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Roster
Seattle Ran an Open Casting Call on Friday. Six Names Showed Up.
The Seahawks worked out six offensive players at the VMAC on Friday, per the NFL transaction wire: receivers Luke Floriea, Chandler Brayboy and Marcus Sanders, guard Evan Beerntsen, tackle Tristan Leigh and tight end Layne Pryor. Kickoff against New England is Wednesday. That is four days, one of which is a Sunday.
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Offensive players Seattle worked out at the VMAC on Friday, per the NFL transaction wire.
Read the positions back and you have basically recited the injury list. Jake Bobo is on injured reserve. Tory Horton is out for what Macdonald will only call a period of time. Mason Richman’s season ended at guard, Josh Jones is the only listed backup behind two starting tackles, and Robbie Ouzts is on IR at fullback. Three receivers, two linemen, a tight end. The workout sheet is a confession.
Floriea is the name most of you already know from Thursday, the Kent State receiver who caught three touchdowns for Cleveland this preseason. Brayboy has spent two summers with Jacksonville and been cut at the end of both. Sanders makes three small-school pass catchers in one morning.
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Nobody holds an open casting call for the positions they feel good about.
Pryor is the interesting one. He is 6-foot-2 and 260 pounds out of Northern Iowa, spent time on Houston’s practice squad, and put up 31 bench reps at his pro day, the most of anyone there. Field Gulls floats him as a fullback candidate, which is a very polite way of noticing that Brian Fleury’s offense wants a fullback and Seattle currently has Brady Russell and an undrafted rookie.
A tryout is not a signing. Most of these six will be home by Monday. But a front office four days from raising a championship banner does not run auditions for fun.
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Ownership
The New Owner Wants Jody Allen to Raise the Flag
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Jody Allen controlled this franchise from her brother’s death until the sale closed Thursday, and the last time she took that flag up the pole it was the NFC Championship Game against the Rams in January. Two games later Seattle was a champion. The banner going up Wednesday night is, in every sense that matters, hers.
The Khosla family will be formally introduced at a news conference at Lumen Field the same day, per ESPN, so the arithmetic of the evening is a little crowded. Twenty-nine years of one era ending and a new one starting inside the same three hours.
Handing the flag to the person leaving is a small gesture that costs a new owner nothing and buys him a city. Good instinct. Let’s see what week two looks like.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Luke Bryan plays the pregame concert Wednesday, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready handles the national anthem, and Soundgarden takes halftime with Taylor Momsen. A country headliner, an anthem from one grunge institution and a halftime set from another. Seattle is settling a genre argument in front of 68,000 people. Seahawks.com Seahawks.com
New England’s own game preview notes Seattle leads the all-time series 12-9 and that the Patriots have lost the last three regular-season meetings, most recently a 23-20 overtime loss in 2024. They left out the fourth one. Understandable. Patriots.com Patriots.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Los Angeles finally answered the backup quarterback question without holding a press conference: they published the Week 1 depth chart and let Stetson Bennett’s name sit above Ty Simpson’s. SI notes the gap between the two is not large, which is a generous way of saying the tiebreaker was probably alphabetical vibes. They kept three quarterbacks on the 53 specifically to avoid deciding, then decided in a PDF at the bottom of the team website.
NINERS
San Francisco has landed in Melbourne, roughly 15 hours in the air, and will now spend a full week acclimating before it plays a football game on September 11. A week. To adjust. Before Week 1. Meanwhile the rest of the league is watching film and Seattle is driving to work. Enjoy the coffee, gentlemen. We hear it is very good down there.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Seattle used the franchise tag on left tackle Walter Jones in consecutive years in the early 2000s, and he skipped training camp every single time. How many straight years was he tagged?
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Three, from 2002 through 2004. He reported late each year anyway, was voted to his fifth consecutive Pro Bowl after the last one, and finished his career with a club-record nine.
Got a Question? Ask It.
The mailbag is open all weekend and I have nothing to do until Wednesday except refresh the transaction wire. Send the question you have been too embarrassed to ask anyone at work.
Four days. Start stretching. — The Rooster