dallas is sitting most of its starters as well, but first-round pick Caleb Downs is expected to play. He gets his introduction to the defending champions against our third string. He’ll get the real version on Monday Night Football in December. SI
Bud Clark was supposed to threaten Ty Okada for the starting safety job, and SI now has Okada with a firm grip on it. Which makes tonight the rookie’s first chance to make somebody reconsider a decision they’ve quietly already made. SI
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
NINERS
San Francisco’s preseason debut cost more than the scoreboard did. Cornerback Nate Hobbs pulled his groin in the joint practice with Tennessee and will miss a few weeks, per Kyle Shanahan, so he watched Thursday night in street clothes while a secondary that has been quietly collecting injuries all summer collected another one. Every August they explain that everyone will be healthy by September. September never seems to show up.
CARDINALS
Arizona beat the Raiders on Thursday and lost its second-round pick doing it. Rookie guard Chase Bisontis, the 34th overall selection, went down with a knee injury in the third quarter of a game that counts for nothing. Mike LaFleur’s complete postgame evaluation was two words: “Not good.” The Cardinals reported to camp early to get a jump on the league. So far the jump has mostly benefited the training room.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This defensive end signed with Seattle as a free agent in 2013, hit Peyton Manning’s arm to force the interception returned for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLVIII, and made his only Pro Bowl after a career-high 11.5 sacks in 2016. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Cliff Avril. He recorded 34.5 sacks over five seasons in Seattle after arriving from Detroit, and the play everybody still describes to strangers isn’t one of them.
Yell Into The Void, We’ll Answer
Got a question about the roster, the cap, the preseason depth chart, or why you’re emotionally invested in a game that doesn’t count? Send it in. Best submissions get answered in the Mailbag, and a good fake name gets you to the front of the line.
First football since February. It doesn't count and I'll be watching every snap. — The Rooster