Seattle Seahawks training camp notes for August 6th

It was a beautiful day at the VMAC for day six of Seattle Seahawks training camp. We’re now just seven days from the Seahawks taking the field in their first preseason game. The games just cannot get here fast enough.

Here are my notes from today’s practice:

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The inevitable things in life: death, taxes, and a Seattle Seahawks player making a position change.

The biggest news of the day is probably that Douglas McNeil is now a cornerback. The 6’3″ wide receiver was having an outstanding camp, but today he started over with a new position group.

As you might suspect, McNeil struggled considerably in his first day at his new position. There was lots of poor technique throughout the day.

Richard Sherman took on the role of tutor, and coached McNeil on a number of occasions. As a result, there was slow but steady improvement in McNeil’s footwork.

Earl Thomas was activated off the PUP list yesterday, making today his first official practice of the year. It was tough to tell though, as it didn’t look any different for him than the other days. He ran a little, but did not participate in any drills. He just watched.

Tough to expect the team to allow him to do more though. The rest of the team was in full pads, and league rules prohibit Thomas from wearing pads until his third day of practice. The Seahawks aren’t likely to risk Thomas being re-injured by having him out there without pads.

Today was easily the best day in camp for Jermaine Kearse. He had three great receptions deep down the field. He also avoided the drops and bobbles that have plagued him since camp opened.

Kearse has been splitting time at split end with the 1s with Chris Matthews. Baldwin is always opposite one of them in two receiver sets, and moves inside in three receiver sets. Those three are clearly the top 3 WRs on the depth chart right now.

Defensive tackle Jesse Williams was in pads and participating (in a limited manner) today. He is just two months removed from having a cancerous kidney removed.

Williams is slowly working himself back into shape. He figures to have his activity increase slowly over the next couple of weeks.

He’s a massive dude compared to his position group that is full of massive dudes. Perhaps only Rubin is bigger physically. If Williams can get healthy for the first time since college, he has a chance to be a dominant player.

I spent a lot of time watching the offensive line drills early in camp today. Kistjan Sokoli at LG with the 1s is officially a thing. He was in that spot all day (and for the 3rd day in a row) until the last bit of 11-on-11s.

Pete Carroll has said that Sokoli will be a center, but they want to to focussing on blocking right now and not on snapping the football. There is no reason to think that Sokoli will see significant playing time at LG this year. Bailey is still the starter until we’re told otherwise.

I think the reason we’re seeing Sokoli with the 1s at LG is so that he can get his work next to the starting center. It allows him to learn the line calls by working with guys like Lemuel Jean-Pierre who already know them.

Today was Jean-Pierre’s turn to get the bulk of the playing time with the 1s at center. Tomorrow will be back to Drew Nowak. I suspect Jean-Pierre gets the start in the first preseason game, but at this point I believe Nowak will win the starting job for Week 1.

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